Technology report

Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

AOL implements XFF

As most Wikipedians already know, AOL users tend to change IPs with almost every edit, and IPs tend to get reused frequently. This plays havoc with our blocking system. The X-Forwarded-For (XFF) HTTP header is a technical solution to this.

Soon after Tim Starling's overhaul of the block system in July, Angela reported to wikien-l that AOL would supply XFF information. This was enabled as of 13 July (see earlier report). However, it appears that, for now, it applies only to about one third of AOL's customers; XFF information is not available for the other two thirds due to AOL's network infrastructure (which one knowledgable person characterized as "weird").

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