Will cloaking clog the server?

[agerhart]

I want to begin cloaking, but I figure that I have to do two things before I begin this process:

1) Do a boatload of research!

2) Convince the boss that it is needed.

So I have a few questions about cloaking:

1) Will this affect the server in a negative way?

2) In your opinion, is this the way the market may be moving if MS IE 6 comes out?

Thanks for your help

[jeremy goodrich]

>>1) Will this affect the server in a negative way?

Not that I know of. I've seen cold fusion used for cloaking thousands of pages, which is pretty slow. I've seen perl used for cgi and apache mod rewrite for cloaking, that that works pretty quickly.

The only slow down possible is in the detection of the IP, and the decision of giving the bot page, or the human page. This is the reason I say cold fusion, for example, is very slow to execute. But IMHO, cloaking on MS servers should be done with MS software, it plays together most happily that way.

Perl/apache is the combo which I believe delivers the best solution in terms of delivery speed. Also, it depends on now in depth the cloaking script is: will it detect IP only, IP and User Agent, or more variables?

>>2) In your opinion, is this the way the market may be >>moving if MS IE 6 comes out?

Even more basic version of that question might be: is this the way the market is moving?

I would say yes. There are just too many benefits to not consider cloaking, and all that it offers. Done right, it is nothing but a benefit to the web site. Add to that the possibilities presented by "smart tags" and you have some compelling reasons to cloak you tail off.

[agerhart]

Thanks for the response Jeremy, and I have another question:

Is ASP a decent one to use for cloaking?

I remember reading in another thread inside the forum that when cloaking you must monitor it very closely to detect the new IP's for the spiders and bots....is this true? Does it take a whole lot of time and effort?

The effort I am not so worried about, but the time is a little bit of a worry

[Eric_Lander]

Hello all. I'm a co-worker of Agerhart, and we're working on making our client's sites a lot more noticeable. Having said that, we understand the importance of cloaking as well as it's growing popularity (and more importantly, functionality).

So here's a "hypothetical" situation. We use a colocated server that hosts up all of our client's sites. It's running NT4, and we're using ASP to host up any dynamic elements.

Using the few bits of information I personally know of cloaking, I expect that with asp, we figure out who is looking at the site, then draft up content based upon that user's IP.

Now. If it is as simple as it sounds, I would just need to script up something that detects the IP of the viewer, then runs a really nice [if / then / else] statement. Right?

Maybe I'm out on a limb here, but it seems simple. If I'm wrong, PLEASE let me know.

Now, to take it further, I want to know what the downsides are to running such scripts. For example, what happens when a new spider or bot rolls into town? Doesn't this require active monitoring to see the IP's and their ID's? If so, Agerhart, you'll be a busy man!

Furthermore, my main concern is this. Has anyone tried, and seen proven success running pages like this via ASP and not run into any issues. With all of our clientele's sites on ONE server, the last thing I can let happen is have a script running that kills bandwidth, crashes any applications, or compromises system integrity.

Any comments, help, gripes, or verbal backhands that I should receive.. please let me know!

Thanks all in advance!

~ E r i c ~

[agerhart]

>>>>>Now, to take it further, I want to know what the downsides are to running such scripts. For example, what happens when a new spider or bot rolls into town? Doesn't this require active monitoring to see the IP's and their ID's? If so, Agerhart, you'll be a busy man!>>>

As far as I understand, this is the case......

[circuitjump]

For help with ASP cloaking check this out! [webmasterworld.com]

[Just fixed the link for you.]

(edited by: littleman on 4:20 pm (gmt) on June 12, 2001

[startup]

Start slowing once you have a script. Try delivering the same page until you get comfortable with the process and this also gives you an opportunity to build your own IP and UA data base.