Hi,

you know how geocitiese and some sites have you type in a number from some images that get generated
before you can sign up with the host?

they always say it's for security or other. but i was wondering what it was for? i think it was to stop
automatic registrations? how does it work? how do you install that sort of thing on a web host?

Hello,

Yes, you are correct, that is to stop automatic scripts from creating accounts. It makes sure that there is a human on the other end. Since those numbers are generated randomly, it would be hard for a script to find it and place the information in the right place.

I could see it being done by someone who has experience in coding. The actual concept would be easy, to have it generate a random sequence of 4-5 numbers each time the page was loaded. The "coding" part would be to have the script recognize the right number on each page.

Although I am sure that they will not release any code to you, might want to shoot an email to geocities (or paypal, as they do it as well), and they might be able to point you in the right direction.

Hope this helps.

Eric