Firewall blocking

[FrankM]

Firewalls are blocking access to web sites for undefined reasons. In an email I had added a link to a web page article on the personal web site provided by my local ISP. The recipient of the email stated he could not access the link and provided these details,

' I tried to go to the link you gave me, but Internet Explorer tells me "You are not authorized to view this page", and Opera as well as Firefox say "This object has been blocked." '

 

This is the link that I provided:

http://vip.ocsnet.net/~ancient/MathPerfect04.pdf

 

I emailed my brother the link and asked if he has any trouble opening it, and asked what he was using for a firewall. My brother was using the firewall that came with XP, and he had to turn off his security to access the link. He had no trouble opening the pdf article using Firefox, but he could not open it in IE6, as all he got was a blank page. I found this is a known IE6 problem. My brother uses Outlook for his email.

 

I provided the first individual with the links to two of my pdf articles that are on a completely different ISP and he could not access them. He is using Zone Alarm with the security level set to medium. He was able to access my basic web page, which is in HTML, but none of the pdf items. This individual is using Pocomail. I sent my emails using Eudora Pro.

 

When I put the two error messages in a search, I found that the most common problem thread was with Zone Alarm, but individuals were being denied access on just a few sites and no one knew why. I am curious why the firewall security level, XP and Zone Alarm, would deny access to particular sites when they could not have been on an exclusion list.

 

Does anyone have trouble opening and displaying the particular link?

 

I check my web site using Netscape, Firefox and now Opera, and all web pages, html and pdf, open and display normally.

[nemo]

Please forward a relevant segment of the Zone Alarm log file, depicting the denial in question.

 

Thanks,

nemo

[Tormod]

I use ZoneAlarm (the free version) and have turned off the Windows firewall. I could see your document all right.

[geko]

I can access the page with firefox and IE6. This is with zone alarm on high internet setting and all cookies and pop ups blocked in IE6.

 

As an aside though, I tried to open it with pdf reader 2.2 and it wouldnt, it kept coming back saying it couldnt translate (is it in english?).

[C1ay]

Firewalls are blocking access to web sites for undefined reasons.

 

I was able to view your article just fine through the firewall in my router.

[FrankM]

Nemo: "Please forward a relevant segment of the Zone Alarm log file, depicting the denial in question."

 

I mentioned the need for the Zone Alarm log file to the individual that couldn't access my file.

 

Tormond: What OS and browser were you using?

 

geko: "I can access the page with firefox and IE6. This is with zone alarm on high internet setting and all cookies and pop ups blocked in IE6."

 

The individual that couldn't access my page used IE6 and had Zone Alarm set to "medium".

 

geko: "As an aside though, I tried to open it with pdf reader 2.2 and it wouldnt, it kept coming back saying it couldnt translate (is it in english?)."

 

Yes, it is in English. The document was produced with Pagemaker and Distilled with Acrobat 4.0. I just loaded Acrobat Reader 5.0 a couple of weeks ago as I was unable to read some of the pdf articles using Reader 4.0 that were distilled with later versions. If all fails, I save the pdf file then open it using Ghostview, which seems quite tolerant to various pdf versions.

 

C1ay: "I was able to view your article just fine through the firewall in my router."

 

What OS, firewall and browser were you using?

 

So far there is no commonality why some can access the file through their firewalls and others have to turn them off. I can imply on some of the email addresses that the users are on a wideband network, others I cannot. I don't have enough samples to know if particular "networks" are causing the problem or not.

 

What concerns me is that M$FT, in its ultimate wisdom, has deliberately "bugged" access to Adobe pdf files to make their use inconvenient, thus making people switch to "DOC". Who knows what will happen when the lastest SP2 and IE7 hit the streets. Here is what I found earlier last week before I was notified there were problems accessing my file.

 

"IE 7.0 Leaves Windows 2000 Users Out in the Cold

Microsoft's Web browser update will be limited to Windows XP Service Pack 2 customers only."

 

http://www.eweek.com/category2/0,1738,1639508,00.asp

 

The release will cause major compatibility problems with some major non-M$FT products, which means 100s to 1000s of lesser known software will be incompatible.

[C1ay]

What OS, firewall and browser were you using?

 

Using Firefox the my 2wire DSL modem/router firewall I accessed your file with Win2K Pro and Knoppix 3.6

[alexander]

Firefox mignt have yet another answer with one of its awesome extensions, lets see what can apply:

 

https://update.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&version=1.0&os=Windows&category=Privacy%20and%20Security&numpg=50&id=125

 

actually, my question is: have you tried acessing that site through a proxy? but it really sounds like a firewall problem, i'd shut the zone alarm off completely and get a better firewall if i was you, preferably a stand alone OpenBSD (doesn have to be a fast box, even a 133 will do fine, but you will need 2 nicks) box with pf...

[FrankM]

I received the following URL from another forum where the moderater stated some of its members were also having problems accessing pdf articles stored there. The basic article deals with the blank page with the Red X.

 

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/ie/pdf.htm

 

The two linked articles at the bottom of the article are from the M$FT knowledge base, both dated 5 Jan 2005.

 

The first deals with IE5 and "hangs" when attempting to view pdf files.

 

The second deals with headers (IE5 and IE6).

 

What or who controls the content and generation of the headers?

 

Why would Zone Alarm block what is essentially a benign web page?