Image Surfer Pro User Manual

User's Manual Contents

• Image Surfer Pro Overview

• Image Surfer Pro Toolbar
  • File Operations
  • Image Surfer Pro Forms
    • Safe Surfing
    • Selecting Content
    • Directed Search
  • Processing Webpages
  • View Fusker Collection
  • Tools & Settings
    • Grabbing Page Data
    • User Preferences
      • Auto Ranging Configuration
      • Directed Search Configuration
      • Auto Optimize Configuration
      • Image Surfer Pro Forms
      • File Handling
      • Fusker Collection Views
      • Auto Collection Configuration
      • Media Sizing Configuraitons
      • User Preference Reference
  • Information
    • Check For Upgrade
  • Auto Range Override
  • URL Capture Bar

• Image Surfer Pro Fusker Collection View
  • Tree Segments
  • Tree Menu
    • Visualize
    • Auto Range
    • Modify
      • Numeric Fusks
      • List Fusks
    • Optimize
    • Organize
    • Split
    • Roll Up
    • Insert / Delete
    • Nudging

• Walk Throughs

• Processing Direct Images
• Processing Free Hosted Galleries
• Capturing Frame Video
• Processing Image Surfer Pro Forms
• Viewing Fusker Collections
• Removing Missing File References
• Using Auto Range Override
• Using The URL Capture Bar
• Rolling Up A Tree Branch
• Multiple Fusks Per URL Level

• Additional Topics

• Accessing Image Surfer Pro
• Copy Image URL Menu Extension
• How Segments Merge
• Missing And Broken Files
• Limitations of the Free Version
• Best Practices
• Definitions
• A True 64bit Application

Best Practices

Used correctly Image Surfer Pro will greatly increase your enjoyment of collecting and sharing media files which have been published to the Internet. However, it is important to use the tool in a respectful way to both ensure the publisher's copy right protection and avoid launching denial of service attacks on the servers which host the media you enjoy.

Unlike some of the competing software, Image Surfer Pro does not condone blasting web servers with unsolicited file requests for every conceivable text and numerical file name combination. While such behavior may seem to have few consequences to the user it is in fact quite detrimental and website administrators are taking increasingly aggressive defensive actions against such attacks which essentially constitute a denial of service attack on their servers.

It is not uncommon to have your IP Address blocked at least temporarily by a server if you conduct this type of activity. It may not be long before such blocks become permanent and require you to access the site through a different internet connection and request the site administrator unblock your address. Continued attacks could very easily result in you not being able to access any of the media hosted by a domain.

Remember your IP Address and credentials are passed in every HTTP request made and your information may be stored and tracked - especially if it is found to be conducting denial of service attacks on a regular basis. Without passing the information the Internet simply won't work and the Internet is not as anonymous as you might think - behave appropriately! It isn't uncommon for site admins to communicate and share information - they could share your IP Address as malevolent and you could find yourself blocked from the very media you wished to collect and enjoy.

Numeric Fusks

Few media file sequences contain hundreds or thousands of files. There is very little reason to set the {Size of Range} user value to large numbers. In fact many websites publish the number of images contained in a sequence on the Free Hosted Gallery landing page for the sequence. Use the Auto Range Override input on the Image Surfer Pro toolbar to tailor the size of numeric fusk created when you know the number of files in the sequence.

List Fusks

List fusked files are useful for files which are not numerically named. But unlike auto ranging for numerically named files, trying to automatically guess non-numerically named files will generally lead to a significant number of Server 404 File Not Found errors. It is recommended that you let Image Surfer Pro automatically build list fusks when files are added to directories or that you only manually build list fusks from known lists of valid file names (such as combining directory names into a single fusked list directory). Do not conduct searches for hidden or related files based on some preconceived list of likely names.

Limiting the Number of Files Referenced

Because Image Surfer Pro will attempt to access each of the files as specific media types, it may be safe to search and see if related media files exist and this is a natural extension of using Image Surfer Pro. However, it should be done responsibly by limiting the number of files referenced during your search. This can be done in two ways:

• Limit the size of the fusk you are using to search
• Limit the number of files per search page created

Because browsers will send simultaneous requests for multiple (maybe even all) files on the webpage it is trying to draw, it is important to limit the number of those requests which will generate Server 404 File Not Found errors. This can be done by using either a basic or guided view to look at only the first file in each sequence and also limiting the number of files placed on each page for that type of view (See the user's manual page for configuring Fusker Collection Views) when you are searching and not just enjoying your fusker collection.

