Opinion on free script

I am new to cloaking and ran across a free script

[DustyWebMaster]

I am new to cloaking and in my search I have found a free script, (I am sure you know the one I am refering to. ) I am trying to find out how to custumize to my page and I need to know if There is a good way to cloak if I don't have my own server...

I am sooo open to suggestions.

Oh yeah... and a scrpit that you can buy..which will remain nameless.. had a section in their FAQ about their program being able to "steal" competitors rankings... is that possible? :)

[Air]

Welcome to WmW DWM.

You don't need your own server to cloak, most of the scripts are designed to be installed in your own web space (domain) including the one you refer to (if it is the one I'm thinking of - from spiderhunter?).

>"steal" competitors rankings... is that possible?

What they are probably referring to is stealing a competitors well ranking page code by copying it, and then using it as your own cloaked page in the hopes that if their page ranked well it will rank well for you too.

[DustyWebMaster]

Air,
Thank you for your advise and help. Actually the free script I was refering to wasn't that one (but thanks for the tip!) I hope I don't get in trouble for this... but it is called Tech Cloak... ever heard of it? Is there any really simple ones I can use to experiment with?

And as far as the servers go... The host I was with gave me no access to cgi. And the programs I was looking at all said to install it on your server. AGGGHHH I dunno. Thats why I'm asking the experts. But I just found a virtual server that gives me complete cgi-bin control... hope I did the right thing... :)

[Air]

The free scripts you're looking at now are good ones to experiment with, they will give you an idea of how cloaking works.

Ahh, no cgi on the other account, well that explains why you thought your own server was needed. Yeah, a cgi-bin where you can install custom scripts is what you need, also having SSI available will be required to make most implementations slick and stealthy :)

[4eyes]

Techcloak works well enough, I tried it with some success, but it is a bit thin on features. eg. you will have a fair bit of work keeping the spider list up to date manually, whilst some of the more advanced offer automatic spider list updates.

Unless you have loads of time, go for auto updating spider lists and a few more features.

Still, I'm lazy.

[DustyWebMaster]

Thank you guys! You are great.:)

Well Like I said, I'm new anyFree scripts I should know about? I am a total newbie to perl and I don't know a lot about this yet. The only thing I have figured out for sure... don't forget the semi colin! :)

I'm open to suggestions...

Dusty

[awoyo]

"a cgi-bin where you can install custom scripts is what you need, also having SSI available will be required to make most
implementations slick and stealthy"

Can you get a little more into the advantages of using SSI *with* a cgi script. I'm pretty much a newcomer to "cloaking" also, Thanks,

Jim

[Air]

SSI is useful so that you can have a page with what looks like a normal html page extension, i.e. page1.html or page2.htm, etc.. and because SSI is imbedded in these pages they actually call a script to serve dynamic content based on the visitor's IP address, User Agent, or other header information.

Without SSI you would be forced to imbed the script in the page itself, making for a messier implementation, you can equate .html or .htm to .cgi but then plain .html pages won't work for whichever extension you equated to .cgi.

[awoyo]

Thanks everybody! Thanks to littleman's suggestion I'm running my script as a .htm file aliased as a cgi script. Since every file I write is .html there is no concern for me to blank out the .htm extension this way. I think I see that the SSI implementation really would have no further advantage for me in this case.

Not trying to take over this thread but I have one more question before I begin hacking at my script again. Is there a practical reason to have both IP based and UA based detection? My database log is 22K and I can cut that in half by eliminating the UA portion as well as the full hostname address. All I'm using at this point is IP detection but I'm thinking of the future. Perhaps there will be a reason to do both?

Thanks again everybody. This forum has been a great help!

Jim