Last updated: July 20th, 2026. This list is reviewed and updated regularly.
Beginning August 17, 2026, all PrestoSports-hosted websites are protected by an upgraded firewall as part of our ongoing effort to combat malicious traffic. Automated (bot) traffic is blocked by default and only permitted through an allowlist. This article explains what that means for your site and lists every service that is pre-approved.
What this means for your visitors
Nothing. Regular visitors using a web browser — on desktop or mobile — are automatically verified by an invisible browser check and will not notice any change. There is no CAPTCHA or puzzle for normal browsing. The firewall only affects automated, non-browser traffic, or browsers that could not be automatically verified.
What is always accessible, no approval needed
The following are open to any client, service, or tool without an allowlist entry:
-
robots.txt,ads.txt, andapp-ads.txtfiles -
RSS feeds
-
iCal / calendar feeds
Feed readers, calendar subscriptions, and advertising partners will continue to work without any action on your part.
Pre-approved services
The following services are verified and allowed on all PrestoSports-hosted sites as of the August 17 launch. You do not need to request access for any of these.
Search engines
|
Service |
What it does |
|---|---|
|
Google (Googlebot, Googlebot-Image/News/Video) |
Google Search indexing |
|
Google AdsBot & AdSense crawlers |
Ad quality checks and ads.txt verification |
|
Microsoft Bing (bingbot) |
Bing Search indexing |
|
Apple (Applebot) |
Siri, Spotlight, and Apple search features |
|
DuckDuckGo (DuckDuckBot) |
DuckDuckGo Search indexing |
Social media & messaging link previews
|
Service |
What it does |
|---|---|
|
Facebook / Meta (facebookexternalhit) |
Link preview cards when your pages are shared on Facebook |
|
|
Link previews in WhatsApp messages |
|
X / Twitter (Twitterbot) |
Link preview cards on X |
|
LinkedIn (LinkedInBot) |
Link preview cards on LinkedIn |
|
Pinterest (Pinterestbot) |
Pin previews and rich pins |
|
Slack (Slackbot) |
Link previews in Slack |
|
Discord (Discordbot) |
Link previews in Discord |
|
Apple iMessage (via Applebot) |
Link previews in iMessage |
Accessibility (ADA) scanners
|
Service |
What it does |
|---|---|
|
Siteimprove |
Accessibility, quality assurance, and analytics scanning |
|
Pope Tech / WAVE (WebAIM) |
Accessibility scanning — see note below |
|
PowerMapper / SortSite |
Accessibility and standards scanning — see note below |
Note on Pope Tech and PowerMapper: these vendors use rotating infrastructure rather than fixed, published addresses. If your institution uses one of them and a scan is blocked, submit a request at iprequest.prestosports.com with the scanner details (both vendors will provide their current addresses to their customers on request) and we will add them for your sites.
SEO & site-quality tools
|
Service |
What it does |
|---|---|
|
Ahrefs (AhrefsBot, AhrefsSiteAudit) |
SEO analysis and site audits |
|
Semrush (SemrushBot, SiteAuditBot) |
SEO analysis and site audits |
|
Moz (rogerbot, dotbot) |
SEO analysis |
Site search
|
Service |
What it does |
|---|---|
|
Cludo |
Site search crawling for sites using Cludo search |
Web archiving
|
Service |
What it does |
|---|---|
|
Internet Archive / Wayback Machine (archive.org_bot) |
Historical archiving of your public pages |
Using a service that isn't listed?
If your institution uses an automated tool that needs to reach your site — an accessibility scanner, an uptime monitor, a content aggregator, a campus integration — submit it here:
https://iprequest.prestosports.com/
Include the service name, its purpose, and if available the vendor's published IP addresses or documentation page. Most requests are reviewed within 3 to 5 business days. We recommend submitting requests before August 17 so there is no interruption when the new firewall takes effect.
Frequently asked questions
Will this affect my site's search rankings? No. All major search engines are pre-approved, and their crawlers are verified by network-level checks rather than easily-faked identifiers — which is part of what makes the new firewall stronger.
Will social sharing still show preview images? Yes. All major social and messaging platforms' preview crawlers are pre-approved.
Our campus IT runs security or accessibility scans against our site. Will those break? Possibly, if the scanner isn't on the list above. Submit the scanner's details at iprequest.prestosports.com before August 17.
A tool we use was blocked. What do we do? Submit it at iprequest.prestosports.com. If it's urgent, fill out the form, then contact support at https://www.prestosports.com/support and reference this article.