Go where you are forbidden to go – User Agent Switcher
First a bit of rant……what recently happened was that I was just browsing along for some info I wanted and I came to this site which required me to enter my mailing address to add a comment and since I wanted to put a question as a comment…..I decided to give one of my lesser used mailing address…..but woe is me….i began to get lots of SPAM messages on that ID which really pissed me off and I decided to search for solutions which has led me to this entire Disposable Email – Online Anonymity Series
We have already covered disposable Email addresses and shared logins now its time for a more sinister approach……..*insert devilish smile here*….
Scenario : You’re researching on a topic on the web and you click a link to an article on a site in the search results but instead of getting the article you get a screen asking you to login or register. so what do you do ??
Solution : You can either give your real address*coughcough Stupid coughcough* or give a temporary Email ID or use a Shared Login *coughcough Smart….oh..wait i dont need to cough here*. Ya….all those are good approaches but have you ever stopped to wonder that how did the link appear on the search results page…..i mean if the page requires you to register before viewing the content then how did the search result page manage to get access to its content…..hmmm ??
The reason is simple…..the Search bot has access to pages that you are forbidden to view without proper credentials *hint hint*. There are many things the Search bot can see and have access to that the regular Site visitor does not. For example, a Forum might want Search Engines to index it’s content, but yet has it’s content blocked from the visitor (non-members). In this case, the Forum’s content is viewable by Search Engines, but not to the average Joe who might be visiting. So if we could just take a walk in those Search Engine’s Shoes, we might just find our VIP pass right?
Great……so how do we do it ?? In order to walk in a Search Bot’s shoes, we need to change the header information that is presented to the site upon arrival. But since modifying Headers is not so straight forward for normal users….we are going to use some “External” help or rather a browser add-on called as ” User Agent Switcher “
The way to use this add-on is simple and straight forward….First you need a browser…..then add the foll add-on or extension to it : Firefox or Chrome or IE .
Now to use it…..i’m going to use Firefox as my Demo Browser…..After you have installed the add-on, you have to go to Tools. There you shall see a menu to change your browser’s agent type….by default you have the option to mask your browser as Google Bot or Yahoobot or MSNbot (You can add more!!). You can also make your browser appear as different versions of IE or iPhone…..you have many options.
Lets try a demo, i will try to access a site which does not allow me to see its content without registration…..
Before
After (I love doing this :))
and Voila……as you can see that even though you are not registered you can see the content (just as a GoogleBot might…..if i may add). No registrations….No giving out personal information…..and most importantly…NO SPAM……
This is byfar the best method i know and use it continually….hope its useful to you too…..Any doubts….let me know in the comments….till then Stay Sharp!!!!!
Temporary E-Mail Accounts
Scenario : There is this website which has a promo going on and you want to take advantage of the offer but the site asks you to enter your email address and you don’t want to give out your personal email for fear of getting spammed.
Solution : I am sure many of you have faced this problem before. You want to take advantage of an offer but dont want to give out your personal ID. You cannot trust any site to keep your id private. they are more likely to subscribe you to a mailing list. Also, one more concern is that millions of spam bots crawl the web daily to find email addresses and then bombard them with spam emails thus destroying their efficiency and creating problems for users. so you just cannot have your mail ID lying about.
The solution to this problem would be to give an alternate email ID but that would require you to register a seperate account and keep on checking it periodically for spam!!!! Wouldn’t it be better if you could just use a temporary and disposable email account ?? Well, it certainly is and here are some of the best options you have :
1. Mailinator : This is by far the best service i have come across. To use their service you just have to think of any name that comes to your head and append it with @mailinator.com. Thats it. Your email address is ready and you can use this id as your disposable id. No hassle of an extra step to create, maintain or dispose of the id. The account remains for infinite duration.
2. Trash Mail : Trash mail is also the same as mailinator. but the only problem i find with them is that their domain name keeps on changing. Apart from that no issues. Also they have this secure email account feature but for that you need to register…..not worth the hassle. The account has a lifetime between 2 hours and 3 days
3. Guerilla Mail : This also falls in the “Think of a random name and use it ” category. However it comes with a one hour time frame. You can read and reply to e-mails that are sent to the temporary e-mail address within the given time frame.
For the above 3, you dont need to register but for the next 2 you need to register with an email ID ( Hey, Its good to have options…..besides you can always register with one of the above 3 ID’s 😉 )
4. Spambox : For this, you need to register with an id and it will generate a special spambox for you. You need to specify a time frame for it(from 30 minutes to 1 year). What it does is………that the spambox will exist for that time frame and all mails sent to that id will be forwarded to your registered email id but once the time frame is up, the spambox is deleted and you want get any unsolicited mails. You can always extend the time frame or delete the account before the time frame is up.
5. Jetable : Jetable is also similar to spambox but has a time frame of 1 hour to 1 month and cant be extended or deleted before time.
6. 10 Minute Mail : 10 minute mail does not fall in either of the above two categories as it itself generates random accounts for you which will strictly last for a duration of 10 minutes. You can keep on extending it every ten minutes, though.
Hope this helps you avoiding registering with sites you dont trust and keep spam at bay……till then stay sharp