URLs cause local execution

[Matt]

Hello everyone,
This is likely a problem with a misconfigured browser, but I have a link with the URL ending in .pl on my web site. A friend has tried following the link, but the browser (running in Windows) thinks that the page should be loaded/ executed in another program and attempts (unsuccessfully) to find it. Although the link works fine for me on several different computers, I had a similar problem in the past with URLs ending in .asp when using Internet Explorer.

Question 1. Is there a way to get around this problem at the web site level (i.e. can I do some kind of indirect linking to bypass the problem) in case others have similar browser problems?

Question 2. Assuming that this is a browser problem, how do I go about fixing it?

Thanks for the help,
Matt

[Hunkorama417]

Just a guess, but did you type print "Content-type:text/html\n\n"; in your Perl script before any output is sent to the browser? If you didn't add that stuff in bold to your Perl script and it should work.
------------------
Andrew
www.digi-FX.net (http://www.digi-FX.net)

[Rich]

Is the .pl document located in your cgi-bin? It should be. :)

Rich

[Matt]

Unfortunately the Perl script resides on an external server. Specifically the problem is this: I am using Everyone.net to provide web-based e-mail. The HTML login code they provide all looks fine. For new users, the following link is provided:
<a href=&quot;http://webspacemail.mail.everyone.net/email/scripts/useragreement.pl&quot;>

When I press the New User hyperlink (the one specified above), it works fine, pulling up the page above. However, for a friend, it attempts to load the file in another nonexistent program.

Because I cannot modify the Perl script itself, I can't follow Hunkorama417's suggestion. How would I check that the Perl script includes the suggested line since it doesn't reside on my server. If the general consensus is that the Perl script is the source of the problem, I'll e-mail Everyone.net.

-Matt<!-- NO_AUTO_LINK -->

[Keiichi]

if it is the perl script that causes it, then you probably only can mail them about it.

btw, what is this 'non existant program' you're talking about?

[Arthur]

The web server does send back the right content type (text/html). Here's the header it sends back;
GET http://partners.everyone.net/412990/email/scripts/useragreement.pl?EV1=9786369393439291 HTTP/1.0

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 19:43:23 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.9 (Unix) mod_perl/1.21
Set-Cookie: EONSHARED_412990=cv&amp;3463608_HlyhFBvXU2mcEkpLiQpsrsUiX&amp;SO&amp;0&amp;sp&amp;2&amp;L A&amp;978637405; domain=partners.everyone.net; path=/
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

--
Arthur<!-- NO_AUTO_LINK -->

[Matt]

When the link is followed using the particular computer/ browser, Windows asks &quot;what application to use.&quot; I am suspecting that Windows is trying to open/ execute the .pl file with a program external to that of the browser and can't find it (i.e. the &quot;non-existent program&quot;). As mentioned previously, I have in the past had similar problems with .asp pages using Windows/ Internet Explorer. Thus, I suspect the browser is at fault (e.g. something is set improperly in the preferences).

If no one else is familiar with this problem, it is likely fruitless to pursue, I'll just have to tell the user &quot;sorry, you're browser's not working right and I don't know how to fix it.&quot; Ideally, however, I'd like to be able to provide a work-around (or at least have some idea of what's going wrong).

Thanks for all the suggestions so far,
Matt<!-- NO_AUTO_LINK -->

[jimbo]

The only thing close to what you're describing is when Server Guardian kicks into action, sometimes it will ask you to download a file when you click on a link to a cgi script.[nbsp][nbsp]The other time I've seen this happen is when I had installed PHP on a server, but hadn't set the application type in the Apache config file.[nbsp][nbsp]It asked me to download the php script I had clicked on.

I've never been asked to locate a program, however.

-jim

[Matt]

You mentioned Server Guardian? Is this some sort of external filtering/ firewall program? The user that is having problems is viewing the page through a network that has filtering/ monitoring/ firewall software installed on it. If the problem is the firewall, there's not much I can do to accomodate the user.

-Matt

[Terra]

Guardian monitors various server operating parameters, and does not intercept/modify/block any content whatsoever...

--
Terra
--Keep looking, there is nothing here to see--
FutureQuest

[dank]

It doesn't quite sound like this is the case based on your description, but often times when a .pl file requests to be downloaded, it means there is an error in the program.[nbsp][nbsp]If you go ahead and download it, or just view it without saying ok to download, the source code that results might indicate what the error is.

If that is the case, I'm not sure why it works for you...[nbsp][nbsp]Possibly an error based on user input?

Dan

[Rich]

There are one or two reasons that can cause this behavior:

(1) The server does not have the correct mime-type defined for the file type (.pl in this case). Since you can correctly access the file but another person can't, then this is not the problem here.

(2) The file contains java/javascript and the browser does not have java and/or javascript execution enabled. This is most probably the case here.

Rich

[Matt]

Thanks for all the helpful information. How were you able to check the header, Arthur?

It turns out that what may be partially responsible is software called X-Stop, which is used to deny employees access to certain web sites, including web-based e-mail sites. I am not sure exactly what X-Stop is doing, but perhaps it is malforming the headers (?). I was unaware that filtering software is being used to the extent of blocking access to all web-based e-mail sites (I'm using Everyone.net), but in this particular case, it is.

This may affect anyone else providing web-based e-mail on their site. This bothers me personally as businesses are firing employees for using the company e-mail system for personal e-mail and now apparently denying them access to web-based systems for sending personal e-mail. If anyone else running a web-based e-mail service is interested learning more about X-Stop, let me know. If I had some support I would seriously consider pursuing this matter further.

-Matt

[Arthur]

How were you able to check the header, Arthur? By telnetting to port 80 on a webserver you can see the response from the webserver to a request. E.g. on FQ;
HEAD / HTTP/1.0

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 17:22:30 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.12 (Unix) PHP/3.0.16 mod_macro/1.1.1
X-Powered-By: PHP/3.0.16
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

(GET / HTTP/1.0[nbsp][nbsp]gets the whole index page)

Arthur

[Kara]

I'm glad you figured out the problem.[nbsp][nbsp]I'm about to sign up with everyone.net so now I will know what to tell them.


This bothers me personally as businesses are firing employees for using the company e-mail system for personal e-mail and now apparently denying them access to web-based systems for sending personal e-mail.
I guess the company would rather pay their employee to work as opposed to sending non-work related e-mail.

Maybe your website users company has a computer for the employees to use without a &quot;net nanny&quot; for when they are on break or lunch hour (ie off company time).[nbsp][nbsp]

Kara
[nbsp]- would make a mean boss