How many sites can I index with Phantom?

The number of sites Phantom can index is impossible to predict, since a "site" can be comprised of only a few pages or many thousands of pages. If you already have a list of sites you would like to index, plan to do some surfing or test indexing with Phantom to determine the actual number of pages and size of the index you will end up with.

A more meaningful question is the number of pages, or the number of megabytes of content that Phantom can index. Because it is built on a relational database engine, Phantom's speed decreases as more content is indexed. There is no hard limit set on the number of sites or pages (URLs). This means that the actual limit of Phantom's capacity is somewhat subjective, and also depends on the speed of the machine where Phantom is running.

Running on a typical 300-400MHz desktop machine, a few hundred thousand pages encompassing a gigabyte of content are reasonable. This is only a rough guideline, though. Your actual results will vary depending on the content you are indexing and the machine you are using.

Can Phantom index pages that are generated from a database?

Yes! Phantom can index pages on any site that have URLs that can be loaded in a browser and have text, HTML or PDF content. Phantom fully supports query and search arguments so it will transparently index database-driven pages.

One of the advantages of Phantom over site search tools that only index files locally is that Phantom will provide searching of the final, rendered HTML that appears in a browser. If your site is database driven or makes extensive use of ASP or SSI commands, there is a big difference between the content of the files on your server and the way the pages are served to clients.

Can Phantom index a password protected site?

Phantom can index some sites with pages that require a username and password to access, but not all. This depends on how the username and password are entered.

Phantom can index pages where the browser's authentication dialog is displayed for a user to enter their username and password. Phantom allows you to enter a username and password with the session settings, which it will send if authentication is requested. Different usernames and passwords can be entered for different sites.

If the username and password are instead entered into an HTML form on a Web page, those pages which require authentication will not be indexed. Phantom does not have the capability to submit an HTML form for authentication.

Can Phantom index sites that have frames?

Yes. Phantom supports framed pages, and will index the entire contents of framed sites.

One caveat is that Phantom cannot control the frameset that pages appear in. Target pages are linked directly from the results page and so will appear in the same frame that the results page appeared in. Redirecting to another frame is possible, but requires a server add-on like NetCloak, Active Server Pages or a custom script.

For more information, see the technical FAQ on Phantom, Search Results and Frames.

I have my site at a Web hosting provider. Can I upload Phantom to my ISP's Web server?

No. Phantom must run on a MacOS or Windows NT-based server, and must be installed on that machine. There is no way to upload the application or index files so that searches can be served by your ISP or web hosting provider's server.

If you have a hosted site, contact your provider about searching. They may be able to provide searching as a service, or point you to other applications that you can upload and run on their server. There are also a number of web hosting providers that offer site searching powered by Phantom.

Can I use Phantom to help me find things on the Internet- is it better than HotBot or AltaVista?

Phantom is a site search tool, not an Internet search engine. It helps other people find things on your web site (or a few other web sites you specify) by allowing a full-text search of the pages. Phantom is not a meta search tool to help you use the Internet search engines like HotBot or AltaVista, nor is it an intelligent agent that will seek out pages on the Internet that pertain to a particular subject.

Can I open Phantom's database, or export URLs to my own database?

No. Phantom's database is in a proprietary format which allows for fast searches across many pages and high capacity with a compact data file. Phantom does not store web pages as-is in a database; instead, it stores references from each page to each content word. This makes it possible to provide fast searches with a compact data file, but also makes it impossible to reconstruct the pages after they are indexed.