On 2014-11-15 at 13:01:24 -0600, G. Wade Johnson via Houston wrote: > On Sat, 15 Nov 2014 12:18:22 -0600 > Fraser Baker via Houston <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi Y'all: > > > > > > > > Is there a way to get the Client's computer name or any other > > identifying term? I can get the server's name, but that doesn't help > > me. I have searched for this, without avail. > > I assume you are talking about a web request? > > Advertisers (and some three letter agencies) would love this. You only > have access to what's in the request (including headers) and any > information needed for the TCP/IP communication itself. Without doing > something interesting client side, you have: > > * IP address (possibly machine or NAT router) > * Referrer header > * User Agent string > * Cookies that you have sent > * Request parameters > * The URL itself > * Some other protocol details that are probably not useful > > People with more JavaScript experience might be able to suggest some > cool JavaScript tricks to grab some kind of identifying information. > > I'm not really sure what use the Client's computer name would be, in > the general case. Out on the wide internet, you cannot guarantee the > computer name is unique or adheres to any particular scheme. > > Inside a given company or subset, the IP address might be good enough > to identify a user. But, it's hard to know without a better > understanding of your goal. > > This is why most login systems use Cookies to track the user.
Interestingly enough, it is very possible to identify a unique browser without cookies. That's what the Panopticlick experiment <https://panopticlick.eff.org/> tried to test. *dons tinfoil hat* Regards, - Zaki Mughal > > (I realize that you probably know at least some of this. But, some > background might help to eliminate the obvious stuff you've already > tried.) > > Anyone else have an idea for Fraser? > > G. Wade > -- > There will always be things we wish to say in our programs that in all > known languages can only be said poorly. -- Alan Perlis > _______________________________________________ > Houston mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/houston > Website: http://houston.pm.org/ _______________________________________________ Houston mailing list [email protected] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/houston Website: http://houston.pm.org/
