Large number of hits to ratethread.php

[Zenbob]

Hello, mostly curious if this is normal or something to be suspicious of... I'm seeing a large number of hits to: 

/forum/ratethread.php

Its by far the most accessed URL on our site. Is it because this function is called for every post in a page?
   

Maybe no correlation, but seeing lots of access by these 2 sites... the first is Microsoft, but its not their search bot? The second is "Wowrack.com" hosting in Seattle WA USA. 
   

Should I be concerned? 

Thanks!

[Matt]

It's likely just a spambot, nothing to be particularly worried about unless the traffic is causing performance issues on the server. You could always block the IP.

[Zenbob]

Thanks Matt! I'll try blocking the IP's temporarily. We have had intermittent performance issues recently, including pegged CPU utilization. Our hosting provider, inmotionhosting didn't find anything that look malicious and the virus scans passed, but we're being mindful of anything that looks strange. I did block an IP that appeared to be coming from a hotel in Russia. Though it could have been yandex or something, and it wasn't a DoS attack but they were previously the most active IP to our site.