Alternative to HTTP_REFERER? It doesn't work on IE7, Opera

guarriman

Hi.

Working with PHP4, I created this PHP file:

<html>

<li>REFERER: <?echo $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];?>
<li><a href=ie7-referer.php>Click here</a>

</html>

It works ok (it shows webpage refererer) with most of web browsers, but not with IE7 or Opera.

Does anybody know an alternative to HTTP_REFERER to know the webpage the user come from?

Thank you very much,

NogDog

The only other way I know of would be if you control the page that is doing the referring, and put something in the link's query string to identify itself. But if you want to know where a user is coming from when it's from any random site on the web, you have no control of that unless the client is sending it in the HTTP referrer header - and obviously that is not a required header (and can easily be spoofed should someone want to). (And of course if the user types the link into the address bar of their browser or selects a bookmark to your page, there is no referring page anyway.)

MarkR

HTTP_REFERER will be sent by MSIE and Opera under the right conditions.

It seems likely to me that you're using some personal firewall / antivirus app which has decided (uniliaterally, of course) that you're better off without referrers being sent.

Use a clean client machine and remove all antivirus and personal firewall software, and repeat the experiment.

Mark

guarriman

MarkR wrote:
HTTP_REFERER will be sent by MSIE and Opera under the right conditions.

It seems likely to me that you're using some personal firewall / antivirus app which has decided (uniliaterally, of course) that you're better off without referrers being sent.

Use a clean client machine and remove all antivirus and personal firewall software, and repeat the experiment.

Mark

Hi Mark. Thank you very much for your answer.

HTTP_REFERER works ok on that machine by using Firefox or IE6, and it's a brand new PC (bought with default Windows XP, and only installed Firefox 2 and IE7).

I don't want to tell my users to shutdown their antivirus to browse my website with IE7 🙁

suntra

Don't use HTTP_REFERER !

Do you users have a specific IP address ?!

MarkR

You can still use HTTP_REFERER, but you must not rely on it being set.

Some browsers can disable it, and some AV software removes it. You can't do anything about this, so you must live with it.

Don't use it for anything important.

Mark