O/T - Lying about what browser I'm using

Anon

Hi,

I remember hearing somewhere that it is possible to get a browser to pretend to be another browser, by altering the info which is sent through to the server.

Does anyone here know anything about this?
Is this something that could be done with IE5.
What I'd like to be able to do is monitor users from a specific area, within a network that goes through a proxy server.
My idea was to change the info in the http header, so that the log files would register a new browser, say 'Richards Browser v1'. I hope you understand what I'm after.
Any ideas???

TIA,
Rich

ame12

Interesting, but I don't think it's easily do-able (at least in the way you describe). However, you can get the same effect in an intranet situation by mapping the IP address to a specific user's machine.

If you take a look at a web server's CLF or extended format log, you'll notice that the IP address of the requester is one of the fields.

Some packages will analyze and filter this data based upon criteria you assign (WebTrends probably falls into this category) for reporting purposes. This would likely give you the effect that you want.

Dave

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edwardsbc

I think the browser software itself has to be capable of this "alteration". Opera can be told to report itself as MS IE, for example.

Anon

Try Proxomitron

http://www.computerstuff.net/prox/

I think that'll work for you.

--D

Anon

Opera "lies" about its origins because many web sites check this info before deciding which set of pages they will be serving you and almost none know about Opera but plenty know about Netscape and MSIE.

Since Opera can display pages in the same fashion as either of these browsers, it is safe for it to be identified as one of them.

I use Konqueror and I am pretty certain it spoofs its identity, too.

If the pages being viewed are outside your intranet you are going to break your browser. Since you will no longer be "MSIE" or "Mozilla", your users are likely to get "Lynx". You WILL hear from them almost immediately! If you are unfamiliar with Lynx, grab a copy of this legacy software and see for yourself what your users are going to see ... there won't be any doubt in their mind but that you have broken their browsers!

You will get away with this only if all the pages being viewed are on your intranet and you can ensure that none of them rely on identifying the browser.

One of the other respondents suggested matching up addresses to names. That is the saner way to go here.

Then again, you could just trap their keystrokes and play them back later, too.Rich wrote:

Hi,

I remember hearing somewhere that it is possible to get a browser to pretend to be another browser, by altering the info which is sent through to the server.

TIA,
Rich