/gbook/mailto& 404 not found

Dr. GBooky is here to help you with your guestbook problems ...
Post Reply
Junefly
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:33 pm

/gbook/mailto& 404 not found

Post by Junefly »

Script URL:
Version of script:
Version of PHP:
Hosting company:
Have you searched THIS FORUM for your problem:
(if not please do before posting)
If so, what terms did you try:

Write your message below:

I am getting the 404 showing in the logs for /gbook/mailto& Is this somehow connected to <a href="mailto&#. in gbook.php??

Thanks Junefly
Klemen
Site Admin
Posts: 10116
Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:04 pm

Post by Klemen »

Hi,

You can simply ignore those errors. The thing is GBook somewhat encodes the e-mails posted to prevent them being correctly read by spam bots (software that searches for e-mails throughout the internet and adds them to SPAM databases for spamming).

So instead of the regular <a href="mailto:..."> link you get <a href="mailto& #58;..."> address. And some robots may read this as a link to a page on your site instead of e-mail address and of course they get a 404 error for not finding the page (that is actually the entire idea behind it, SPAM bots read e-mail addresses as normal addresses and not e-mails, therefor they don't add it to their databases for spamming).

Gosh, that sounded a but complicated, but I hope you get the idea :D You can just ignore those messages.

Regards
Klemen, creator of HESK and PHPJunkyardWas this helpful? You can buy me a drink here Image

Image You should follow me on Twitter here

Help desk software | Cloud help desk | Guestbook | Link manager | Click counter | more PHP Scripts ...

Also browse for php hosting companies, read php books, find php resources and use webmaster tools
Junefly
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:33 pm

Post by Junefly »

Klemen Stirn wrote:Hi,

You can simply ignore those errors. The thing is GBook somewhat encodes the e-mails posted to prevent them being correctly read by spam bots (software that searches for e-mails throughout the internet and adds them to SPAM databases for spamming).

So instead of the regular <a href="mailto:..."> link you get <a href="mailto& #58;..."> address. And some robots may read this as a link to a page on your site instead of e-mail address and of course they get a 404 error for not finding the page (that is actually the entire idea behind it, SPAM bots read e-mail addresses as normal addresses and not e-mails, therefor they don't add it to their databases for spamming).

Gosh, that sounded a but complicated, but I hope you get the idea :D You can just ignore those messages.

Regards
Great.. I kind of thought that may be the case as I am also getting 404s for a couple of java programs that refrence html pages (I guess in their script) Webmasters.com does not support java but they work fine. While I am here.. Webmasters is upgrading to:
Apache 1.3.34
PHP 5.1.2
OpenSSL 0.9.8a
libmysqlclient 5.0.18
ionCube PHP Loader v3.1.9
Zend Optimizer v2.6.2
Fileinfo 1.0.3
dbx 1.1.0
This means nothing to me, but I would like to know if your programs will continue to work.

Thanks for the great programs and the great support.
Junefly
Klemen
Site Admin
Posts: 10116
Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:04 pm

Post by Klemen »

I don't see any obvious problems, wait for the update and see if everything still works :wink:
Klemen, creator of HESK and PHPJunkyardWas this helpful? You can buy me a drink here Image

Image You should follow me on Twitter here

Help desk software | Cloud help desk | Guestbook | Link manager | Click counter | more PHP Scripts ...

Also browse for php hosting companies, read php books, find php resources and use webmaster tools
Post Reply