[Solved] On the uncanny disappearance of Wayback Machine redirects

[Drugwash]

You're welcome!

If you analyze the structure of the links (all filters disabled), you'll see it's one URL calling another URL. In certain conditions, add-ons/filters/etc consider this practice as suspicious and simply remove everything but the latest "readable" URL from the whole link, that is why clicking the webarchive links will always go to the original URL instead of the redirected one.

I've never used Proxomitron so can't speak about it, but in case of Redirect Cleaner which I always use, one can always see the usable address (URL) when hovering a link in a page. By toggling the Redirect Cleaner button in the statusbar, the address will change accordingly and will show whether it's gonna run through webarchive (when disabled) or the original URL, stripped from redirector (when enabled). This goes for any other page/service that uses such redirection, so it's best to keep the idea in mind and always check whether the redirection is allowed and it's safe to follow it.

In addition, NoScript can also block some redirections, but it usually displays that in a topbar, with a button to allow it. That one can be missed too, sometimes.

[dencorso]

I believe it should be possible to create some exclusion in Proxomitron's rules for the Wayback Machine. But I'm no expert in it so, we'll have to wait for herbalist to chime in about it sometime (btw, I've see no posts by him since last year, at least... hoe all is well!). In any case it should be pointed out that links to content inside the Wayback Machine are one of the rare occasions in which url redirects are used on purpose, with no sinister intent behind them.

[Monroe]

OK ... thanks for more clarification. You guys have the knowledge of how stuff really works and I learn new things along the way. After jaclaz went into exactly what was going on and also Drugwash, I went to dencorso's Post #45 to check it all out. Here are my results with hovering the curser over the first link. I never knew that there could be something before http:// , just never noticed it before ... so now I can easily check or look for that quickly in the future.

From the 1st link in Post #45 :

With Proxomitron running normal ...

http://www.utdallas.edu/~jeremy.bryan.smith/articles/explorer_spy.html

-----------------

With Proxomitron running in Bypass mode ...

http://web.archive.org/web/20050212215255/http://www.utdallas.edu/~jeremy.bryan.smith/articles/explorer_spy.html

... really great stuff here for me and maybe others for the future.

dencorso ... I have also been wondering about herbalist ... it's really been a long time since he posted anything. I sent him a message with some questions about security but he never read it. Hope all is well.

thanks

Edited April 29, 2013 by duffy98