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| Subject:
Browser redirection hacks without referrer being passed
Category: Computers > Programming Asked by: pm928-ga List Price: $50.00 |
Posted:
17 Oct 2002 16:51 PDT
Expires: 16 Nov 2002 15:51 PST Question ID: 77993 |
I'm looking for a JavaScript or some sort of HTML redirection code that has the ability to redirect users to any website without passing the referrer of the existing website. It must be compatible with all browsers and cannot pass any referrer on with the redirect. For example say John Doe is on page http://www.example.com/hello1.html which has a meta redirect to http://www.sample.com/me.html. In most cases when the user is redirected the browser will pass the HTTP_Referrer as "http://www.example.com/hello1.html" since this is where the user was redirected from. What I need is a way for this action to occur without the browser passing the referring URL of where the user was redirected from. Please thoroughly test your code before providing an answer to this question and make sure it is compatible with all or at minimum most browsers. | |
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| Subject:
Re: Browser redirection hacks without referrer being passed
Answered By: skorba-ga on 14 Nov 2002 11:57 PST |
Dear pm928 -
My setup:
---------
I set up my Apache web server set up with a document like this to test
whether the browser actually sent (of course with SSI enabled to
actually get the content of the HTTP_REFERER object):
<html>
<head>
<title>target</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--#echo var="HTTP_REFERER"--><br>
the line above should say '(none)'...
</body>
</html>
That was the basis for testing, and I hope that matches the setup you
test with.
The options:
-----------
As I see it, you have three different options. I will take them in the
order of least work:
a)
Use the flash plugin to open the link:
-------------------------------------
Half a year ago I noticed - after our company had started a flash
banner campaign - that the percent of Referers in our log files had
dropped by 50 %. I did some tests, and sure enough, on Explorer on a
PC the browser will not pass along any referer data when users click a
link inside a Flash 4 movie.
Actionscript code for a flash button that opens a link:
on (release)
{
getURL ("http://www.someplace.com");
}
Plus: This is almost no work at all. And IE on Windows covers at least
50% of the browsers used.
Minus: This hides the referer only in IE on Windows.
b)
Create a blank window with javascript, and fill that window with
html-code that tells the window to redirect with standard HTML:
function hideReferer ()
{
hide_referer = window.open ("", "hide_referer", "");
hide_referer.document.open ();
hide_referer.document.writeln ('<html>');
hide_referer.document.writeln ('<head>');
hide_referer.document.writeln ('<meta http-equiv="refresh"
content="0;url=http://www.someplace.com">');
hide_referer.document.writeln ('</head>');
hide_referer.document.writeln ('<body>');
hide_referer.document.writeln ('</body>');
hide_referer.document.writeln ('</html>');
hide_referer.document.close ();
}
Plus: This works in Explorer on a Mac, Mozilla and Opera (fairly
current versions) on Windows and IE on Windows.
Minus: This does not hide the referer on Netscape 4+.
c)
Use java to open the link:
--------------------------
I also know - from experience - that links fired off from inside
Applets, in most cases will not send along any referer. Take this
code, save it in a text file called Hider.java, and compile with a
standard java compiler:
import java.applet.*;
import java.net.*;
public class Hider extends Applet
{
public void init ()
{
try
{
getAppletContext().showDocument
(
new URL ("http://www.someplace.com")
);
}
catch (MalformedURLException murle) {}
}
}
After compiling, use this code to embed the applet in a html page.
<applet code="Hider.class" width="10" height="10"></applet>
Plus: This is the only way to cover Netscape 4 on Windows. And it
works on Explorer for Windows.
Drawback: It does not work on Mozilla or Opera.
Final notes:
As you can see, with the above techniques all major browsers are
covered, from Windows to Mac, and from IE through Netscape and Mozilla
to Opera.
Please do not hesitate to ask for clarifications!
Good luck! |
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| Subject:
Re: Browser redirection hacks without referrer being passed
From: duncan2-ga on 17 Oct 2002 19:00 PDT |
Hi pm928, As Haversian has stated above, there is no way in Javascript or straight HTML to disable HTTP_Referrer information, as the sending of the Referrer data is client driven, not part of the html page on the server. There are ways for users to protect their privacy by turning off Referrers in many newer web browers. See, for example http://www.ufaq.org/commonly/userprefs.html which describes how to turn off Referrers in Netscape (and probably Mozilla). Most users won't want to turn off Referrers, since many web scripts rely on them. For details about Referrers, you might want to read the formal document defining HTTP/1.1, (RFC 2616, available in many places on the web) http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2616.html In particular, section 14.36 of the RFC defines how Referrers work: "The Referer[sic] request-header field allows the client to specify, for the server's benefit, the address (URI) of the resource from which the Request-URI was obtained" While no straight HTML or Javascript can eliminate referrer data directly, you can, with programming on a webserver, conceal partially the origination. How? By sending the user to a dynamically generated and quickly removed page. This would still reveal the page the user came from, but could hide the page previous, if privacy or security are the issue here. (Effectively, this is a double-redirect.) A simple PERL or ASP script could accomplish this. The only other thing that comes to mind is if you're managing a company where you want employee's to surf the web but not reveal referrers, there are ways to configure firewalls to dynamically remove them from HTTP traffic. From your question though, it sounds more like you're attempting anonymous redirects on traffic from multiple sources, which simply isn't possible without control of the client software. Hope this helps. |
| Subject:
Re: Browser redirection hacks without referrer being passed
From: sparky4ca-ga on 30 Oct 2002 03:33 PST |
If a dynamic redirect is a little too complex, how about a moer straighforward double redirect? You set up redirects with a service like jump.to (or any more of hundreds out there.) You set up one for each page you want to redirect TO. Then, when you want to redirect to that page, you redirect the user to your redirector that points to that page. The end page would see the redirect service as the referrer. |
| Subject:
Re: Browser redirection hacks without referrer being passed
From: fluttervertigo-ga on 30 Oct 2002 19:49 PST |
Have you tried to use JScript (as is JavaScript only in Netscape and JScript only in IE) to wipe the history stack? IIRC, clearing the history stack before moving to a subsequent page may impair retrieval of the previous page. |
| Subject:
Re: Browser redirection hacks without referrer being passed
From: funkywizard-ga on 02 Nov 2002 14:56 PST |
Although I would love to answer this question and collect the $50, unfortunatly, it is not possible. There are various browser settings and firewall configurations that a *user* can implement to block the referrer being sent, but unfortunatly, a website has no means to control this what-so-ever. |
| Subject:
Re: Browser redirection hacks without referrer being passed
From: triniman-ga on 10 Nov 2002 06:44 PST |
Try this:
function quietredirect(here) {
document.location.replace(here);
}
where "here" is a new url that you pass to the function, which is
referenced in a link as <a
href="quietredirect('http://www.yahoo.com')">yahoo</a>
I only tested this in IE 5.5 and it works.
Feel free to test elsewhere. The replace() command may not work
everywhere.
-Jason Alphonse
Webmaster
Quickbrowse.com |
| Subject:
Re: Browser redirection hacks without referrer being passed
From: triniman-ga on 10 Nov 2002 06:49 PST |
use: window.location.replace(here) instead of: document.location.replace(here) I should mention that this method will overwrite the current entry in the browser's history, so that the user will not be able to navigate back to it through the browser. |
| Subject:
Re: Browser redirection hacks without referrer being passed
From: triniman-ga on 10 Nov 2002 06:52 PST |
argh, sorry.
The link should be referenced as
<a href="javascript:quietredirect('http://www.yahoo.com')">yahoo</a> |
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