Textdrive: an anti-Java ISP?

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Textdrive: an anti-Java ISP?

Pat Chanezon: The details are in my post to the ROME dev mailing list: it seems like mod_security, as configured at the TextDrive ISP refuses HTTP get with a user-agent containing the string 'java'! How how should java people interpret that? I guess as a compliment: if mod_security forbids Java in the user-agent, it means that even spammers and rogue spiders ended up dumping Perl for their nasty HTTP business to use Java instead: Java everywhere ;-)"

I burned several hours trying to figure out why Roller Planet (and specifically the Triangle Blogs Aggregator) wouldn't work against Textdrive hosted blogs, only to learn that the reason is an anti-Java filter. So my interpretation is %@#(*&!!! Textdrive is not our friend. They don't support Java and they appear to be actively filtering out Java clients. Perhaps I'm wrong and mod_security is the culpret?

PS. By changing my user-agent string to "Roller Planet 1.1-dev" (I considered the user-agent string "Textdrive s****" but that's just rude), I was able to get beyond the filter.

Dave Johnson in Java 02:51AM Feb 23, 2005 Comments [5]
Tags: Java

Comments:

You'll get the same kind of thing from google searches or google news which return a 403, do it from php (or at least the last time I tried) - no problem.. hmmmm more java scrapers than php? Its such a false economy, it's so easy to change your host header on a request - all they've really done is make the whole world look like it's using IE.

Posted by Richard Osbaldeston on February 23, 2005 at 11:04 AM EST #

There's nothing built into mod_security that's stopping Java clients. If it is mod_security that's responding like this (since there's no evidence to show mod_security is present at all, and it's possible to achieve the same effect using other means) then it's the way they've configured it. Therefore not my fault ;)

Posted by Ivan Ristic on February 23, 2005 at 01:05 PM EST #

Textdrive hosts a number of high profile sites and they recently got completely hammered by comment spammers See the thread here.

It's definitely a drastic solution and explains my recent absence from javablogs.com, but changing your user-agent isn't that hard is it? Plus it's generally a good idea anyway. I'll file a support request to get the details from them.

Posted by Michael Koziarski on February 24, 2005 at 12:12 AM EST #

Here's jason's response:

Yes, it was just over the weekend that there was a distributed spam hit and the only shared characteristic was Java as the user agent.

Posted by Michael Koziarski on February 24, 2005 at 01:24 AM EST #

OK, so perhaps I over-reacted before having my requisite dosage of caffeine. I will apologize by striking the work s**ks from my post. I want Textdrive to support Java (they support everything but Java), not filter it out.

Posted by Dave Johnson on February 24, 2005 at 02:11 AM EST #

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