#16 Unknown character sets/fonts can be sent, looks like garbage

[Bill Thies]

Opened by thies@mit.edu on 2002-03-06

On a search for "ip scanner", this result stems from #19
on Google:

http://www.zdnet.co.jp/download/pc/internet/angryipsca
n_u.html

It has a lot of unprintable/garbage characters (like the
little character-sized rectangles) even when loaded
straight from the web. It'd be great if we could strip out
these characters (to save bandwidth and to improve
the appearance of the page) or if we could detect that
there are so many of them and not return this page at
all.

------- Additional Comments From thies@mit.edu
03/06/02 14:26 -------

Okay, I'm a little slow on the uptake, but these "garbage
characters" are evidently characters for which the
browser doesn't have the font / character set installed.
Here's another sample (I guess it wants to display
japanese characters):

http://www.microsoft.com/japan/partners/mtc/ctec/XPPr
omotion.htm

Is there any way to detect this and guard against
sending things with obscure character sets (or,
moreoever, character sets that the client doesn't
have?) Something to deal with in the long term.