Desktop Browser automation still worth it vs mobile browser?

[automated warm hole]

I saw some weeks ago while I was crawling here that the best bot for IG is the bot that you make, and that I did. Or I'm doing. I started learning java and then selenium and I came with a like-follow-unfollow bot based on selenium using firefox.

It is for only managing 2 accounts from my home IP, but as I stare into the future and see myself selling hundreds of copies of my shitbot I can't help but wonder, am I doing it right?

I randomized everything I could, the time between actions is random, the number of actions you do a day is random (within reason), the next action you will do is always random as well as the hastags I use and I plan on adding more randomizable factors into the equation.

HOWEVER, what I hope you guys can tell me is, what footprints do I need to cover? I heard something about user agent and some JS hooks or something. Also, what about the on page clics, the scrolling and all that? I have the waiting times but none of the mouse spoofing.

Also, is still worth to do desktop browser automation or is it better to try to trick IG into thinking I'm a mobile user by using the mobile browser?(not app)

Thank you for reading me folks, really appreciate the input.

 

[Gogol]

Did you remove the browser fingerprints, as well as selenium specific fingerprints (like window.navigator.webdriver for example)?

Check this SOF thread out, it might be useful for what you are trying to do (may be you have done it already.. no harm to view it anyway.):

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33225947/can-a-website-detect-when-you-are-using-selenium-with-chromedriver/

Even browser dimension, mouse cursor position etc can be giveaways that you are botting.

 

[automated warm hole]

Did you remove the browser fingerprints, as well as selenium specific fingerprints (like window.navigator.webdriver for example)?

Check this SOF thread out, it might be useful for what you are trying to do (may be you have done it already.. no harm to view it anyway.):

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33225947/can-a-website-detect-when-you-are-using-selenium-with-chromedriver/33403473

Even browser dimension, mouse cursor position etc can be giveaways that you are botting.

Ty I'll read into it.

Regarding what you said about the mouse, do I need to move the mouse to the html elements I'm ""clicking"" on? Or ig only gets the initial mouse position when you load a page? Wouldn't switching to mobile browsing solve this since mobiles don't have cursors?

Thank you again

 

[Gogol]

Regarding what you said about the mouse, do I need to move the mouse to the html elements I'm ""clicking"" on? Or ig only gets the initial mouse position when you load a page? Wouldn't switching to mobile browsing solve this since mobiles don't have cursors?

Thank you again

To be honest I am not even sure what IG does. I was talking about the initial mouse position when the page loads (and the browser dimensions as well, in the same state). When a bot loads, the initial mouse position is always the same, which can mean that something fishy is happening. You want to be sure that this is not the case, no matter if IG tracks it or not. As for moving the mouse cursor, I believe it is a overkill (not sure if it is even possible with selenium tbh. pyautogui is a solution for this may be.). A click should be fine.

 

[rootjazz]

Ty I'll read into it.

Regarding what you said about the mouse, do I need to move the mouse to the html elements I'm ""clicking"" on? Or ig only gets the initial mouse position when you load a page? Wouldn't switching to mobile browsing solve this since mobiles don't have cursors?

Thank you again

look at the events generated when you browse a website, just for an HTML element it is mouseenter, mouseexit mousekeydown mousekeypress mousekeyup mousemoveposition. No evidence it is used, but if a mouse click is registered with no other mouse events it COULD be a red flag.

With selenium the chromedriver has a $cdc_.... value that is injected in the page, which I know some sites use to block selenium via JS. You need to load the driver into a hex editor to remove, is literally a 5 second driver every chromedriver update

Also, there is the navigator.webdriver = true property (might not be on navigator but on some base object. Few other things that can be used. But you can write a webextension to remove all this. You can also inject some plugins to stop other fingerprint techniques (although only really necessary if trying to run many accounts from a single box

 

[automated warm hole]

look at the events generated when you browse a website, just for an HTML element it is mouseenter, mouseexit mousekeydown mousekeypress mousekeyup mousemoveposition. No evidence it is used, but if a mouse click is registered with no other mouse events it COULD be a red flag.

With selenium the chromedriver has a $cdc_.... value that is injected in the page, which I know some sites use to block selenium via JS. You need to load the driver into a hex editor to remove, is literally a 5 second driver every chromedriver update

Also, there is the navigator.webdriver = true property (might not be on navigator but on some base object. Few other things that can be used. But you can write a webextension to remove all this. You can also inject some plugins to stop other fingerprint techniques (although only really necessary if trying to run many accounts from a single box

I will try to get webdriver as clean as possible thanks for the info man, you really tied up some loose ends I never thought about the hex editor.

You think the removal of the $cdc and a few other tweaks may make of selenium a viable bot for growing one or two accounts from home IP?

