CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#wpfweb-controls
DrLazer
DrLazer

Reputation: 3123

What footprint does a C# WebBrowser control (wpf) leave for the web host

Sorry if the title of the question is a little misleading but I was struggling to fit what I am asking into a single sentance.

I have recently written an app to automate a bunch of administrative tasks I have to perform on a website, its WPF and makes use of the System.Windows.Controls.WebBrowser control. I am fairly happy with what I have so far it is saving me lots of time. However, whether using automation on this website is allowed or not is a bit of a grey area. I have read the terms of use quite closely and it states that any automation must follow the rules of the robots.txt file. They have also neglected to create a robots.txt file.

I have a valid account with this website and I can just as easily achieve the same result by sitting in front of my machine and manually doing the same thing, I don't feel like I am breaking any rules really. It has got me thinking though, what information does this control leave behind? Can the web hosts detect the automation and are there ways around it?

Thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 217

Answers (1)

Paulo Santos
Paulo Santos

Reputation: 11587

OK, so you've built a kinda bot that performs ADMINISTRATIVE tasks for you on your website, hosted by some hosting provider, right?

And you claim that you can achieve the same result, albeit slower, by performing the said task yourself.

If you're simply automating the task, then the memory "footprint" in the host is the same as if you were doing the task yourself.

However, there are ways to detect the use of a bot, that is, repetitive tasks that is being processed far faster than a human being could do. That's one way how they detect the usage of bots in, say, WoW.

Upvotes: 1

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