Passing referrer
information to specific Web pages in
Norton Internet Security™ and Norton
Personal Firewall™ 2002 and earlier
Situation:
This document explains how to allow
Norton Internet Security or Norton
Personal Firewall to pass referrer
information to a specific Web page. This
document applies to Norton Internet
Security or Norton Personal Firewall
version 2000, 2001 and 2002. See the
Note below if you have version 2003 or
2004.
Solution:
If you want to allow referrer
information to pass to a particular Web
page, you must create a rule for it.
To create a rule
-
Open Norton Internet Security or
Norton Personal Firewall.
-
Click Options.
-
Click Internet Security or Personal
Firewall. (This step is not always
needed.) The Options window appears.
-
Click Advanced Options.
-
Click the Web tab.
-
Click Add Site. A new site/domain
box appears.
-
Enter the name of the site that you
want to receive the referrer
information and click OK. That site
name appears in the left frame of
the Advanced Options window.
-
Click the name of the new site.
-
Click the Privacy tab.
-
Check the "Use these rules for..."
box.
-
Change the Referrer from "Block" to
"Permit." Your screen should look
something like this:
-
Click Apply, and then click OK.
-
Click OK to close the Options
window.
Technical Information:
How referrer information works
Referrer information is information that
a Web site sends to another Web site
when you click a link on the first Web
site to open the second Web site. When
you click a Web page, your browser makes
a note of the current page you are on
and sends that information to the server
of the new Web page. This way, the
server for the new Web page knows the
last Web page you viewed.
If you block referrer information, the
server of the page you are requesting to
see does not know what page you saw
last. By default, Norton Internet
Security and Norton Personal Firewall
block referrer information. However,
some Web pages require referrer
information before allowing you to view
the page.
For example, if you are on
www.symantec.com and click
www.microsoft.com, the browser sends
information to the server
www.microsoft.com. The information
includes the fact that you are currently
viewing the site www.symantec.com. If
you block referrer information, the
server www.microsoft.com does not "know"
that you were previously at
www.symantec.com. If the server
www.microsoft.com required this
information, your browser would not
display the Web page at
www.microsoft.com, and you might see an
error message.
