Failed referrer

[theking]

Why do I keep getting failed referrer in my stats when all referring pages are perfectly working url's? Is this because the surfer is not allowing the page to load?

[theking]

Anyone?

[kenny]

Shaving clicks and joins arnt enough now they want your referrer urls as well

Seriously though it could be that the link was generated dynamicly like with SSI?

[theking]

I am speaking about my server stats.

[kenny]

Doesnt old browsers sometimes do that? I know what your talking about but I never knew for sure. It could probably be a number of things

[ControlThy]

Some sites do not pass referer information if I am not mistaken.




BigCash.com: Your Gateway to Serious Bucks!

[PHmike]

http://www.usask.ca/its/courses/cai/...er_report.html

[theking]

Originally posted by PHmike
http://www.usask.ca/its/courses/cai/...er_report.html

Not much help as the failed referrer pages in my stats are my site pages and they are perfectly good working URL's. There is not any reason for them to fail. Does anyone have a definitive explanation of what Failed Referrer Report means when the URL's are perfectly good working URL's?

[dnsmonster]

Could it be 'cause those surfers are using Macs with broken IE? Seems to be a very popular bug.

[theking]

One more time. Does anyone have a definitive answer? Where are all of the server techies?

[theking]

OK. I take it that none really knows what the answer is.

[TDF]

arriba arriba... pathfinder and his fake war kid who was rescued from vietnam and their six kids ride again

[salsbury]

the answer is:

referrer information is not trustworthy. it's "good enough" for maybe 80% of the internet's clients.

failed referrers are completely normal. if you watch your logs in real time you'll see shit that makes no sense, like you're getting hits from competitor's sites even though you're obviously not linked by them.

[MaxDent]

If I'm understanding your question correctly it might be because they have anti cookie software. I've run into this occassionally.

[theking]

Originally posted by toodamnfli
arriba arriba... pathfinder and his fake war kid who was rescued from vietnam and their six kids ride again

Ariba, ariba the "Six Amigos" and their "boy" ride again. Hey "boy" did you do a good job serving up their morning flapjacks? Ariba, ariba.

[theking]

Originally posted by salsbury
the answer is:

referrer information is not trustworthy. it's "good enough" for maybe 80% of the internet's clients.

failed referrers are completely normal. if you watch your logs in real time you'll see shit that makes no sense, like you're getting hits from competitor's sites even though you're obviously not linked by them.

Apparently it is completely normal because in my daily server stats there are failed referrers listed everyday and as I have stated they are URL's from my pages and they are perfectly good working URL's. I was just curious to know what causes them to be reported as failed referrers. Apparently it could be any number of things so I guess I will just have to accept that for an explanation. Thanks for the input guys.

[salsbury]

so the failed referrers are for pages on your own site? i guess i misunderstood. i see failed referrers all the time for images on my sites.

the error code is what triggers your stats software to consider it a "failed referrer". there are a number of things that can do this, one of the top things is hotlink protection. other things like improper permissions on your files and 404s can, too.

however if your page is loading ok from your machine and a friend's machine, you can probably safely write it up to broken browsers.