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LYNX-DEV When taking a guess isn't so smart
From: |
dom |
Subject: |
LYNX-DEV When taking a guess isn't so smart |
Date: |
Thu, 23 Oct 1997 17:03:22 +0100 (BST) |
Having in the past given up with the domain name private.org due to
the amount of irrelevant email I received to it, you would have
thought I would know better.
I own the domain name HTTP.ORG. The web site for that domain has
always received a fair amount of seemingly random hits, presumably
from people mistyping URLs and having their domain suffix search
order including ORG.
Recently however I have noticed a dramatic increase in the number
of hits to www.http.org, so I decided to investigate further. Looking
at the access logs, it did appear that the recent upsurge in hits
could also attributed to mistypes. But why the very recent increase ?
The common link is Lynx web browser 2.7.1.
It would appear that the latest version of Lynx likes to pretend to
be clever and guesses at a URL if it doesn't receive a response from
the host that you typed. Unfortunately this means that a request for
any of the following typos:
lynx http//:www.somedomain.com
lynx http//www.somedomain.com
lynx http/:www.somedomain.com
lynx http/www.somedomain.com
Will result in Lynx trying...
Looking up 'http' first.
Looking up 'www.http.com', guessing...
Looking up 'www.http.edu', guessing...
Looking up 'www.http.net', guessing...
Looking up 'www.http.org', guessing...
Getting http://www.http.org//www.somedomain.com
At which point my site is queried.
The risks are obvious. Confusion reigns and I receive a constant
flow of hate email from users all around the world who think that
I have hijacked the web sites they are trying to reach. *sigh*
Dom.
--
Dominic J. Hulewicz - mailto:address@hidden - http://www.intanet.com/dom
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- LYNX-DEV When taking a guess isn't so smart,
dom <=