Thanks Andy, that looked like a good solution. However due to a Microsoft bug, I can't use the HOLDLOCK keyword with READPAST as I kept getting the following message: "You can only specify the READPAST lock in the READ COMMITTED or REPEATABLE READ isolation levels." The bug is confirmed in this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171322[^]

I have an application which selects one record at a time from a SQL SERVER 7.0 database. After doing some business logic, it's updates the same record with an status flag change. I need to run the application on 3 different machines concurrently. When I perform my SELECT of one row, how do I lock the selected record to prevent the same record being read by each instance of the application? Thanks in advance. :) Cheers Adrian

Thanks Paul. I could be wrong here, but by having some static pages on a website is more beneficial for Search Engine Optimisation. I still plan to have dynamically generated content on each page, but as far as keywords and title tags etc, these would be static HTML. I've read that search engine indexing does not like pages with lots of querystring parameters in the URL. The site I'm working on will only be a success if it can rank highly on search engine results, so I am conscious of making the site as Search Engine friendly as possible. Any thoughts? Thanks Adrian

Hi, I am creating a website which will consist of a dedicated page for each city and town in the country (so a few thousand potentially). The keywords in each page will be the same apart from the city or town name. Rather than create each page manually by hand :( , is there something in the .NET framework which will help insert text into a HTML file, therefore speeding up this process? Thanks in advance Adrian

Paul Conrad wrote:

I agree with Vasudevan about the quarantine idea. It is probably the better approach along with the other ideas he suggested. I don't really know the extent of abuse that such a site would have but his suggestions can help curb it.

Thanks Paul. Regarding type of abuse, I'm specifically trying to guard against competitor sites (their employees :() filling out the enquiry form on my site with fake details anonymously. I see this possibly causing bad feeling with those companies who would be paying a monthly fee for the leads my site sends them. Now I don't know for sure if this sort of abuse takes place. My only hint that it does is a note on the contact form of a competitor site indicating that any misuse of the enquiry form will be "reported and investigated and appropriate action taken". As for stopping SPAMBots, I'll go for the CAPTCHA aswell. Thanks Adrian

Hi, did you miss the link off your post?

Thanks Vasudevan. I like the idea of the quarantine table until the enquiry is confirmed. Any suggestions as to how I fire off the enquiries in the form of emails once the enquiry is confirmed? This site will use a SQL2005 database so could I take advantage of functionality within SQL2005? Thanks Adrian

Hi, I'm writing an enquiry lead generation website. What suggestions does anyone have for preventing abuse of the Enquiry/Contact Form. I'm specifically thinking about preventing a site visitor from impersonating someone else by using their name and email address (which results in the innocent 'victim' receiving calls/emails from companies contacted!) Apart from forcing users to register and confirm their account by email, is there any other way I can use to guard against this type of Contact Form abuse? One option I had was to log all the details of the enquiry in a database and sending a confirmation email to the email address used on the enquiry form. If the enquiry was genuine, the recipient of the email is asked to click the confirmation link in the email which triggers the enquiry to be sent on to the target companies. Is this feasible? Thanks in advance for any help, Cheers Adrian