I’ve used a proprietary tracking system for years. Basically session and page logging to a dababase. I have a strange pattern that I cannot explain. Perhaps someone here at WebmasterWorld has an answer. Here’s my issue.
Requests made by (what appears to be) a valid, human user are "echoed" by something else (same IP, request URL, query string; different cookieID, sessionID, user agent, and no referrer)
User visits the website – valid cookieID, sessionID, and BrowserType/User Agent; looks to be a normal, valid user in every respect – but each request that the “real” user makes is immediately followed by a matching request with the exact same IP, request URL and query string, but different cookieID & sessionID, different browserType/User Agent, and no referrer. Time difference is a millisecond to several milliseconds.
The “real” user’s cookieID & sessionID remain consistent from request to request, as expected, but each matching request generates a new cookieID & sessionID (so whatever it is does not maintaining a normal website session).
This behavior has been observed with several users and IP addresses, but is not common in terms of our overall site traffic. Some affected users/IPs exhibited normal browsing behavior up to a random point in time, when the strange behavior began; others have exhibited the unusual behavior consistently for as far back as we can track (so it is definitely not related to any recent code changes on our part).
What is it?
