bots (easy question)

[james438]

Hi, I created a small program to detect browser resolution as well as IP address and store the info in a file. Do bots have screen resolutions? I ask because some of the records have an IP address, but no screen resolution.

[Nile]

This is a totale guess:
Since many bots run off one server, and not a specific computer I would guess no. Unless they configure it like that. I would think that a bot if you php[ed] it, it would like this:


<?php
$infos = array();
$infos['surf'] = "Google.com/";
$infos['ip'] = 10294; //tells which IP to use
$infos['screen_res'] = null;
?>

Remember, the above is a guess.

[Moshambi]

I would guess that bots don't have a screen resolution. I mean from what I've always thought bots don't need to "see" anything...so I would guess they don't even need a monitor, that they just are there to collect information.

Just my 2 cents

[james438]

What both of you are suggesting does make a lot of sense. Another possibility is that there is an error in my code. I altered it a bit to only record the stats if a browser resolution is detected, so the problem is largely solved for me. However, one way to check is if I knew the IP address of a bot and then check the address against what I have in my list and see if it has a resolution.

I also noticed that my own IP address was recorded as not having a screen resolution. When that happens a cookie is generated so that that won't happen in the future and every successive return to the page will show that I do indeed have a resolution setting.

For those curious the script is located here (http://www.animeviews.com/article.php?ID=59&table=programming).

It seems kinda dumb to me, but the javascript lines are copywritten. actually since most of the lines are not his, but mine maybe I should remove the copyright. Not sure.