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Why does ASP.NET framework add the 'X-Powered-By:ASP.NET' HTTP Header in responses?

Asked 2009-08-17T14:42:31.073
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I am just curious to know if there is a specific reason why the .Net Framework adds the 'X-Powered-By:ASP.NET' Http Header in its responses? Do other web servers (Apache, httpd) do the same thing?

EDIT: I know that it can be changed. I want to know if there is a reason to keep it or leave it as it is?

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It is probably there so that sites like Netcraft can pull together statistics for the number of servers running IIS and ASP.NET. This used to be considered an important thing when .NET was released. By stating that n number of sites started using ASP.NET Microsoft could provide metrics for companies that only adopt technology based on the number of other users out there.

I don't believe there is a strong technical reason for having it since a PHP app could imitate an ASP.NET application, by setting the same header in Apache. I could imagine some naive client applications like FrontPage 2003, or SharePoint Designer might use headers like this to validate that they are indeed connecting to an ASP.NET enabled site but that is speculation on my part.

answered 2009-08-17T15:05:06.683

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