This is probably going to be a bit redundant but what exactly are the mechanics of this? I have some users that cannot post when I enable this. If I knew bit more about it I may be able to understand what their (or my) problem is.

You know the story-Cannot Post because you are trying to blah blah from an invalid host

Bear with me thanks

I find the referrer check annoying as a lot us users get discouraged when they find out they have to mess with Norton Internet Explorer just to be able to post messages! When I post at Threadsdev I actually switch off my firewall for two seconds just to post my message! Some view it with suspicion: why is this Threads forum trying to get information about them that no other web site bothers to???

Personally I have this function switched off on my forums, just like UBBCentral does. I think that by default this feature isn't really needed, but might come in handy is someone has some serious security concerns.

[]Conrad said:
Some view it with suspicion: why is this Threads forum trying to get information about them that no other web site bothers to???
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Actually a lot of sites out there _do_ collect that information invisibly, most often with counters.

The user doesn't notice it because the functionilty of the site doesn't depend in any way on the referrer info being made available.

yeah and most comic sites won't fork over the pics without a referer check so ya have to use alternate methods..

So basically their firewall is just blocking the info of what website or page they are coming from (referred) and they would have to put the site in their "allowed list"? What are any advantages of having this feature turned on? Does it create overhead on the server?
Will this affect Search Bots at all?

Inquiring minds want to know