Forum Moderators: open
or is it faked?
The IP just routes to a DSL user
I read the FAQ and still don't understand :-(
The only use I can see when visiting a site is for either downloading (deep linking) or loading (editing files.)
In either event I'm glad I added it to my denys.
You could use CURL w/ PHP to
=> check and see if a page is up and readable.
=> grab an FTP or HTTP download file and
use it to update someting on your site.
=> grab and embed data (eg, weather info
from NOAA) from another site into your site.
=> run checks on IPs that appear in your
firewall log, by running whois searches via
HTTP (now that ARIN and others have limited
port 43 searching) and then automagically send
complaints to the relevant network abuse address.
=> and so on.
You could do all these things without CURL too.
CURL just makes it a lot easier.
Obviously, a tool like this can be used for purposes
which a webmaster would want to allow, as well as for
purposes which he/she would not. Possibly a key factor
is whether you want a particular HTTP resource read
by 'non-human eyes': if you only want a page accessible
to live humans, you probably don't want CURL on that
page.
PoolDoc
