Microsoft+URL+Control

65.113.184.110

[Crazy_Fool]

Can anyone shed any light on this ?
Full UA is
HTTP/1.1 Microsoft+URL+Control+-+6.00.8862 - -
from 65.113.184.110
Had it a couple of times in my logs this last week. TIA.

[Macguru]

Hi Crazy_Fool,

I believe it is some protocol to bypass special caracters in URL for nastie robots to scan dynamic sites for e-mail adresses. It is mainly used by spammer robots.

[mosa.unity.ncsu.edu...]

But here is some important snip:

The ID "Microsoft URL Control - x.xx.xxxx" is part of the Microsoft MSINET.OCX that I believe is used by the WinInet API under Visual C++. Just because this one harvester is written with this library does not mean that all hits from this ID are coming from harvesters... other software developers MAY be using this API for more honest applications, like search engine robots.If you are a member of the Microsoft Site Builder Network, you probably do NOT want to block this ID. Site Builder's search robot was built with this OCX and thus identifies itself with this browser ID. If you block the agent, Site Builder will not be able to properly index your website.

[Crazy_Fool]

Thanks mac, very useful. As far as I know I'm not part of the Microsoft Site Builder Network, and if it's an email harvester then that won't worry me much as it's only my own email addresses on my site and I learned to ignore spam a long time ago.

[dolphin]

I have been seeing several intellectual property companies using this "Microsoft+URL+Contrpl" to crawl and then index your page or pages into there own database. They are looking for infringement for either there paid clients, or working as a bounty hunter.