Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

What is a referer?
What is the referer good for?
Why would I want to hide the referer?
How can I hide the referer?
How does a dereferer work?
How can I use derefer.me?
Why does the redirect pause shortly?
What do the symbols on the redirect page mean?
How can I test my dereferring links?
Isn't it spelled referrer?
Where can I find more information?

Questions on Base64-Encoding

What are base64-encoded addresses good for?
How can I generate base64-encoded addresses?

Questions About Custom Redirects

Can I have my own redirect page?
Do I get an own dereferer address?
Do links still work if I delete my custom redirect page?
Do referer-suppressing visitors see my custom dereferer?
What is a cache?
Can I clear the cache manually?

What is a referer?

Every web page that has a link to another web page can be called referrer, as it refers to another source. However, the term is usually used in a more specific context: When you click on a link in your browser, the browser sends the referring page's address to the new page. This address is then called referer.

What is the referer good for?

Website owners can use the referer to analyze the browsing habits of their users. This can be interesting for optimizing their site e.g. for improving marketing campaigns.

Why would I want to hide the referer?

There are several motivations for hiding the referer. Would you feel comfortable when shopping in a mall and being asked in every shop you enter where you've come from, which shop you've been last in? You simply might not want your web-browsing habits to be analyzed. You might consider this part of your privacy.

If you are a website owner yourself, you might not want that every site you link to gets to know that you link to it. Maybe you run a closed online community and don't want everyone to come and ask to have a look into it. Besides, you help to protect the privacy of all your users at once.

How can I hide the referer?

As a web user you can use a refer hiding proxy server to connect to the internet, you can use a computer security suite which supports this, a browser that doesn't send referers or a browser extension that surpresses them.

As a website owner you cannot be sure that all your users surpress the referer by one of the above mentioned means. But you can use a free dereferring service like derefer.me.

How does a dereferer work?

When using derefer.me you don't link directly to the external target web page but to derefer.me which redirects your users to the desired page then. So the target page doesn't get to know that the user actually came from your site.

How can I use derefer.me?

You can easily create dereferring links using the generator at our homepage. If you run a dynamic web page like a forum, a blog or something similar, you'll probably find a comfortable, automatic solution on our code page.

Why does the redirect pause shortly?

Some browsers do not update the referer information when they follow an immediate redirect. So the pause is not meant to annoy you – it is essential to a reliable service. Webmasters can set the duration of the pause and design their individual redirect page with our custom redirects.

What do the symbols on the redirect page mean?

The redirect page looks simply like this:

The first square ☐ represents the refererring page. You can click on it to get back there. The dashed arrow ➟ represents the dereferer. Click on it to get to derefer.me. The blue square ☐ represents the target page. Click there if you don't want to wait until you are automatically redirected.

How can I test my dereferring links?

You can use our test page.

Isn't it spelled referrer?

Yes, but ... The misspelled version "referer" is so common that it even appeared in the official communication protocol of the World Wide Web and has hence become the standard spelling when used in this context.

Where can I find more information?

You can find more information at Wikipedia.

What are base64-encoded addresses good for?

Obfuscating the address has a sole advantage: The internet address of your link target doesn't appear as cleartext to robots and readers of your website. You might want to avoid this for example to prevent your site from being listed in search engine results for the address of the linked site.

How can I generate base64-encoded addresses?

You can easily create base64-encoded dereferring links using the generator at our homepage. An example for a solution with PHP can be found on our code page.

Can I have my own redirect page?

Yes, you can! Find information on how to set your individual page up at our custom redirect info page and use the link generator on our homepage.

Do I get an own dereferer address?

... such as http://custom.derefer.me/my-name/ ... No! An individual address would thwart the whole idea of a dereferer. The clue of our custom redirect pages is that they work without an individual address.

Do links still work if I delete my custom redirect page?

Yes! The default redirect page is used, if your custom redirect page can't be accessed or if it is invalid.

Do referer-suppressing visitors see my custom dereferer?

No. Visitors who suppress the referer-information themselves get to see the default redirect page. Our server doesn't and – even more important – shouldn't know that these users came from your site, so our server won't display your redirect page.

What is a cache?

A cache is a temporary storage for previously fetched or computed data and the act of storing it respectively. You can let custom.derefer.me cache your custom redirect page. This speeds up loading your redirect page and saves bandwidth. However, new changes to your redirect page won't take effect before the cache expires. Therefore it is recommended to deactivate caching for testing purposes and activate it later.

Can I clear the cache manually?

Yes, you can remove your redirect page from the cache here: clear cache.