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Internet Explore 6.0 problem

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by omg74

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One of the apps at my company continues to timeout with IE 6.0 this app tries to connect to one of our servers through the browser interface. yet times out everytime.

What I know

Our nameing convention is XX_XXXXXX for our servers. The ( _ ) seems to be the problem. When I mannually enter the Ip address for the server name the app continues along fine. This solution won't work because once I hit a link it try to pull up the http//XX_XXXX\whatever page and timesout again.

Does anyone know why the " _ " doesn't work or how to work a fix. All lower versions of IE work with the app.

25 replies

by netmare

Sounds like a DNS issue. Try adding an entry in the host file to resolve the servername to the ip address.

by ann777

See the following:

MS02-015: March 28, 2002 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer (Q319182)

...supported characters in it. For example, you cannot use any underscore characters("_") in the server name.. Microsoft has released a cumulative patch...

Open IE and place in the address:

MSKB Q319182

by ann777

The above article specifically states :

NOTE: After you apply this update, Active Server Pages (ASP) cookies are blocked if the server name has non-DNS supported characters in it. For example, you cannot use any underscore characters ("_") in the server name.

This is the case for all recent versions of IE that have the patch specified in the above article applied:
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 for Windows 2000
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 for Windows 98
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 for Windows 98 Second Edition
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 for Windows NT 4.0
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 for Windows XP
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 for Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 5.5 Service Pack 1 , 5.5 Service Pack 2 , for Windows 95
Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 5.5 Service Pack 1 , 5.5 Service Pack 2 , for Windows 98
Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 5.5 Service Pack 1 , 5.5 Service Pack 2 , for Windows 98 Second Edition
Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 5.5 Service Pack 1 , 5.5 Service Pack 2 , for Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 5.01 Service Pack 2 , 5.5 Service Pack 1 , 5.5 Service Pack 2 , for Windows 2000
Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 5.01 Service Pack 2 , 5.5 Service Pack 1 , 5.5 Service Pack 2 , for Windows NT 4.0

----
Read through the above article and the links contained within the article for further details on the potential security breaches that may take place if the patch is not applied to your Internet Explorer version. Also link over to MSKB Q319236

by ann777

The only "fix" would be to reprogram that application and rename your servers to exclude underscores. You will not be able to control what broswer versions "everyone" uses to access or use your website. If these are public servers, then other people using current browser versions will have a problem with your server name as well.

by mr. ezekial transistor

If this problem happened with every browser the HOSTS entry could fix it if it were a DNS issue but the underscore shouldn't make any difference. Ping the servername and see if you hit it and ping a site like techrepublic.com and see if you get a response. Does this happen on more than one machine and could the IE 6 one possibly have a different/or none DNS server than others? You should uncheck Show Friendly HTTP errors in Tools, Internet Options, Advanced to get more specific error messages. Check network properties and look for multiple instances of the TCP/IP protocol bound to the adapter. Check for multiple instances of the Wsock32.dll, Winsock.dll, and Wsock.vxd files. Check if you have any third-party utiilities running that could be interfering. You could have a corrupt or damaged Internet Explorer index file which can be fixed following http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q293402&GSSNB=1

by wlbowers

Use the lmhost file.
You will find it in the windows directory. If it
hasn't been messed with it will have good
build notes.

Good Luck Lee

by mattl_rf

Delete your current DNS entry XX_XXXX for this server and add a static DNS entry XXXXXX without the "_" for this server. We had this problem after installing Q319182 on IE 5.5SP2 or IE 6.0.

by mike (from canada)

Some programs recognize an underscore as a bad character. What I recommend is that you rename XX_XXXXXX.... to XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX where each XXX is a number from 0 to 255. (as in normal IP address).

The app may be using an invalid Winsock DLL. You may need to replace wsock32.dll and winsock.dll.

Perhaps get an obsolete version of it. I find the more obsolete the software, the better.

by richt

use the "-" instead of "." or "_". Works almost all the time with issues such as these. Sounds stupid but try it.

by dmiles

Resolve this issue by deleting the underscore character,which may be a invalid character,or check the Microsoft Knowledgebase for patch to allow the use of (_)character

In order to address the security issues in later versions of IE.

by maxwell edison

According to Microsoft article Q319182 titled, "March 28, 2002 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer", that bug is installed along with the security patch mentioned in the article.

Read the entire article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q319182

If it is indeed the case that this bug appeared after you installed the mentioned patch, you may have to simply uninstall and reinstall the software without the patch.

Maxwell

by stephenacamille

You are right, in the rfc's the "_" symbol is not accepted as a FQDN. If you make the changes at the DNS server side, it should fix the problem.

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