Dear Dr. Website®: What the heck is WebWatcher, and why would it be pinging a page on my site every hour, even though that page has moved?
WebWatcher is a name used by several people and companies to identify their products.
Some software from Carnegie-Mellon University
attempts to act as a "tour guide". But it's more likely that someone (perhaps a member of your firm's IT staff) is monitoring your site to make sure it's up, or to see whether that page has changed. Information on software or services that does this (using the WebWatcher name) can be found at www.webwatcher.co.uk/index.php3, www.thirdcoast.net/thirdcoast/webwatch.html, and webwatcher.org.
There is also a product called WebWatcher, formerly marketed by a Canadian company called Caravelle. Caravelle seems to have become Avesta Technologies and the product renamed eWatcher. Avesta still owns the domains caravelle.com and webwatcher.com, but at press time there were no Web sites operational at those addresses.
For more information on robot software of all kinds, see BotSpot and The Web Robot Pages.
I'm sure you know you can do a reverse IP lookup to find the site that's pinging you. In this case the site in question is on best.net, so you could contact their system administrator to help track down the individual machine, if necessary.
Dear Dr. Website®: I have a Perl CGI script that generates a Web-based notice board that is subject-specific. The other day I found some unscrupulous person had posted one of those "get rich quick" chain letters on it that had nothing to do with the subject of the board, and took up loads of space. Is there any way I can check the content of messages submitted using the form for signs of spam before the board updates so that they can be filtered out? The only spam filters I've found on CPAN.com (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) work with mail only.
Essentially, you're trying to set up a moderated message board. There are several out-of-the-box solutions that will let you do just that. Without looking at the software you're currently using, there's no way we could tell you how to change it to be moderated (using that same software). You may want to consider using products like
The Ultimate Bulletin Board or
eThreads. There are also links to many more such tools on Scriptsearch.
Dear Dr. Website®: I'm designing a Web page in HTML. I have six images placed in two rows (3 on 3) and would like a separate graphic to appear in the center (between the two rows) when the user rolls over each of the images with the mouse. This would make 12 images altogether. How can I achieve this with an imagemap?
Unless you wish to use DHTML, not simple JavaScript rollovers, you will have to create a middle image that will be replaced by the separate graphic upon mouseover. This image may be totally transparent (until it is replaced by the second image), or you may make it blend in with the other images (the 3 on 3). And if you are using six images, you are not using an imagemap (or shouldn't be, anyway), but rather normal hyperlinks directly from each image. If you use a single image, it will take much longer to load, and you will have to preload the other images, which is a good idea even if you're using the six images plus rollover images.
Dear Dr. Website®: I'm using Netscape Composer to build a database of e-mail addresses for a group of teachers. I want a link on that page that sends an e-mail to all the teachers, but I don't want to type each address into the link area, because it makes it difficult for editing purposes. Is there an easier way?
There's always an easier way.
Simply set up an e-mail "exploder", a mailing list, or an alias that takes a single e-mail address (such as teachers@yourschool.edu) and broadcasts it to the list of actual individual e-mail addresses. This way, all you need is the single e-mail address on the Web page. If you have no other way to do this, try OneList. Please note that any email address on a Web page will be subject to spam, so make sure you check out our "Ultimate Answer to SPAM" at http://www.webdeveloper.com/drweb/19990329-drweb.html.
Database Journal: The Knowledge Center for Database Professionals
and find truth, justice, and a clue or two.
