Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of kim4815
kim4815

asked on

voting script question

I am using a simple voting script for a school project which sets a cookie on each user's machine to prevent multiple votes. My problem is that I suspect some of the users are "cheating" so to speak by setting their browsers to not accept cookies. So my 2 questions are: Is there a way to see who is doing this, particularly if a less than scrupulous user logs on at a public place such as a library and votes many times (this is what I expect is happening). The other question is what can be done to stop this. I am a web develloper and not a programmer so I have only a marginal understanding of cgi.
Avatar of VEngineer
VEngineer

Can I ask what kind of voting system this is?  Is this something to vote in a survey, or elect a candidate, etc?

One way to prevent multiple votes is to assign every eligible voter a login and password to the voting section of your website.  That way, you know exactly who voted.  Granted since you aren't a programmer, this isn't an easy task, but we can start somewhere and see how we can help you out.

I rarely rely on cookies to do anything, and I can see why you think people are cheating on the vote.  Some things we might need to know:

- Do you want one vote per person or one vote per machine?  Is there a difference?

- About how many voters will you have?

- What kind of server side technologies do you have available to you (ASP, Perl/CGI, etc..)?

Avatar of kim4815

ASKER

The system is suppose to pick the winner of various contests; and the problem I think is multiple voting by the contestants. Since people who don't attend the school are encouraged to vote, I think asking for a login and password is probably too much too ask. That being said, I would assume one vote per machine would be the simplest option. Usually the total number of votes is well under 1000. The source of my suspicion is when a sizeable block of votes come in for one particular participant all within a short period of time, like 5-10 minutes.
if all machies have fixed ip;s, then what you should do is maintain a db/list of all the ip;s that have already voted.
ip can be tracked by the environment variable like this...


$userIP = $ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'};
Avatar of kim4815

ASKER

I did think about having a database to record ip's but don't most people have dynamic ips? If a person can vote; log off; then log back on with a fresh ip number, how does the database help?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of mouatts
mouatts

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial