Detektor We hear a great deal of discussion these days concerning 0 iframes and far too much of it is very confusing. An iframe is an "inline frame". An iframe is essentially a separate webpage that is embedded within a main page. These are actually very common, you will see them inside PTP pages, these are visible in size, 1/3 page size or banner size and are the way iframes are meant to be used.
The cheating problem begins when these iframes are set at 0x0 pixels or less than 5x5. These are invisible and hundreds can be embedded into a page to do any variety of things. They can perform autosearches, run PTP pages or in some cases display pornography. Iframes can also be layered with each page containing its own iframes, these will almost crash or freeze your browser.
How do you know there are invisible iframes on a page that you visit? The first indication that there is iframe activity is to watch the status bar. If the page is taking forever to load and your status bar is listing a lot of urls loading (or trying to) it's very likely that you have landed on a framed page. To confirm that, right click on the page and select "view page source" from the drop down menu. If the page you are looking at is a timed PTR ad, you will need to select "view frame source" as the timer bar is the actual page and the ad in this case is a frame. Once you have your source code open (yes, it looks like complete gibberish) select edit from the tool bar and choose find. Type in iframe or simply frame. If you have a 0 iframe there it will look like this:
src=http://www.onebyonesearch.com/member/?username=xxxxx
width="0" height="0" frameborder="0">
</IFRAME>
Iframe cheaters have become a bit more clever lately and you may not be able to see the word "iframe" in the source code. If it is in javascript and it will appear as:
[A bunch of complete gibberish here]
function SetNewWords()
{
var NewWords;
NewWords=unescape(Words);
document.write(NewWords);
}
SetNewWords();
There is a variety of software and scripts that have been developed specifically
for the PTR industry to find 0 iframes and to decode the javascript that many
can be hidden in. This page is an excellent guide and contains the instructions
and the software which will alert you to the presence or iframes:
http://iframedetector.awardspace.com/
None of these scripts will work with Opera or Opera based browsers,
unfortunately.
If you wish, you can paste the url of the suspicious page into this and it can provide a breakdown of what is there: http://jutaky.no-ip.org/detektor.php This is still in the testing phase and not 100% reliable as there are still so many more variations of javascript that can slip through, but it is an excellent tool. If you encounter a string of "unescape" code, this handy program decodes it very nicely: http://www.hostingnewz.com/_temp/unescape.php
The most effective and versatile browser for detecting iframes and for protecting you from the harmful effects that may result from them is Mozilla Firefox with some very easy to use extensions. NoScript will block malicious javascript which will stop a lot of frame triggers in their tracks. Remember to enable javascript for your PTR programs and forums or you will not be able to use them properly. GreaseMonkey will be necessary if you wish to use one of the iframe detectors. JSView will enable you to see the source of javascript on webpages, this is not an extension for beginners however, it takes a practiced eye to use it effectively. View Dependancies will add an extra tab to your PageInfo view which is useful if something is not showing in the source code, but you just know there is something there.
Are there legitimate uses for a 0 pixel or 5 pixel iframe? Yes, they are often used for traffic tracing, or to initiate a pop up. Just because there is a suspicious iframe, doesn't necessarily mean that it is a form of cheating. Unfortunately, some forms of 0 iframe detection can give an alert when those legitimate frames are encountered.