[thelist] IE = Mozilla in log?

Eric Costello eric at schwa.com
Wed Jul 19 13:49:46 CDT 2000


>Can anyone explain why Internet Explorer is identified in my server log as:
>ŠMozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC) ?
>Does Mozilla represent some kind of browser standard or protocol?

That is historical MS trickery done because years ago many sites were
screening out IE based on server side detection of the HTTP_USER_AGENT
value. MS added "mozilla" to IE's header to trick servers doing rudimentary
browser detection into believing that IE was a Netscape browser.

Eric

PS I am a first time poster; have been enjoying the conversation.

Eric Costello
eric at schwa.com
http://glish.com





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