web log identifies browser as SURF

[James Owens]

I've just set up an intranet HTTP server with some CGI scripts. This stuff
is fairly new to me. I notice that while some of the browsers that visit
are identified as Mozilla or IE with details, I also see some log entries
where the browser is identified simply as "SURF." What does this mean?

--
"For it is only of the new one grows tired. Of the old one never tires."
-- Kierkegaard, _Repetition_

James Owens, Ottawa, Canada

[Chris Morris]

ad***@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (James Owens) writes:

I've just set up an intranet HTTP server with some CGI scripts. This stuff
is fairly new to me. I notice that while some of the browsers that visit
are identified as Mozilla or IE with details, I also see some log entries
where the browser is identified simply as "SURF." What does this mean?

Not a HTML question, you'd be better asking elsewhere.

But basically it means that, whatever the program was, it set its
User-Agent header to 'SURF'

$ telnet localhost 80
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD / HTTP/1.0
User-Agent: SURF

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
....etc...

It could have been anything, *including*, in the right situations, IE
or Mozilla. That said, the IE and Mozilla identifications could have
been anything, including the hundreds of browsers that aren't IE or
Mozilla.

A google search for 'SURF User-Agent' quickly suggests that a
content-filtering tool uses that user-agent header, for one possible
explanation.

--
Chris

[James Owens]

Chris Morris (c.********@durham.ac.uk) writes:

ad***@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (James Owens) writes:

I've just set up an intranet HTTP server with some CGI scripts. This stuff
is fairly new to me. I notice that while some of the browsers that visit
are identified as Mozilla or IE with details, I also see some log entries
where the browser is identified simply as "SURF." What does this mean?
Not a HTML question, you'd be better asking elsewhere.

It could have been anything, *including*, in the right situations, IE
or Mozilla. That said, the IE and Mozilla identifications could have
been anything, including the hundreds of browsers that aren't IE or
Mozilla.

A google search for 'SURF User-Agent' quickly suggests that a
content-filtering tool uses that user-agent header, for one possible
explanation.

Thanks. I was searching for "browser SURF" and "http_user_agent SURF" and
I wasn't getting anything useful. THe access log indicates a double hit
-- first "SURF" and then, at the same clock time and requesting the same
resource, "IE". I know for a fact it's IE (this is an intranet, I can
just ask) but I wasn't sure if a worm or something was also at work.

--
"For it is only of the new one grows tired. Of the old one never tires."
-- Kierkegaard, _Repetition_

James Owens, Ottawa, Canada