The GlobalSCAPE form server is still up and operational.
Works like a charm on several sites I work on. GlobalSCAPE can and will continue to SUPPORT the program they have been selling for years in a few ways as stated in their announcement. For example, if you have forms on your site they will continue to work until at LEAST July 1, 2008 through their form server. (You can always change out your form and not interrupt your webpages!)
I went to your site and sent a form, then also sent you an email directly using my email program and the address you assigned in the form page. Let us know if you got either email.
What you can do:1) change the names of your FIELDS... your code shows value="firstName,lastName,email
,website url,website url 2,website url 3,mailingList" Try removing the spaces from the names. TO:
websiteurl, websiteurl2, websiteurl3 Improper naming CAN cause other problems so it is likely this is YOUR problem.
2) Check your own personal spam filter or JUNK mail filter. AND don't forget to check another one...at the ISP/website where the form is being sent. The forms that you are not getting may be getting caught by a spam filter offered by your ISP (AOL, Earthlink, etc have built-in spam filters, etc) instead of being sent on to you.
I have mcafee on one machine with spam filter and it DOES NOT learn about spam well! Always catches things I have told it to leave alone! Including some of my webmail!
3) Also check the email address you asked for in the email in the form itself (double click the form placeholder to open it in CSB). When you build the form, you do not use the cutesitebuilder address, you use YOUR email address. The form will leave your website go to the GS form server then bounce to YOUR address. Try a different address in the form.
4) Note that there is a limit on how many forms can be sent per hour! This is partial spam protection. So don't try over and over and over. That WOULD be seen as spam and would be blocked.
You can consider using other forms options BEFORE the form server goes away.
Right now, your forms are being PROCESSED by GlobalSCAPE. Their server is used to push that form to YOUR email address. It offers us very basic form services that meet the MAJORITY of needs for basic users. Even offers minimal security from spammers. "The Trellix and CSB forms are very basic and have no such protections. HOWEVER, the server that processes the forms does have a few protections like limiting the size (no more than 20 fields) and limiting the number of times the form can be submitted (no more than 10 per hour). This protects your site from being pulled down by your host for spamming, but does not prevent a spammer from getting 10 emails out before being stopped." But the standard CSB form does NOT protect your email address! Spambots can grab it ANY TIME they find your site!
You have 2 other options that offer more features: 1)
Use another off-site server to process your forms. Lots of them. Some paid, some free. These sites would act like the GlobalSCAPE server does, sending your form information through thier server on to your email addy. One of these services,
cutandpastescripts.com is demonstrated here.
- cutandpastescripts.com is not taking new customers, yet the demo of the form is shown and linked to on samisite.com because as I said in the other posts, that site is one of MANY 3rd party solutions. I keep the sample up to show it can be done.
A Google search came up immediately with another service that is online and functional, and has a privacy statement that says they will not use your or your visitors information for spam: responders.com I have not used the service but it is essentially the same as the other one mentioned. Sign up, design a form, grab the code THEY give YOU, and put it into your web page using INSERT HTML feature in CSB and you have an active form.
2)
Run a form script on your OWN website to process forms. Bright side...more control, more options. Down side...You must install the script and you must maintain control or risk your site being pulled down by the host for spamming! You must make sure the script you use is SECURE. If it can be broken and used to send several thousand emails by a spambot, you are responsible for the scripts you run. You must update and stay on guard.
- Use a CGI/Perl type form script. Lots are free...and very insecure! Some are paid with more security.
- Use a PHP type form script. In my opinion, this is the BEST option. So far this offers the best protection from spambots. MANY MANY MANY scripts offered.
I will not RECOMMEND a form script to you. Form scripts come and go and may be secure today and be broken tomorrow. You might consider UltimateFormMail.com script because of the good reputation over several years now for security and safety. Plus the cost is reasonable for the features the script offers. The author provides support through an online forum, and has videos to demonstrate feature settings. Provides a 15 day trial and even offers installation (for a price). It's price point is affordable for its many features.
Basically the FORM code is the same...Same input fields for your visitor and they would not see a difference that way. But the code you would purchase (if your host allows a PHP form code) does MANY things for you:
- would pull the data from the form and verify it
- check for inserted extra coding (spammers try to force thier code into your form to send to 10-200-500 people at one time using YOUR form),
- check for changes to the form/content (try to send it to other address instead of yours)
- keeps your email address private
- allows you to require certain fields
- allows you to send automated responses and/or copy to customer that is sending the form.
- and more....etc.
There are 3 parts to a form (made with CSB)
-
The header (defines which order the fields are sent to you, email address, etc) that tells the server what to do with the form when it is sent by the visitor. This is put at the beginning of the form.
-
The fields this is the name, address, etc part of the form itself seen by your visitor.
-
The send/submit buttons. This part activates the form & data when the visitor invokes the send button.
PHP forms are almost the same concept. But they require SCRIPTING to work.
Main difference: The header.
The CSB form is fully readable in your source code. Your email address is exposed and the form has NO built in protections. The header tells the server to send your forms to the GlobalSCAPE server for processing. Your website server is NOT used to forward that email. The GlobalSCAPE server has some limited protections (max # forms per hour, max # fields) but can not protect you further.
The PHP form header points to a file that is stored BEYOND access of the casual visitor to your website. The email address, the definitions, the routing information, etc that is in the CSB form is now moved OUT of the form code and put into other files that can't be read by spammers. The files are FAR more complicated than CSB forms because they do so much more than CSB could ever do. Setup takes a while for the first one. You put files where you are told, fill in a few blanks the way YOU want them to be (name of fields, address, etc), answer some questions, etc then tweak the CSB built form header to point to the PHP code or use the sample forms they provide to begin (the best choice!). The PHP script will send you the email like CSB form does now, or can produce HTML style forms in your email! All choices you make within the script. The script will run from your website space and draw against your bandwidth usage. BUT be far more secure.
Even if CSB were still in development/production, still being sold, BETTER forms processing is something that requires effort OUTSIDE the CSB program. THAT is actually VERY LOGICAL!
The BEST solution is to get a well written script, preferably PHP that rebuffs attacks. Until you are comfortable with installing a script your best bet is 3rd party form processing by another site. TURTLE ALSO HAD THIS TO SAY ON EARLIER POSTS ABOUT FORMS:E-mail form scripts unless they are designed to filter the visitor input can be used to by spammers to send e-mails to an address of their choice.
This is called Email Injection.
Here is an article about it It may be hard to understand, but by adding control codes to the data entered into one the fields in a form, spammers can cause their message to be sent to another address in addition to the one that is hard coded into the form mailer.
So the basic form mailers that just test the input fields to see if some text was entered but not what was entered are susceptible to abuse.
So avoid the simple form mailers that use just enough code to send the data.
