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get computer name?

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petbully

Technical User
Dec 6, 2009
7
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US
Hi,

When I go to some secure website the first time, I got the message 'The computer you are using is not registered with us.' Hoy do they detect that, by getting computer name?
I want to detect the computer that use my website. Is it javascript or vbscript? Anyone has sample code?

Thanks in advance
 
Maybe they use the IP, maybe it's just a fake, who knows.

Btw, do you realize that the computer name is something that can be easily changed and doesn't identify anything?

Cheers,
Dian
 
I want to detect the computer that use my website.

Well, how about you giving a bit more detail about what you want to detect?

Obviously, you can detect that a computer has visited your website, but what specifics about it do you wish to know?

Various things you can detect (amongst others) are screen resolution, OS, browser in use, IP address, etc... but what information do you actually need?

Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch:
Code Couch Tech Snippets & Info:
 
The site that I mentioned is ingdirect.com. After you enter user name then you will get that message.
I have an asp page that allow users to edit info. What I want to do is to control to let only one user work on this info, one user a time. Only when user A done then user B can come in. Since my system allow users to share logon id and password so I cannot use logon id to detect who's editing the info.
 
Call me old-fashioned, but why not simply stop users from sharing their IDs, and give each person their own ID?

Then, you can simply stop multiple logins with a single ID and you have your solution.

It's a well-used and well-proven pattern... so why use something that (admittedly without knowing the bigger picture) seems to have a security flaw (not to mention zero auditability or accountability)?

Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch:
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>>why not simply stop users from sharing their IDs

This's out of question, too late for that.
 
Hi

petbully said:
Only when user A done then user B can come in.
Another question is, how could you know that user A finished ? Given that you can not force them to keep their passwords secret, I can not believe you can force them to always signal that they finished.

Feherke.
 
I agree with all the experts statements made. Below is something I did for intranet site

Code:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<SCRIPT>
function PROCRun() {
   var shell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
   var user= shell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%UserName%");
   var comp= shell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%ComputerName%")
   document.getElementById('userInfo').innerHTML = ('user: ' + user + ' comp: ' + comp);
}
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY ONLOAD='PROCRun();'>
<div id=userInfo>
</div>
</BODY>
</HTML>
 
Why not simply remove the need for a login altogether?

Take this scenario: Right now, Fred, John, Sue, or Mike could all log on using Fred's password and delete everything, but you'd never know who did it, so there's no accountability.

Even if you could detect the computer name, given the users share their password for your web site, they probably share passwords for their computers as well, meaning detecting which PC they are using wouldn't give any insight into the "perp" (apologies for the use of an Americanism).

Therefore, you may as well simply remove all logins and simply have an "honesty checkbox", e.g. "I agree that I am allowed to log on to this system", because it gives you just as much security as you have right now - i.e. not much.

Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch:
Code Couch Tech Snippets & Info:
 
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