I spent days making this bot and it really saddens me that I will not be able to scale the project but at least I hope I can get some personal use, time for me to start from scratch and look into another tool/language it seems.

Thank you again bro

 

[rootjazz]

I will try to get webdriver as clean as possible thanks for the info man, you really tied up some loose ends I never thought about the hex editor.

You think the removal of the $cdc and a few other tweaks may make of selenium a viable bot for growing one or two accounts from home IP?


Thank you again bro

if on windows, look at the hex editor frhed

if you can clear all webdriver footprints, then you can just take control of the mouse and mouse the mouse to the points of the html elements you want to click easily enough. As for whether it be a viable bot, should be ok.

I spent days making this bot and it really saddens me that I will not be able to scale the project but at least I hope I can get some personal use, time for me to start from scratch and look into another tool/language it seems.

only days - that's nothing ;-) But is all learning, which is what you will have to do continually as things are not static. You get things working today, then tomorrow it all changes as new bot protection measures get added or the site changes the structure you were using to find the elements to action on.

As for scaling, unless you were going to setup a cloud based vm / containerised system, scale threaded browsers on your local machines at any scale was never going to work in all honesty

 

[automated warm hole]

As for scaling, unless you were going to setup a cloud based vm / containerised system, scale threaded browsers on your local machines at any scale was never going to work in all honesty

I was planning on doing a small scale account farm in order to do some mother/child, shoutouts and monetization in general.

Why a cloud setup would be okay but some vps with the bot is not? I ask from absolute ignorance, if my home computer bot instance works, then another one with a 4g private proxy should too right? Or do you say it because of the fact that it would be crazy time-consuming to manage all machines, set the xpaths every week, update, etc... Yea maybe you were right xd.

 

[blogtaufiq]

did you use ubot? then it need Canvas Fingerprint Defender extension for chrome.

 

[rootjazz]

I was planning on doing a small scale account farm in order to do some mother/child, shoutouts and monetization in general.

Why a cloud setup would be okay but some vps with the bot is not? I ask from absolute ignorance, if my home computer bot instance works, then another one with a 4g private proxy should too right? Or do you say it because of the fact that it would be crazy time-consuming to manage all machines, set the xpaths every week, update, etc... Yea maybe you were right xd.

VPS with a bot would also work as well - and is the same - it is a cloud setup . If you want to scale it, it needs to be automatic. Spin up a container / VPS > install what you need > run your script > close down (or clean and run another).

You could do similar on a home machine but not at scale, to truly be safe you have to protect against browser leaks that you know about and probably some you don't. Using containers / VMs / VPS will protect against those you don't, plus if you are actually controlling a mouse whether in XVFB or just a normal desktop you need a container / VM / VPS to do that

 

[dragondf]

Strange!

You are trying to automate Instagram using Browser when I can not do it by my hands.

Actually if I try to unfollow 3 accounts in browser , IG send me a message and not allow it.

When I login after 30s in the SAME account using APP, I can unfollow 100 accounts.


I'd like to know if anyone can do it and how. If not possible to post here, send me A PM.

For example: NinjaGram that works in the same way (simulating) a browser is not working, too.

If you can find a solution, let me know.
I do need to automate at least FOLLOW/UNFOLLOW feature.

Tks!

 

[rootjazz]

Strange!

You are trying to automate Instagram using Browser when I can not do it by my hands.

Actually if I try to unfollow 3 accounts in browser , IG send me a message and not allow it.

When I login after 30s in the SAME account using APP, I can unfollow 100 accounts.


I'd like to know if anyone can do it and how. If not possible to post here, send me A PM.

For example: NinjaGram that works in the same way (simulating) a browser is not working, too.

If you can find a solution, let me know.
I do need to automate at least FOLLOW/UNFOLLOW feature.

Tks!

the browser and phone app are different systems with different limits. If you are getting blocked after 3 unfollows, that seems crazy low. Maybe is a new limit, or related to your account / IP / something else as I haven't been informed the limits are currently so low across the board

 

[automated warm hole]

Strange!

You are trying to automate Instagram using Browser when I can not do it by my hands.

Actually if I try to unfollow 3 accounts in browser , IG send me a message and not allow it.

When I login after 30s in the SAME account using APP, I can unfollow 100 accounts.


I'd like to know if anyone can do it and how. If not possible to post here, send me A PM.

For example: NinjaGram that works in the same way (simulating) a browser is not working, too.

If you can find a solution, let me know.
I do need to automate at least FOLLOW/UNFOLLOW feature.

Tks!

Bro it sounds like a proxy problem to me, when you do 3 actions with a bot and you get action ban then something is very wrong with your proxy or like others said above you have leakings in your browser and if you're managing multiple accounts IG may know you're behind them all.

I did a bot using java and selenium, look it up it's not really hard if you have basic java knowledge and from there you can make it complicated.