Frontpage forms: security issues?

[tony c]

Hi,

I would like to add a Form to my website (www.macbiophotonics.ca) to
allow users to register from the webpage rather than a PDF. It seems
pretty straightforward to implement in terms of the html.

However, my IT guy says that enabling Frontpage Extensions on the
server to allow the form to be emailed to me will mean the website
will become a spam tornado? I was wondering, how can we secure the
site avoid this?

Thanks,
Tony

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

Use server-side scripting to process the form (ASP, ASP.net, PHP, etc.

--
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Thomas A. Rowe
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage

http://www.Ecom-Data.com
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[.._..]

Hi,

I would like to add a Form to my website (www.macbiophotonics.ca) to
allow users to register from the webpage rather than a PDF. It seems
pretty straightforward to implement in terms of the html.

Easy enough to do with FrontPage

However, my IT guy says that enabling Frontpage Extensions on the
server to allow the form to be emailed to me will mean the website
will become a spam tornado? I was wondering, how can we secure the
site avoid this?

There isn't much to secure and your IT guy is wrong. You will get SOME
random submissions and spam in the forms. However, the forms do not allow
spammers to send to just anywhere, so it is of little use to the email
spammers. Only the guys trying to get their links in your site via
"guestbook" applications are interested in those forms.

Depending on your tolerance for maintaining the site and deleting an errant
form submission or two, you can use a third party form handler and still use
FrontPage.

Your IT guy is probably ignorant of how FP extensions work and is therefore
throwing up excuses about why he doesn't want to use them.