diff --git a/html/bt/inc/checks.php b/html/bt/inc/checks.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8351f3eaf5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/html/bt/inc/checks.php
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Checks common to both the tracker and the scraping mechanism.
+ */
+
+$cvs_version_tracker[]="\$Id$";  //Generated automatically - do not edit
+
+
+function isIPBanned($ip){
+    $queryHandle = mysql_query("SELECT * from bittorrent_ipbans where ip=\"".process_user_text($ip)."\" and timestamp > ".time()); echo mysql_error();
+    if (mysql_num_rows($queryHandle)){
+	return true;
+    } else {
+	return false;
+    }
+} 
+ 
+?>
\ No newline at end of file