At 7:23 AM -0500 3/4/10, Judy Cosler wrote:
what is a "user agent"? what does "user agent" mean?
A user agent is also know as the client, as in "client-server". When surfing the web, there are two ends to the conversation: the client or user agent, which is your browser (Firefox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer), and the server, which is the program running at the other end, at the www.somewebsite.com name. The server program will usually be a software package named Apache, for example, or IIS, which is Microsoft's web server software. There are others, but those are the "Big Two".
The browser, or user agent, identifies itself to the server upon initial contact. It is this identification that this discussion is about. You can fib to the server and say you are Safari when you are Firefox, for example.
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