Comm100 Live Chat allows you to block unwanted visitors from accessing your chat service. Your chat buttons are invisible to banned visitors, and in the meanwhile, the banned visitors are not displayed in the visitor list of the Agent Console. Comm100 supports banning visitors by Visitor ID and by IP address.

• Visitor ID is planted in the visitor’s browser cookie. If a visitor gets banned by Visitor ID, they cannot see the chat button on your website using the same browser. However, if this visitor switches to another browser, uses another machine, or clears the cookies in the browser they previously used to visit your website, they can see your chat button and initiate chat requests.
• If you ban an IP, all visitors using the same IP address cannot see your chat button. On the Control Panel, Comm100 also provides the option for you to ban visitors through IP Range. However, you should be cautious about using this option as it may keep your live chat away from many other potential valuable clients.

Agents can ban visitors from the Agent Console, or manage the ban list from the Control Panel.  

• From the Agent Console, agents can ban a visitor in the visitor list or a visitor in chat.
• From the Control Panel, agents can manage the ban list by adding or deleting visitor IDs or IP addresses.

Note: Agents must have the Manage Ban List permission to ban visitors. To learn more about permission settings, see this article.

Ban a Visitor from the Agent Console

In the Agent Console, agents can ban a visitor either from the visitor list or during an active chat.

1. Under the Visitors tab in the Agent Console, locate the visitor you want to ban from the visitor list.
   
   
2. Click Ban.
3. Choose whether to ban the visitor by Visitor ID, by IP address, or both.
    
4. Click OK.

Agents can also ban a visitor during an ongoing chat in the Agent Console.

After the visitor is banned, they will immediately disappear from the visitor list. On the agent side, the chat will also close automatically and disappear from the Agent Console.

Manage the Ban List from the Control Panel

From the Control Panel, agents can add visitors to the ban list using known Visitor IDs or IP addresses, or remove visitors from the ban list when necessary. 

To manage the ban list, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Comm100 Control Panel. 
2. From the left navigation menu, go to Live Chat > Settings > Ban List.
   
3. The Ban List page displays all banned visitors.
   
4. To add visitors to the ban list, add either their visitor IDs or IP addresses.
   • To ban a visitor using Visitor ID, go to the Banned Visitors tab, click New Banned Visitor, enter the Visitor ID and click Save.
     
   • To ban visitors using IP addresses, go to the Banned IPs tab, click New Banned IP, enter the IP range you wish to ban, and click Save.
     
5. To lift the ban for banned visitors, go to the Banned Visitors or Banned IDs tab, locate the visitor ID or IP address you want to remove, and delete the entry from the list.
   
   Once removed from the ban list, the visitor will be able to see the chat button and initiate chat requests again.