From: Scott Brickner <sjb@universe.digex.net>
Date: Sat, 2 Dec 1995 09:07:27 +0800
To: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
Subject: Re: Barring access to Netscape
In-Reply-To: <199512010802.AAA09494@blob.best.net>
Message-ID: <199512012300.SAA26991@universe.digex.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


"James A. Donald" writes:
>At 12:32 AM 12/1/95 +0600, Ed Carp wrote:
>>If you want to bar access to your site from a Netscape browser, such 
>>can easily be accomplished.  If memory serves, every browser, when 
>>connecting to a site, exchanges certain information about the client 
>>with the server.  One can gain access easily to that information.
>
>This would not be satisfactory in itself: Ideally one would like to bring
>up a page saying  "Sorry, you cannot access that page because you
>are using a netscape browser:  Click *here* for the sad tale of
>Netscape.

Just make all the URLs on the server point to a CGI script.  The script
would check the requesting browser's id and return the real data or the
"sorry" message.  This would allow the process to be done with *no*
server changes.

Since "Cypherpunks write code", one can easily imagine a hack to the
Apache or NCSD or CERN servers that did the same thing without having
the overhead of a CGI script for each access.