[thelist] HTTP_REFERER v user agent
Andrew Clover
and-evolt at doxdesk.com
Fri Apr 9 20:47:59 CDT 2004
> This is a bit worrying. Does anyone know which user agents (eg browsers)
> prevent this?
None I know of allow it to be altered, but at least Opera and
Mozilla-with-extensions allow it not to be sent at all. Some security-
or performance-related web proxy apps allow it to be blocked or altered
independently of the browser.
> I need to ensure that all visitors orgins are known: ie which ads
> they have come in on.
You don't and you can't. You cannot rely on anything the user agent
passes you as being 100% accurate. You *can* try and judge your stats
with this in mind and still detect useful trends and information.
> Maybe the only way to do this, rather than putting code into the entry
> page, is to rely on the access logs?
The access logs provide you the same information a PHP script can
access; a referrer field will appear the same to both.
--
Andrew Clover
mailto:and at doxdesk.com
http://www.doxdesk.com/
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