Remove Missing File References

Missing file references may be generated by your use of Image Surfer Pro for several valid reasons, including:

• A previously valid file has been moved, renamed, or deleted
• A sequence of numerically named files is sparsely populated (not every number in the sequence has a matching file but many of them do)
• The number of files in the sequence was unknown so your search included some missing files or sets of files

In each of these situations, viewing your fusker collection will generate some Server 404 File Not Found errors. However, if you have been building and using fusker collections correctly the number of errors will not be sufficient to be labeled a denial of service attack.

In these situations it is important to remove the missing file references from your fusker collection to avoid having repeated attempts to access the same missing file be viewed as a denial of service attack. This can be done by simply manually deleting the fusker collection segments which reference the missing files.

In the case where a sequence of numerically named files contains both valid and missing file names, This example of removing missing file references can be used to clean up your fusker collection.

Free Hosted Galleries And Image Surfer Pro Forms

The safest and cleanest way to build fusker collections is using the button to process an Image Surfer Pro form. Using these tools will rarely access missing files as they retrieve the file names directly from the published website information. You will only access a missing file doing this, if a file is listed by a hosting domain but not actually present (truly missing).

By first creating the ISP Form using the button to create the form you gain the following advantages:

• Browsing continues in the same window
• You can immediately tell if media content visible on the original page is blocked from client side fusking because the files will not be present.
• You can more directly control which links are accessed by a Directed Search and which media files are added to your fusker collection.

When in doubt it is recommended you use the button. For sites your are familiar with and surf often using the button directly is often easier and as effective.

However, these tools may generate Server 403 File Forbidden errors. It is possible for webservers to inspect the browser and referring website credentials and deny access to files if that access is not directly from within their domain. Repeated access to files blocked in this way may also be interpreted as a denial of service attack and should be avoided by removing the file references from your fusker collection (or in the case of using Image Surfer Pro Forms not adding the references in the first place).

Respecting Frames and Pages

Frames and Pages within the Image Surfer Pro fusker collection are in many ways the exact same thing. Both are displayed using the <iframe> HTML construct, both will display anything IE can render, both have text description fields, and both can be made to dynamically size the frame to the size of the browser window. The only visual indication of a difference between the types is the icon used in the Fusker Collection View.

In a very real way a Page reference could be used to contain and display any of the other data types. Images would be constrained to the size of the window, videos would be scaled to the window, and frames would appear in exactly the same way.

So then, what really is the difference and when should one type or another be used in the fusker collection? Generally speaking, you can not manually create a Frame reference, but can create a Page reference. Frames are created in only two ways by Image Surfer Pro, direct collection using either the button or the URL Capture Bar. They are thus only created when Image Surfer Pro has been given HTML code which contained either an <iframe> or <embed> construct. On the other hand, Page references should then only be created when the data type of the URL is not known to be one of the other three data types. Doing so will make it clear that the exact data type is unknown and help future proof your fusker collection from later Image Surfer Pro updates which may provide additional functionality based on reference types.

Beacuse both Pages and Frames are active objects and displayed in frames which directly interact with the hosting server, we recommend that you collect frames only from tube sites (such as YouTube). There may be some cases where collecting them off an ISP Form would be useful as well. Though Image Surfer Pro provides a user configuration which allows you to collect them by default when processing webpages, we recommend this only be done when you have a clear understanding of the frames on the pages you are surfing.

Differences in Free and Full Versions

The primary differences between the Free and Registered versions of the software are their ability to build fusker collections. The Free version of the software is primarily a viewer for the fusker collection files. Many of the limitations placed on creating fusker collections are in place to limit the amount of denial of service issues which can arise. If you are using the free version primarily to view fusker collections created by others you are less likely to encounter these issues. If you are using the free verison as a test drive prior to obtaining the registered version you should be aware of the issues which can be avoided by the ability of the registered version to generate Image Surfer Pro Forms, process Free Hosted Galleries, and perform Directed Searches.