in reply to Re: How does Perlmonks know who I am?
in thread How does Perlmonks know who I am?

And what distinguishes one client from another where there are no cookies?

I guess it could be done by tracking IP, referrer and User agent...

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RatArsed

  • Comment on Re (2): How does Perlmonks know who I am?

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Re: Re (2): How does Perlmonks know who I am?
by merlyn (Sage) on Jul 25, 2001 at 18:41 UTC
Re: Re (2): How does Perlmonks know who I am?
by oakbox (Chaplain) on Jul 25, 2001 at 17:06 UTC
    I thought you *couldn't* do this reliably. When I look in %ENV there is a key called UNIQUE_ID which usually has a value like: OVN3hsdpVpAAAGiyLKs

    But I thought that UNIQUE_ID changed with every request?
    And IP tracking works right up to the point when you start dealing with AOL users or people with naughty proxy servers.

    If there is a magical bouncing ball, does anyone know where to find it and track it? I would LOVE to stop fiddling with cookies.

    update
    I thought I would mention that you can stick a unique number into the URL line and track the user's identity in the $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'}. But that is visible to the user and just plain yucky looking : )
    oakbox
    "If what I'm saying doesn't make sense, that's because sense cannot be made, it's something that must be sensed"-J.S. Hall

      I checked what headers the server threw at he client to use for tracking, and it seems there aren't any (certainly if you haven't logged in). I was expecting to see an ETag or something...

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      RatArsed