Problem downloading attachments

[ccheaton]

I can download attachements from my site here using firefox, but it won't work from school with Internet Explorer.  Anybody know what's up?
http://harvardstudents.com/index.php?topic=36.0
is the link.

Guests have permissions to download...

[ccheaton]

It works in Firefox, but not in Internet Explorer 6.0.2...

[Trekkie101]

Firefox 1 - Yes
IE 5 - Yes

Sorry cant say it causes me a problem. Try deleting your IE cache and see.

[ccheaton]

That doesn't do it for me here at school.  The problem is that IE is distributed to the computers when you login, so for the non-tech-savvy people, Firefox isn't an option.

[Trekkie101]

Does your school have any protection systems eg websense, they are pretty good at buggering things up.

[ccheaton]

This is what happen:

When you click on the link, it prompts whether you want to save or open, using the file name.  Regardless of what you click, it then pops up an error box saying that it cannot access "ion=dlattach;topic=53.0;id=31" and that the site can not be located or is not accessible... as if it is not reaching the target of the file, but instead, is going after the url?  

To the best of my knowledge, the school doesn't have Websense.  The error message is coming directly from IE, not from another program in the background.

I'm confused.  I need this to work.  

[Trekkie101]

  Do you know the direct path to the file you could try getting it from there and just posting the link, try right clicking and choosing open in a new window and see if that works (shouldnt but may). I had that problem a while ago aswell when thinking about it.

[ccheaton]

Argh.  It must be something in the computer lab, but I don't know what.  Do you know of a setting in IE that would prevent forwarding to the file for download?

[Trekkie101]

IE itself 

Right it just happens some times, what to try, theres a setting that allows you to remove "?"'s from the address (only works with apache) try enabling that, that may let IE get at it, other than that, try all the maintenance options Repair/Optimise/all that stuff and see if it helps maybe wont but it needs done every now and again.

[ccheaton]

I tried the thing with removing question marks. It happens on the computers in the school computer lab, so I wonder if there is a setting on the default IE distribution in the labs that prevents the file from downloading, It works on IE on some other computers. This is just frustrating. I'll have to talk to the IT department, and maybe they can fix it. 

[Oldiesmann]

It would be nice if IT departments would use Firefox on their computers instead of IE...

[ccheaton]

Firefox doesn't work with our online registration system.   

[Oldiesmann]

What happens when you try it with Firefox?

[ccheaton]

The online course registration system, when you try to access it in Firefox: it just doesn't load. 

Now, I can access the attachments on the forum from the same computers here, without a problem, when I'm using Firefox.  So, there's nothing at the firewall level that is preventing the files from downloading.  It's an IE specific problem, I'm pretty sure. 

As a matter of fact, part of the reason that it concerns me so much is that it may be an issue elsewhere, too, and hence, something that SMF needs to address.  That's why I'm trying to get to the bottom of it.

The error message is an IE error message. 

[ccheaton]

I went and talked to the IT people.  They agreed that they haven't updated IE on the distributed image in a long time.  Furthermore, they all use Firefox, so they had no idea that the version of IE on the distro was problematic.  Duh.  Nor did they know that the online course registration system doesn't work in Firefox. 

[Oldiesmann]

Well, at least they know what Firefox is

[[Unknown]]

I have used Internet Explorer 6.0.3790 (and 2600) without problems.  I have also tested it with 5.01, 5.5, 4.01, and 6.0 SP2.

Do the computers have any internet firewall or protection software installed?

-[Unknown]

[Trekkie101]

I think ive got it, you may have a trojan that doesnt allow downloads liek this as it believes them to be Virus/Firewall protection downloads as though you are quering what updates to download, if you can runa virus sweep on the computer, and as usual Firefox will be protected. Also delete all the internet explorer temp files and internet logs.

Plus can anybody help me on convincing my school to get firefox they say it isnt compatable but it is ive got it working, just add a proxy which IE uses it even is auot done by import settigs tool but they wont believe it.

[ccheaton]

There could be a trojan, but I doubt it.  Everytime you turn on a computer in the lab, it is reimaged from some master image, and returns to the exact same state. So, either they have an image with a problem, or an install with a problem, or something, but at the end of the day, the problem won't be fixed until they update the image that is distributed. 

It sucks, because it's not going to happen anytime really soon, probably not until after the holidays, and that prevents people from wanting to use the forum.  I was also going to use that forum as an example site to the school as an argument for using SMF for all of their forum needs.  Makes it difficult.  I guess I'll just keep my mouth shut until they update.   

The help desk people did ask me if it was a Harvard site, because it looks just like the HSPH site, colorwise, and said that it looked nice and they had never seen it before.   

[Trekkie101]

Dont give up theres always hope and light at the end of the tunnel, you have discovered something that may help people later on in SMF life, now goto my site (its at the side) upload whatever you want whereever you want and then try and download, then post the reults here, i will delete your post and account if you want just make sure to tell me.