Referer URL's in Stats

[Justin]

I am a little confused about a certain referer URL. www.bpftp.com, home of Bullet Proof FTP, is shown as the refering URL for a LOT of bandwidth. One would guess than there is a download link to my program on this site, but there's not. And it's going up daily.

Is it possible that: A) A program such as an FTP client can send a refering URL even if there isn't one, and B) someone to FTP in to download my program? Last time I checked I had to enter a password, and I don't think that many people would know it http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

I am assuming that a program can send a refering URL (is that the browser's job?), but using an FTP client to download just seems odd, unless it has http download abilities with resume or something?

I'm mainly wondering if it is the browser that sends the refering URL or what?

I also hunted the source of all of BP FTP's pages for links to graphics (yeah, right) from my site, and the word "vdj" appears nowhere.

Just extremely curious (that and why are so many Spanish speaking people in to my program? I've had quite a few Altavista translations performed and there's a few Spanish shareware sites linking http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif)

Time for bed.

[meikel]

Hi,

the HTTP-Referer is just a text string any browser should send. There are some browsers around that hide this information for security and send stupid stuff instead.

Some download helpers send the URL for the software. One of them is BPFTP. I have lots of BPFTPs in my logs, too. Other programs are Go!Zilla and NetZip (or WebZip).
It is possible for these programs to intercept download links in browsers. It is handy to have them as they can resume broken downloads, check for the best site (they search through simtel and other shareware archives).

Usually these programs just don't have the referer information and instead of sending nothing, they opt to send some info so that you know it's a download.

Meikel

[Justin]

After a little more looking I realize that you are right - one of my referers is C:\Program Files\Netzip or something. That's funny, but I guess it makes sense.

I noticed, also, that the download helpers show up under browsers, which makes perfect sense - I just never knew that they send the referer URL too.

I use GetRight myself - it's handy at times.

Justin