Does esxdos.org block AI crawlers?
esxdos.org blocks 2 of 17 AI crawlers (Bytespider and Meta-ExternalAgent), and allows 15 (checked 2026-10-01).
This is the deliberate split: training crawlers are opted out, while the retrieval crawlers that fetch pages to cite them in ChatGPT search, Claude and Perplexity answers can still reach it.
Every crawler we tested
| Crawler | Used for | Verdict | What we saw |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPTBot OpenAI | ChatGPT (training) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| OAI-SearchBot OpenAI | ChatGPT search (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| ChatGPT-User OpenAI | ChatGPT (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| ClaudeBot Anthropic | Claude (training) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Claude-SearchBot Anthropic | Claude search (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Claude-User Anthropic | Claude (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Google-Extended Google | Gemini (training) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| PerplexityBot Perplexity | Perplexity (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Perplexity-User Perplexity | Perplexity (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| CCBot Common Crawl | Common Crawl (research) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Bytespider ByteDance | ByteDance (training) | Blocked | Blocked at the server: robots.txt permits it, but the live fetch was refused. |
| Applebot-Extended Apple | Apple Intelligence (training) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Meta-ExternalAgent Meta | Meta AI (training) | Blocked | Blocked at the server: robots.txt permits it, but the live fetch was refused. |
| Amazonbot Amazon | Alexa (training) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| cohere-ai Cohere | Cohere (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Diffbot Diffbot | Diffbot (research) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Timpibot Timpi | Timpi (research) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
How that compares
- Bytespider is blocked by 44 of the 238 sites on these pages (18.5%).
- Meta-ExternalAgent is blocked by 36 of the 241 sites on these pages (14.9%).
Homepage SEO snapshot
From the Crawlwise SEO Index run, checked 2026-10-05. One fetch of the homepage, so it describes that page and not the whole site.
| Homepage | https://esxdos.org/index.html |
|---|---|
| HTTPS | yes |
| Title | 33 characters |
| Meta description | missing |
| Canonical | none declared |
| Noindex | no |
| H1 elements | 0 |
| Language | not declared |
| JSON-LD types | none |
| hreflang alternates | 0 |
| /sitemap.xml | not found |
| Response time | 210 ms |
How this was measured
We read esxdos.org’s robots.txt, resolved it with an RFC 9309 matcher for each crawler’s product token, then fetched the homepage once as each crawler. A 403 or a challenge page is a block even when robots.txt allows the crawler; a timeout or rate limit is “not established”, never a block. One probe, from one location, on 2026-10-01, so a rule changed since then is not reflected here. Full methodology.
Check your own site
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Other sites
- espressif.com — blocks none of 17
- onaudience.com — blocks none of 17
- hackaday.com — blocks none of 17
- paypal.com — blocks none of 17
- wikipedia.com — blocks 4 of 17
- fullstory.com — blocks none of 17