What is Referer?

Referer is an HTTP header that may carry the URL of the page viewed before navigating to the current request. Its historical misspelling remains the standard header name.

What can it tell you?

It may reveal a referring page. Browser referrer policy, navigation method, and privacy settings can remove it or reduce it to the origin.

How NetKarte shows it

Read Referer under Client headers in the HTTP information card. You do not enter a URL; the row shows the value received for this request. Compare it with the page whose link you just followed, distinguishing a full URL, an origin only, and no header. NetKarte reports “Not sent” when it is absent.

Notes

An empty Referer is normal. Sites should not place credentials or secrets in URLs, and NetKarte does not use Referer to identify users.

A missing Referer is not necessarily an error

Direct navigation, bookmarks, and policies that suppress referrers can produce no header. Even following an external link may do so. There is no need to disable privacy protections just to make a referrer appear.

Why only part of the URL appears

An illustrative source URL, https://example.com/articles/dns?from=guide, might arrive only as https://example.com/. A policy can send just the origin; this is not necessarily a retrieval failure.

Compare the received value with the page and link used for that navigation. Reloads and redirects can change the conditions. A single header cannot reconstruct browsing history. Before sharing results, check displayed URLs for private search terms or secrets.