Too Smart For My Own Good....

So, I decided to get "geeky creative' and try and write a script to crawl the Former Soviet Union New Stamp web site and grab stamp title information, stamp size and possibly even suck down the image.

Well, whoever runs the site doesn't seem to like people doing that and the server automatically banned me from the site.

The ban is at the IP address level usually, but Verizon can't seem to get me a new IP address no matter now many tricks they try on their back end...

I may be stuck using the site through a public proxy.

That's what I get for trying to be sneaky...

Another option is to try google's cache. Just do a search for the URL you're blocked from and click on the cache link.

What lanaguage did you write the script in?

Hear the "CRACK" of the whip!

Now get back to those provisionals !!

Python. I've taken quite a liking to it over perl. But I was calling wget, which pulls stuff local.

Provisionals? I'm supposed to make Provisional pages? :-)

Python is nice, I've done some quick stuff in it as well. I prefer C# for serious work though.

If you want, send me the code and I'll try running it. I have a few different IPs I have access to. Maybe by spreading it out over time, I can avoid triggering the server block.

It throws a 403 error (forbidden) every time you try and grab an image. I think after so many 403s the site just bans your IP address.

Excuse my ignorance, but is what you are doing, illegal?
or at best, not nice?
I think the webmaster there, was an SCF member at one time.

Like the Moonshiner says "Tain't illegal lessen you's gets caught!"

And you's got caught!"

Depends on the webmaster. Some don't care. Others are quite possessive of their content. Looking at what I downloaded, all the 403 errors were generated by the picture grab, so it looks like he didn't like me grabbing the photos, which I don't need. I just need the dimensions more than anything else.

Seems the ban was temporary. I can get back on again.