Developers rely on all sorts of home-grown "sniffer" scripts to detect users' browser settings. It's a noble exercise, because having this information (especially which plug-ins are installed and enabled features) is essential to a positive Web experience. For example, visitors to an e-learning site might need to disable a pop-up blocker or have a certain version of Java; detection code can automatically instruc So why turn to a commercial product for this job? cyScape’s BrowserHawk 10 quickly provided me with the answer: enterprise scalability; quick integration with ASP.NET, classic ASP, ColdFusion MX, and JSP sites; and accuracy.Fundamentally, BrowserHawk’s a server-side solution. In less than five minutes I’d installed the application on a Windows 2003 Server. As part of the install, the setup wizard asked which browser settings I wanted to detect and automatically generated the appropriate script snippet (just a few lines) that I easily placed within my class ASP code. The same process works with other server technologies, including .NET and Java.There are several other important aspects of the product. The BrowserHawk Editor (which runs on the server) manages Browser Definition Files (BDF). These look at the User-Agent string of a person’s browser or search engine spiders and determine the browser capabilities. Because cyScape pushes automatic definition updates to your server (if you enable this feature), you’re assured that any new browser versions are detected without any intervention on your part. The second interesting thing is that BrowserHawk automatically stores myriad data from each browser session in a Microsoft Access or SQL database. Like a traditional Web Analytics package, reviewing this data helps you determine whether site design changes are prudent – perhaps designing specifically for certain screen resolutions or to accommodate still-common dial-up or low-bandwidth DSL users. Yet the real benefit of this solution is immediate use of this information. Usually with one line of ASP code I called the information BrowserHawk found and took appropriate action, such as instructing the user to upgrade a necessary plug-in. With the custom-built code I’ve used previously, this process was convoluted and I was always revising the scripts to handle new browsers.Most impressive is version 10’s new Page Load Time (PLT) technology. Unlike traditional load-monitoring tools (such as HP-Mercury LoadRunner) that estimate server response, BrowserHawk takes measurements from real page requests. By collecting data from actual users and accounting for all types of actions, such as mouse clicks, I saw exactly how long users waited for pages to load. I was even able to display this information in real time on my Web pages. Although I didn’t have it for testing, cyScape’ CountryHawk provides the country of origin for each user. I can see real value in correlating PLT results with country data. For instance, if you saw extra latency from certain geographies you could adjust your Web server infrastructure to put more power in regional data centers.The only item on my whish list is built-in reporting. A cyScape representative said they’re considering a dashboard that will monitor the overall performance of the site and even let you drill down to individual user sessions. cyScape BrowserHawk 10 Availability: Now Pricing: From $399.00; Enterprise Edition tested is $1,140. Verdict: BrowserHawk 10 lets Web professionals accurately detect visitors’ browser and system settings to make sure they have the best online experience. This version’s Page Load Time monitoring gives you real-time performance statistics to optimize your site and servers. These capabilities, plus saving all this information to a database for reporting, make BrowserHawk an essential tool for Web developers, support staff, and administrators. Technology Industry