NATS question
 

Can anyone tell me, from an affiliate point of view how we can tell what data is being sent on a join page when NATS session ids are used

Many programs pass your natscode thru all the way and u can see it clearly on the join page, and thus can see if your affiliate info is being passed... but ive noticed some programs have something like

<input type="hidden" name="memberid" value="XXXXXXXXXX" />
<input type="hidden" name="natssess" value="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" />
<input type="hidden" name="nextra[NETBILLING][cisp_storage]" value="1" />

which means absolutely nothing to me...

can anyone from NATS or someone let us know if its possible to track?

cheers
Nurgle

Nurgle, I'm guessing the best people to ask here would be NATS themselves. I sent John (Albright) at TMN a note to see if he has any insight as i am curious myself.

On another note, look at you auditing your own links and performing your own due diligence [gasp!], you must be part of the "bro" club (/sarcasm).

bump for something thats actually related to something work

"memberid" is the unique ID code generated by NATS for this member.

"natssess" is the NATS unique session ID code. Just like a PHP session.

"nextra[NETBILLING][cisp_storage]" value="1" the nextra bit is a NATS option to send extra info to processor/biller. The [cisp_storage] stands for "Cardholder Information Security Program" (Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard) from VISA that will be handled in this case by NETBILLING (biller) and can be flagged as 0 or 1. Flagging it as 1 means this card is to be securely stored by the biller [NETBILLING] for future rebills. Flagging it 0 means a one time purchase, so no rebills should be processed. So the string is just telling NATS to add the "this is flagged as 1, so enable rebilling" to NETBILLING for processing when they hit the join button.

Most of them are just options that billers can enable/require on the Join Form for their own tracking/processing, I do not think an affiliate can track them.

that would be rather sucky if as an affiliate i lose the ability to track my code all the way thru.... makes it so much easier for programs to "make a mistake"

Ja, true. But as long as your Affiliate ID appears in the join form that is being sent to the Biller, and you trust the program, you should be fine 99%* of the time. :)

*- (I think we all know it's still possible to cheat, which is a shame.)

umm have seen so many instances of the NATS code changing thru "mistakes" its not funny, hence im checking everywhere.... if they can do sessions which we have no way of seeing whats going on its a major pain, as at least the old way u can tell without having to do actual test joins.. now you have to

Same. Now, I've only dabbled in affiliate stuff (not a pro by any means at all as I mostly do server admin stuff) but I've seen everything from silly hardcoded IDs to popus that re-write the join form before sending. That's, obviously, not a problem with NATS as NATS really is a very, very good product. It's just that, as with most things in life, if someone can abuse it then 100% someone will abuse it. You can look up what a variable in the join form means etc on their Wiki etc, but I personally wouldn't send a single unique to a program before I (like you) done proper due diligence. With so many "shady" things being brought to light almost every day, it'd be madness not too.

I am only aware for Nextra. Nats option to send extra added field in pre-join page to gateway page to pass onto biller.

You don't question NATS foo!

But to add... Yeah... There have been some pretty big SNAFUS where a program fucked up their template and the NATS code changed before the join page. It is rare though.

Usually this sort of thing happens on FHG's.

its not as rare as u think..

bump for answers

Bump for Nurgle!