I'm not a Robot

[Dod101]

Can someone tell me why many sites need the confirmation (it's getting as bad as those online sites that need to set up an account if you want to buy some printer ink) that I am not a robot and why they have to have what is clearly a US import in the form of the stupid diagram they have where you are supposed to click the boxes that contain a crosswalk (whatever that is). It infuriates me.

Dod

[Midsmartin]

Simply.. because the internet is full of automated software that clicks links and fills in forms. IF website owners don't use these things, their databases and email inboxes get jammed with hundreds or thousands of spurious submissions.

Google is probably the biggest & best known provider of a free and trusted anti-robot "Captcha". They happen to be American, and so there is an American bias in the images they use.

[Dod101]

Simply.. because the internet is full of automated software that clicks links and fills in forms. IF website owners don't use these things, their databases and email inboxes get jammed with hundreds or thousands of spurious submissions.

Google is probably the biggest & best known provider of a free and trusted anti-robot "Captcha". They happen to be American, and so there is an American bias in the images they use.

Thanks that is helpful but any site that introduces a UK version of the Captcha which I assume is the stupid diagram would find that I, and I am sure many other UK users, would be biased towards.

Dod

[didds]

I cant hoinestly say that any such pitcure captcha wotsit despite being US centric has proved a challenge, over and above the usual vocuabulary eg didewalk/pavement, store front/shop front etc.

"click on the squares showing a vehicle/store front/animal" etc


Maybe of course Im just US-centric having seen far too much US TV in my childhpood and youth!

didds

[AF62]

Can someone tell me why many sites need the confirmation

I found I got more with certain privacy extensions. This page has some suggestions to solve - https://www.webnots.com/fix-im-not-a-ro ... le-search/

[pochisoldi]

Can someone tell me why many sites need the confirmation

I found I got more with certain privacy extensions. This page has some suggestions to solve - https://www.webnots.com/fix-im-not-a-ro ... le-search/

That website is pedalling incorrect/misleading information. Caveat Emptor (or more correctly Caveat lector).

Suggestion 1. "IP Address": - won't work all the commands shown may change the IP address of your computer, but they will simply change the private IP address of your computer, which gets translated into a public IP address by your router (google "Network address translation" or "NAT").
If you want to change your public IP address (as seen by Google and the rest of the world), this typically requires resetting your router.
If you do this, and the address does change, it will probably be the same block of IP addresses as your previous address.
In short - waste of time

Suggestion "2. Check Your Network"
Setting a static IP address on your computer won't work - see above

Suggestion "5. Use Google Public DNS"
DNS has got bugger all to do with captchas on Google searches

I sometimes get a captcha message when doing google searches - most often when using a smartphone on mobile data. This is due to my mobile service provider funnelling smartphone browsing through a handful of public IP addresses (look up "network address translation").
I just suck it up, tick the box, or wait for however many seconds, and then continue.

[Dod101]

Thanks. All this is now completely over my head but I now understand the reasons for the catchpas.
Dod