• pevone
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Topic: Disable refer(r)er for forum

If I click at a link in my PunBB, the target sees the forum url as refer(r)er.
How can I disable it for all extern links in the forum?

I don't want the target pages to know, that they are linked in my forum.
It's a private/hidden forum, and in future the category names could tell "something", I don't want others to know.
Also: I don't want someone to know about the url, although the forum is hidden (at the moment it isn't linked anywhere on the net, but if someone would publish the referrer lists...)

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
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Re: Disable refer(r)er for forum

You wouldn't be able to see any data about the referring page necessarily, other than the URL
And as for disabling it, there isn't a simple way, since referrer is a client-side thing. You could try linking to pages using Javascript and see how different browsers handle that.

3 Reply by abclf (edited by abclf 2007-08-02 23:16)

  • abclf
  • Senior Member
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  • From: France
  • Registered: 2004-07-30
  • Posts: 148

Re: Disable refer(r)er for forum

You may try a redirection using google, so that I suppose Google will appear as the referer.
(http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.punbb.org)

ps : there is a security message.

abclf's Website

  • pevone
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Re: Disable refer(r)er for forum

Smartys wrote:

You wouldn't be able to see any data about the referring page necessarily, other than the URL

Yeah. But, if I would change to user friendly url (with punbb3), the admin of the linked page could read the category or the threadtitle of my forum. And that's something, I don't want him to -.- And on the other hand I dont want to miss user friendly urls.


abclf wrote:

You may try a redirection using google, so that I suppose Google will appear as the referer.
(http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.punbb.org)

Ah, cool.
Would it be possible, that I host such a service by myself?
eg:

my forum: example.org/forum/

And I want to use "example.org/url?q=http://www.punbb.org" for extern links in my forum,
so that the refer(r)er is "example.org" and not "example.org/forum/"

  • CodeXP
  • Senior Member
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  • Registered: 2004-07-07
  • Posts: 503

Re: Disable refer(r)er for forum

pevone wrote:
Smartys wrote:

You wouldn't be able to see any data about the referring page necessarily, other than the URL

Yeah. But, if I would change to user friendly url (with punbb3), the admin of the linked page could read the category or the threadtitle of my forum. And that's something, I don't want him to -.- And on the other hand I dont want to miss user friendly urls.


abclf wrote:

You may try a redirection using google, so that I suppose Google will appear as the referer.
(http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.punbb.org)

Ah, cool.
Would it be possible, that I host such a service by myself?
eg:

my forum: example.org/forum/

And I want to use "example.org/url?q=http://www.punbb.org" for extern links in my forum,
so that the refer(r)er is "example.org" and not "example.org/forum/"

Sure, just create a PHP script with something like this:

<?php
$url = isset($_GET['q']) ? htmlspecialchars($_GET['q']) : false;

if( $url != false )
    header('Location: '.$url);

?>

CodeXP's Website

  • pevone
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  • Posts: 8

Re: Disable refer(r)er for forum

CodeXP wrote:

Sure, just create a PHP script with something like this:

Uff, I am a PHP noob.

Is there keyword for that "mechanism", that you could give me?
So I could google something more about it.

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
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  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: Disable refer(r)er for forum

Err, what do you mean?

  • CodeXP
  • Senior Member
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  • From: /dev/null
  • Registered: 2004-07-07
  • Posts: 503

Re: Disable refer(r)er for forum

pevone wrote:
CodeXP wrote:

Sure, just create a PHP script with something like this:

Uff, I am a PHP noob.

Is there keyword for that "mechanism", that you could give me?
So I could google something more about it.

Not sure I understand what you're asking, but I if by mechanism you're asking how the code I posted works, you could take a look at this PHP manual page about the "header" function.

CodeXP's Website

  • pevone
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  • Registered: 2006-12-11
  • Posts: 8

Re: Disable refer(r)er for forum

Smartys wrote:

Err, what do you mean?

I am searching for a "search term" or a name of this service/method/mechanism/function:
"http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.punbb.org"

So that I can find a tutorial or something about it,
how to set it up at my server, how it works, etc.

(me don't "speak" a word PHP)

10 Reply by abclf

  • abclf
  • Senior Member
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  • From: France
  • Registered: 2004-07-30
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Re: Disable refer(r)er for forum

I think the keyword is : «redirect».
Another tool : http://www.anomy.net/indirector/
just use 

http://www.anomy.net/indirector/?

before the link.

abclf's Website