New Microsoft Spider?

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Originally posted by My Log
195.224.115.98 - - [16/Apr/2004:12:49:02 +0100] "OPTIONS /buying HTTP/1.0" 200 179 "-" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider Cache Manager"
195.224.115.98 - - [16/Apr/2004:12:49:03 +0100] "GET /_vti_inf.html HTTP/1.0" 404 - "-" "Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MS FrontPage 4.0)"
195.224.115.98 - - [16/Apr/2004:12:49:04 +0100] "POST /_vti_bin/shtml.exe/_vti_rpc HTTP/1.0" 404 - "-" "MSFrontPage/4.0"
195.224.115.98 - - [16/Apr/2004:12:49:04 +0100] "OPTIONS /buying/house-buying-checklist.html HTTP/1.0" 200 5667 "-" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1"

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New MS spider? Anyone else had this? Whats an OPTIONS request?

It's not a spider. OPTIONS is someone looking for a way to access your server. Something to do with frontpage extensions or something. Can't remember exactly.

Cheeky beggars, no FP here thou...

IIS servers with FP extensions installed are riddled with security holes.

What exactly are FP extensions? I've seens hosts advertise them but I haven't worked out what they are... Does anyone have any examples?

Developing with MS Front Page in conjuction with FP extensions installed on the live IIS server help non-programmers achieve functionality such as storing submitted form data, polls, etc. Or so I've been told, I've never used them.

In theory not a bad idea but FP extensions have always been a red alert security hole for the past few years. I'm surprised hosts would want to deal with it... maybe they've become more secure. But any IIS server I've worked with, that will always be my #1 task to uninstall FP extensions.

That why you can turn them on/off then? On the three hosts I've been with, that's been the case anyway.

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Originally posted by Mike
That why you can turn them on/off then?

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Likely.