I am trying to add an html link to a website but the website strips out the html:
When I view the source I get this:
<a href = "http://www.soandso.com&quot;&gt;http://www.soandso.com/&lt;/a&gt;
instead of what I actually want which is this:
<a href = "www.soandso.com">www.soandso.com</a>
Is there an html command to bypass the filter?
Almost certainly not.
Most sites quite rightly don't just let users inject arbitrary HTML. That's the source of XSS (cross site scripting) vulnerabilities.
If the site strips (or escapes) tags, just put in www.example.com and that will have to do.
No. The filters are there for a reason; to prevent you from adding your own HTML to the website. There is no standard for how the filters work, but they will generally either escape all HTML that isn't allowed, or strip out HTML that isn't allowed. There is no general purpose way to get around the filter.
First check if the site uses any sort of special markup. For instance, Stack Overflow supports a variation of Markdown. Other sites support Textile, or BBCode. If that is the case, check the associated reference on how to include a link. If none of those are the case, then just use the URL without the <a> element wrapper.