Computer Hope

Other => Other => Topic started by: Computer Hope Admin on March 25, 2008, 02:56:19 AM

Title: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 25, 2008, 02:56:19 AM
While writing a new document for Computer Hope I thought it would be helpful to have a script locally that would display the users IP and hostname. After writing the simple script to do this, I thought I'd expand it some more and other useful information such as OS, browser, and plug-in versions.

Below is a link to the script, which is still a work in progress. Let me know if you encounter any errors or know any other information that can be obtained from browser environmental values or Javascript.

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/systeminfo.cgi

Known issues:
- Not sure why but Windows Media Player version doesn't display in Firefox on my machines here. Need WMP plugin.
- IE seems to open the page a lot slower than Firefox. How IE handles some plugins.

If your ISP is unknown and you're using a popular ISP let me know so I can add it. Right now just manually entered a few ISPs that I could think of off the top of my head. I'm generating this information from the hostname.

Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Carbon Dudeoxide on March 25, 2008, 04:17:54 AM
Nice script. You're right with Firefox displaying Windows Media Player version. It works with my IE6 though.

It also didn't recognized my ISP. Other sites can recognize it though.

Everything else looks good to me.
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Kip on March 25, 2008, 03:15:25 PM
It worked fine except for detecting my ISP, "PeoplePC".
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: patio on March 25, 2008, 03:40:18 PM
Worked fine on this end...WMP was reported as null...
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Sidewinder on March 25, 2008, 04:31:37 PM
Same results on both FF and IE:

Shockwave and DevalVR came up null
ISP came up unknown

 8)
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: WillyW on March 25, 2008, 05:32:32 PM
Under "System Information",   operating system was blank.
Other four entries there appeared to be ok.

(OS here is Win98SE)

Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 25, 2008, 06:40:53 PM
First, thank you everyone for your comments, it's helped a lot. :) I updated the ISP section of the script so it should detect pretty much anything since it's simply now going to be linking from the hostname.

Quote
It worked fine except for detecting my ISP, "PeoplePC".
Should show something now. Although it seems as though it will probably be detected as Level3. I assume that's who PeoplePC is leasing the lines through?? Not sure.

Quote
Under "System Information",   operating system was blank.
Other four entries there appeared to be ok.

(OS here is Win98SE)

That's really interesting and I'm not sure exactly what would be causing that. I added and enabled a debug mode would you mind copying and pasting the text under "debug" WillyW?

Thanks again.
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: WillyW on March 25, 2008, 06:47:18 PM
Quote from: Computer Hope Admin

...

That's really interesting and I'm not sure exactly what would be causing that. I added and enabled a debug mode would you mind copying and pasting the text under "debug" WillyW?

Done.   
PM already sent.
:)

Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Broni on March 25, 2008, 06:58:48 PM
Very nice :)
IE reported everything correctly, in FF, WMP reported as null.
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Carbon Dudeoxide on March 25, 2008, 08:53:12 PM
My ISP is correct now but WMP is now reported as null.

It showed it before....
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 25, 2008, 10:10:00 PM
Yeah not sure yet what is causing WMP to report as null in Firefox, my only assumption is it has something to do with the lack of ActiveX?
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 25, 2008, 10:55:38 PM
Found a fix for WMP showing null in Firefox. Apparently you need the WMP plugin for it to properly be detected with newer versions (10+) of WMP.

Plugin link:
http://port25.technet.com/pages/windows-media-player-firefox-plugin-download.aspx

Also posted the link on the systeminfo page and have updated it so script logs any future Unknowns so I manage it better int he future.
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Carbon Dudeoxide on March 25, 2008, 10:59:47 PM
with newer versions (10+) of WMP.
I have WMP 9 though
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 25, 2008, 11:06:29 PM
Huh. Interesting. I'm assuming you're running Firefox. Have you tried running that plugin to see if it helped?
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Kip on March 26, 2008, 05:12:35 PM
Should show something now. Although it seems as though it will probably be detected as Level3. I assume that's who PeoplePC is leasing the lines through?? Not sure.

