|
Are
you being told you've reached
your guestbook posting limit?
We get a lot of email
from people -- especially AOL users -- who tell us that when they try to post to our guestbook they get an error
message telling them they've already exceeded their posting limit even though they've not even posted a single
message yet.
Has that happened to you? If so, or if you're just worried that it might happen, please keep reading...
Here's the problem: Our guestbook has a feature in it that helps us keep people from spamming the guestbook with
repeated postings. One of the ways that that feature works is that it keeps track of the unique IP address of all
persons who post to the guestbook and it won't allow too many postings from any given IP address in certain period
of time. Some Internet Service Providers -- AOL, in particular -- allow multiple of their users to share a single
IP address. And when two or more of those users sharing the same IP address try to post to our guestbook, only
the first (and perhaps the second) person using that IP address is able to do so. All others sharing that IP address
are thought by our guestbook script to be the same person trying a third and/or successive times.
You see, normally whenever anyone connects to the Internet, they are assigned a unique IP address by their Internet
Service Provider (ISP). For as long as they're connected to the Internet in that particular dialup or other type
of modem-connected session, that unique IP address is theirs and theirs alone until they finally disconnect from
the Internet, at which time their ISP typically puts the IP address they were using back into a pool and assigns
it to some other user anywhere from several minutes to, usually, several hours later.
Some ISPs -- -- use what are called "proxy" servers which they insert in between their
users and the Internet. Proxy servers are usually used as a security measure. But some ISPs,
also use them as a means of allowing more people to use the Internet than the number of IP address that they
actually own would normally allow.
When it happens it means that multiple users share a single IP address -- which is not the industry standard. AOL is one of the very, very few ISPs
on the Internet that utilizes this particularly irritating method of connecting its users to the web.
So, as you can see, it's not us. Everything we do on this site conforms to industry
standards.
There's really nothing we can (or are willing) to remedy the problem. However, sometimes simply waiting a few minutes
and then trying again is all it takes. Try that and see what happens. If that doesn't do it, trying waiting again.
Sooner or later everyone sharing your IP address will have finished posting and the guestbook's IP address counter/clock
will have timed-out and you'll finally be able to post.
We're sorry it's such a pesky problem for you but, honestly, it's not our fault. Complain to whoever your
ISP is.
Click here to return to the guestbook.
|