On Sat, 31 Mar 2001 17:44:57 -0500, L.D. Best wrote:
> On Sat, 31 Mar 2001 14:09:29 -0500, Samuel W. Heywood wrote:
>> On Sat, 31 Mar 2001 10:56:22 +0200, Bernie wrote:
>>> The server can NOT look in your harddrive.
>> If the server can't look into files on your HDD, then how is it that
>> some sites are said to be able to use spyware to track your adventures
>> all over the web? Also, how is that the server would think that you
>> have no cookies unless it looks for them someplace on your HDD and cannot
>> find them?
> Sam, last things first: A server doesn't look for anything; it *asks*
> your browser to provide something to it. If it wants a cookie, it asks
> the browser to send "a cookie for what we're doing now" which starts
> with" or some such. The browser searches its cookie file and if/when it
> finds "a cookie for what we're doing now" [i.e. one that matches
> paramenters sent by foreign server], that cookie is sent as requested.
I know that is the way things are supposed to happen. Maybe we can trust
our browsers to behave properly, but what about all those programs running
in the background that we know nothing about? When you are running DOS you
don't have to worry about anything running in the background because DOS
does not multi-task.
> Some sites can use "spyware" to track you because you never *leave* that
> site. You may *think* you've left the site, but you haven't. It's like
> some sites that have frames, and when you go to a foreign link the
> original site's menu/ID/framework is still there ... the "spy sites"
> have frames you don't see. I now believe that AltaVista is working on
> that type of setup. I once visited AltaVista for a short period and
> then went somewhere else; when I got to somewhere it had a javascript
> that Arachne couldn't [of course] handle, and instead of the error
> message I got an AltaVista page with info about javascripts!
Similar experiences have happened to me. If the site has frames you can't
see, then the existense of such non-displayed frames should be apparent in
the source somewhere.
> NBCi uses this invisible framework too, if I guess correctly. That is
> the only way you could "find a word, click, and get it explained"
> "anywhere" ...
> Now dozerware users don't even know what "frames" means, so I'm sure
> they think all that crap [including the stock ticker which 'goes
> everywhere with you'] is just one more "feature" of dozerware itself.
> If you think you've gotten entangled in a "spy site" it is fairly easy
> to cure with arachne. I just can't remember off hand how I do it, but I
> think a "clear cache" which then reloads just the current page should do
> the trick.
Also, you could just as well clear the cache for a winblows browser, even
though the browser might not come provided with a special feature for doing
this. You might have to go into a DOS-box and then go to the cache
directory and enter the simple command "del *.*". Maybe there is an evil
conspiracy behind the plot to stop providing new Window$ versions with
an easy capability for getting to a DOS prompt.
Sam Heywood
-- This mail was written by user of The Arachne Browser - http://arachne.cz/
