$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] VS Norton

[arkosh]

Hello,

Iam using the following code:

    if(substr_count($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'],"mail.php") > 0){
        $_SESSION['m_f_name'] = $_POST['first_name'];
        $_SESSION['m_l_name'] = $_POST['last_name'];
        $_SESSION['m_street'] = $_POST['street'];
        $_SESSION['m_apt'] = $_POST['apt'];
        $_SESSION['m_city'] = $_POST['city'];
        $_SESSION['m_state'] = $_POST['state'];
        $_SESSION['m_zip'] = $_POST['zip'];
        $_SESSION['m_email'] = $_POST['email'];
    } 

It works as it is supposed to unless the machine is behind Norton Personal Firewall. I have not test with any other sw firewalls. I do not know if the problem is with the $_SERVER[] or the HTTP_REFERER part, but know that the problem is there. If I do an

echo($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']); 

I get nothing.

Is this a problem with Norton or any sw firewall in general, and should i avoid the $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] statement?

Any help is greatly appreciated, THANKS

[HogMan]

The problem is norton can block the referer. Nothing you can do about this. On our site, we put a note on the download section stating if you have norton personal firewall, you will need to turn that feature off or disable the firewall in order to download. Basically, we check to see if the referer is from our own site when someone downloads, if not, we sent them to page for the file itself. We had so much BW usage from offsite linking we thought the least someone could do was actually check our site out

[Jeff Lange]

HTTP_REFERER comes from the browser, and not all browsers even send it, as well as some firewalls block it, it is not reliable.

[arkosh]

Oh damn that blows. Thanks for the info guys!