Post #284,883
5/18/07 2:23:37 AM
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Odd problem with trying to download a file.
*sigh* For anyone but the owners of the company, this would be a non-issue.
We have had exactly two reports of someone trying to download our flagship product off the 'net and getting a blank page instead of the executable file. The download is kicked off by a script that collects some logging information and issues a HTTP redirect to the real URL. The error is that IE sits on a blank page with the real URL sitting in the address bar. Hitting F5, loads the file, of course. Correctly.
No big deal? Well, these two reports have come from two of the owners of the company, and They Want Answers. All our support avenues have no report of this happening amongst the great unwashed. It could be, but is unlikely to be, Apache sending the wrong Content-Type. It could be Akamai doing something to the headers in transit. It could be some proxy between their client and Akamai which diddles the header, like a local firewall box or an ISP proxy. It could be an accidental Escape stopping the browser!
So. Has anyone seen this type of problem and found a reasonably definitive answer that fixed it?
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
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-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. | · my ·
· [link|http://staticsan.livejournal.com/|blog] ·
· [link|http://yceran.org/|website] · |
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Post #284,890
5/18/07 6:39:34 AM
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first you have to duplicate the error
means that you need access to the parties in question.
no other way will suffice.
thanx,
bill
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 51 years. meep
reach me at [link|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net]
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Post #284,896
5/18/07 12:06:25 PM
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Concur
A single occurance (from two users) does not provide sufficent information to troubleshoot. Too many variables. For all you know it could have been a conflict the the pron site they were visiting...
Have them duplicate and document.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. (Herm Albright)
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Post #284,926
5/19/07 10:07:26 AM
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No such luck.
*We* can't duplicate the error *anywhere*. The two executives won't say if it's happened before. They were using different versions of Windows, different versions of IE and different ISPs. I think one of them was in a different country. AFIAK, they weren't using the coporate VPN. One of them was probably using our own firewall product, but the other probably was not. There was no IE alert, and that is the full extent of the information we have. It's looking like we can't troubleshoot any further without a repeatable error.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
| |
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
|
-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. | · my ·
· [link|http://staticsan.livejournal.com/|blog] ·
· [link|http://yceran.org/|website] · |
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Post #284,927
5/19/07 10:09:39 AM
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If they were smart, they would know that.
Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry.Adrian Belew
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Post #284,929
5/19/07 10:15:43 AM
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I think one of them might.
He's the more helpful one and is certainly capable of understanding that a one-off error like this is actually impossible to find. Trouble is, he is likely to equate his and the other's error as 'repeatable'. The other CEO is not so technically minded. He will see a failure and be almost literally awake at night wondering how many other people are getting it and how much this will affect sales. The fact that no-one else is reporting it and we cannot find anything to even look for is hard for him to understand.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
| |
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
|
-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. | · my ·
· [link|http://staticsan.livejournal.com/|blog] ·
· [link|http://yceran.org/|website] · |
|
Post #284,899
5/18/07 1:06:08 PM
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If this happened at...
Work, then I'd have to assume it be part of the akamai redirection stuff, plus considering you probably use *SOME* kind of caching proxy.
Given all that, it would be rather easy to cut out the proxy for a bit and try again for them.
Now, if this happened at HOME, was it when connected to the VPN or just straight internet?
If just straight internet, then you've got a real problem to track down. It could be settings left over from connecting to the VPN, along with the proxy and akamai redirection.
If it happened while connected to the corporate network via VPN, well you are back to the same problem as being at work.
There is to many unknowns. Especially if they don't have machines as locked down as the rest of the corporate machines. Vista, perhaps?
Cheers.
--
[link|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net|greg],
[link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ iwethey
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Post #284,928
5/19/07 10:12:23 AM
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Just for completeness...
... [link|http://www.akamai.com/|Akamai] do forward caching and other exotica of that ilk. We pay them a lot of money so that we don't have to have 5 times as many web servers.
In addition, AFAIK most broadband ISPs in Austalia have transparant proxies. This is usually because most broadband is DSL, implemented as PPPoE, so the optimum Ethernet framesize is a little lower than the maximunm. Unfortunately, a noticeable portion of the internet cannot handle that, resulting in very poor connections to those sites due to the sub-optimal packet fragmentation. The solution usually employed is a transparent proxy at the ISP for all web traffic. They do not provide information about bypassing them.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
| |
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
|
-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. | · my ·
· [link|http://staticsan.livejournal.com/|blog] ·
· [link|http://yceran.org/|website] · |
|
Post #284,900
5/18/07 1:32:52 PM
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Windows Security settings
probably gave them a little yellow box at the top that said something like "IE is blocking this attempt to download a file, click here for more instructions" or whatever nonsense it is up there.
Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry.Adrian Belew
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