You are correct, it detects my ISP as "Level 3".
I did a little research and it seems that "PeoplePC" and "Earthlink" both use "Level 3" for their internet service.
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 26, 2008, 05:14:05 PM
Huh. That is interesting, learn something new every day. :)
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Carbon Dudeoxide on March 26, 2008, 10:02:22 PM
Huh. Interesting. I'm assuming you're running Firefox. Have you tried running that plugin to see if it helped?
I've installed it and it still wont work  :o
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 26, 2008, 10:03:09 PM
Huh. Interesting. Is this on a Windows computer or Linux?
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Carbon Dudeoxide on March 26, 2008, 10:12:19 PM
*GASP* Linux???                ::)

Windows XP
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Carbon Dudeoxide on March 26, 2008, 10:14:09 PM
Oh hey, it works! My bad.

9,0,0,3354
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 26, 2008, 11:25:06 PM
Carbon: Heh, no problem. I was really scratching my head on that one.

Big updates added:

While answering another post from a user about their JavaScript not working I thought it would be helpful for this page to also list the JavaScript version. So now should display JavaScript version.

- Added Color Depth listing.

- Added full plugin listing that JavaScript is able to detect using the navigator.plugins option. This is listed under the original plugin table. Unfortunately this feature does not work in Internet Explorer, but does work in Firefox and Opera.

 *** Would anyone happen to have the beta of IE8 installed that they could test this page out. I'm curious if a more up-to-date version of JavaScript or more support in the new version would allow for this feature to work.

Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 27, 2008, 11:05:41 PM
Been getting a lot of feedback on this feature so added some additional features. Primarily spent a lot of time tweaking the detection of *nix OS and other OS detection.

Some other things I've added.
- Browser encryption strength
-VBscript detection
-Detection for StumbleUpon, Zune, Creative Zen, and several dozen other user agent variables. Most only visible when viewing page in IE.
-Language detection
-Script hides features such as the full javascript plugin detection in browsers not supported in.
-Additional logging for catching data not being matched

Still found at:

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/systeminfo.cgi

Trying to find a reliable way to give more components and/or plugin listings for IE users using VBScript, but not as easy as I was planning on. :)

Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Broni on March 28, 2008, 03:50:09 PM
Very nice :)
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Sidewinder on March 28, 2008, 04:08:25 PM
Nathan,

A few things I've noticed. Everthing works fine in FF but in IE, when I click on the script the Java console opens. In addition the qttask (Quick Time) resets in msconfig, to starting up at boot time.

For the truly paranoid among us, exactly what is that script doing?  :o
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 28, 2008, 08:37:47 PM
Huh. That's really interesting that your system is opening the Java console. I'm assume you're running an older version of Java (what Java and IE version are you running)?

For the truly paranoid ;) there is absolutely no need to worry. All the script is doing is reading your user agent header from your browser to gain many of the values and for the plugins it's simply using JavaScript to get the values. There really is no way these types of scripts could manipulate anything with any of the plugins you have on the computer. I'd assume if values are getting reset by something on your computer.

However, if anyone else is encountering this please let me know. All my machines here have not encountered anything abnormal like this.

Update:

I just finished going through the logs of visitors to see if the script is missing anything and I've seen a few users who I've been able to tell from their user agent header that are infected with spyware. The script will now report if these are detected (funwebproducts/simbar/iebar) and link the user to the spyware page on where to get protection.

