RE: Re: [OT] Kenneth's pet project!

[Frost Neil <Neil.Frost@xxxxxxx>]

If the bot's are not browsers, then the function could always detect the
browser first with an if style statement

Neil


-----Original Message-----
From: garygfx [mailto:garygfx@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 19 June 2003 14:54
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Paul" <p-gale@b...> wrote:
> Is this reasonably common (i.e. do any other sites use it)

Not that I've noticed any. A lot of sites also use forms instead so the
email address is never sent to the client - a sure fire method of
protecting
your address if you're happy to do it that way.

> if so, then surely the bot creators can easily add it?

Not at all. I wrote this function myself so if anyone else has the same
idea
they'd code it in a slightly different way which means any bot would have
to
have a Javascript interpriter to understand how firstly recognise a
concealed email address and secondly how to piece it back together. This is
well beyond the means of bots at the moment and there's little incentive to
improve them since millions of unhidden addresses are out there for easy
reaping.

> How can I modify this script so it's personal to my site and lessen
the chance of a bot being successful in the future?

The simplest way is to rearrange the 3 parts. Do it backwards:
suffix, domain, name. Also change the name of the function and the
arguments. If a bot is created that can understand javascript (not
for years, if ever!) then nothing you do using javascript can protect
your address. Other options are to use server side scripting so if
you click on a "email me" link it sends a HTTP request to the
server
which looks to see if it's a real browser making the request and not
a bot (various checks can be done) and then sends back a HTTP
redirect to an email link.

Gary.




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