I also spent time revamping the ISP detection. Had quite a lot of fun spending at least 2 hours on one line of code (shown below). Heck of a way to spend a Friday night. :)

elsif ($striphost =~ /\.([a-z0-9\-]{3,25})((\.[a-z]{2,3}){1,2}?)$/i) {

- Added platform detection for *nix systems
- Added and corrected other minor things

Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on March 31, 2008, 11:41:20 PM
Have posted another major updated of this script (v1.1). Script will now detect additional plugins including VRML and X3D plugins. Also updated spyware / adware detection with a few more adware programs I've seen users come in with. Script also now displays the current version of each plugin to help with comparisons for users wanting to know if they're running the latest version of a plugin. Finally, did a few other minor updates and adjustments to the operating system detection and ISP detection.
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on April 01, 2008, 12:17:21 PM
Did some additional updates to the script (v1.2a), corrected some minor issues including the resolution and color depth not showing for some users and added platform and cookies enabled boxes. Script has also now been added to several different Computer Hope pages including the main Online help page: http://www.computerhope.com/oh.htm
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on April 08, 2008, 11:31:42 PM
Needs some additional help testing update to system information script, now version *beta* 2.0. I rewrote the plugin detection table so versions are now displayed with periods instead of comas and now will also indicate if the plugin needs to be updated or installed. This is where I'd appreciate if you'd look to verify it is correctly identifying if you're up-to-date or not.

Still at:

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/systeminfo.cgi

Thanks
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Broni on April 08, 2008, 11:37:08 PM
This is mine:


[recovering space - attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: homer on April 08, 2008, 11:57:33 PM
i dont know if this has been mentioned, i havent read all of the posts, but i believe under the "Update?" header, it should say "needs updating" and not "needs updated." its just sounds a little more grammatically correct, thats all.
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on April 09, 2008, 12:45:18 AM
Awesome. Thanks for the feedback guys. I've changed it to "needs updating" as suggested homer.

Fantastic screen shot Broni, really helped out. Think this will be a little harder than I originally anticipated, but with some modifications I'll make it easier for myself. the "1" are place holders for when you're running a later version then the script things is available. I was unaware of the new Silverlight update (this is why I think the script will be great because hard to keep track of all the plugin updates).

Am I correct in assuming you're running Windows Vista? Going to have to make a clause for each of the Windows versions I guess because each version of Windows is going to have a different latest version.  :-\

Thanks again guys, still working on some of the updates, but have updated more.

Keep the feedback coming. :)
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Broni on April 09, 2008, 05:23:49 PM
Yes, this is from Vista.
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on April 09, 2008, 10:38:51 PM
Thanks again. I've updated the script once again. I've had to break the different operating systems up since so many different versions available for each OS and variant. So right now broken into: 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Linux / Unix (still buggy), and Macintosh platforms.

Title: Re: System information script
Post by: homer on April 09, 2008, 11:41:01 PM
do you have machines to test all those OS's?
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Broni on April 10, 2008, 04:57:33 PM
I can provide screenshots from 98, 2K, XP, and Vista.
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on April 14, 2008, 10:58:04 AM
Sure that'd be appreciated. Normally I'd have a setup with every Version of Windows 3.x but I haven't moved all those boxes to my new place yet. Need to really get that done. ;)
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on August 05, 2009, 04:42:56 PM
While updating the system information script with later plugin information I also decided to add some features I've read people wanting as well as add some more.

* In the plugins section now on the far right of the table will be download links, which will open a new window directly to the place to download the plugin. This should make things a little more simple for getting the latest version.

*When viewing this page with Firefox the Additional Plugin information section will now link each of the files to the process tool to get additional information about each of the plugin files, if needed.

* If the Plugin is "Not installed" instead of showing this in red as a threat it'll now show it as orange.

* Fixed some other minor issues with plugin detection.
Title: Re: System information script
Post by: Computer Hope Admin on November 18, 2009, 05:09:59 AM
I've updated this script some more to add some additional functionality and capabilities. Including the ability to show the Country, city, latitude, and longitude of your ISP (if found) as shown below.

Country: HUNGARY (HU)
City: Budapest
Latitude: 47.5
Longitude: 19.0833

If this is not found it will not display this information.

If you all don't mind testing this script once again to make sure it works properly it'd be greatly appreciated and at the same time may remind you to do some updates. :)

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/systeminfo.cgi