Alan J Robertson wrote:
Robert Aldwinckle wrote:
Hi Robert

Q: Are you still using the option
Show friendly HTTP error messages
(an unfortunate default in Options, Advanced tab, Browsing section)

If so, uncheck that. Then you will see what error messages your
server (or your proxy) is really sending.

OK, I have done - will wait for the problem to next occur (it's quite
unpredictable)

Again, taking a trace would be the best diagnostic for this symptom.


FYI in the hypothesised case, the s: would normally be replaced by
the domain name of the page being requested. That is just intended
to help users with a standard troubleshooting technique (e.g.
especially for HTTP 404 error codes) of backing up the path of a
URL, trying to find something which is accessible (such as an index
page, search page, etc.) Typically when you enter a domain name with
just the root path
specified or no path specified you would get the default page of the
site (aka its Home page.)

Yep, I know that - what I'm thinking is that OE is for some reason
passing the URL to IE as being "s:" or suchlike for some reason.

OK - follow-up. I've disabled the friendly HTTP error messages but they
won't disappear! (the option is definitely unchecked) - even tried
restarting the PC, but they still persist!

Some other things I've noticed -

the "s:" link in the error message - I realised that when I hovered the
mouse over this link it wasn't actually pointing to "s:" but instead to
"res://shdoclc/syntax.htm#" - I think the s came from the end of res.

Cheers & thanks for your ongoing advice!

Alan

PS You mentioned 'taking a trace' of the problem - what does this involve?
Do you mean just a tracert? If I copy and past the URL it shows absolutely
fine in IE, it's just when I CLICK on a link the OE that it sometimes
occurs. Do you mean some way of getting windows scripting to follow what's
happening?

"Alan J Robertson" wrote in message

....
OK - follow-up. I've disabled the friendly HTTP error messages but they
won't disappear! (the option is definitely unchecked) - even tried
restarting the PC, but they still persist!

Some other things I've noticed -

the "s:" link in the error message - I realised that when I hovered the
mouse over this link it wasn't actually pointing to "s:" but instead to
"res://shdoclc/syntax.htm#" - I think the s came from the end of res.


Ah, in that case I agree--your idea about it being an internal problem
could be just as valid.

That URL is a self-reference, which you can see just by entering it
in the Address bar. I don't know if there is a way to request a different
link to be specified with it. Notice though that it perfectly validates
Frank's suggestion that scripting may be involved. Use View, Source
on that page and do a find for script.

Hmm... there are several comments in there to give some clues about how
the Homepage() function is supposed to work, including some instructions
for testing it. The comments were obviously copied from another source
file and there are some typos in it to make us work harder eg but here is
an example which I got to work first:

example
res://shdoclc.dll/syntax.htm#https://www.microsoft.com/bar.htm
/example

That is just an obvious example from following the comments
and adjusting them to this particular page. From there we could
experiment to see how closely to a valid URL we could come
but still result in your symptom. Clearly there are a lot of possible
cases which will not be handled by this function. Depending on
how its inputs are filtered by its callers it may be valid that it is
not coded more carefully to catch such cases.

The first thing it looks for is ://
Therefore any URL passed to it which is not prefixed by
a conventional protocol prefix will cause the symptom.

Then strangely it assumes that there must be a slash
also present. However (this is the really strange part)
if the slash is missing but the URL is otherwise fine
the end result is somehow the whole expression!

example
res://shdoclc.dll/syntax.htm#https://www.microsoft.com
/example


This doesn't even get into the question of why this routine
is being called in the first place but could explain why you
are getting that s: symptom.


PS You mentioned 'taking a trace' of the problem - what does this involve?
Do you mean just a tracert?

I meant do at minimum an HTTP packet capture
so you can see both the actual requests and responses
the same as IE is seeing them. To do that you could use
a proxy tracer such as FiddlerTool or you could capture
all TCP/IP packets using netcap (from the XP Pro Support
Tools package) and format them with Ethereal (freeware).


If I copy and past the URL it shows absolutely
fine in IE, it's just when I CLICK on a link the OE that it sometimes
occurs. Do you mean some way of getting windows scripting to follow what's
happening?



Let's examine your examples in more detail then.

Are the examples you gave from HTML E-mail?
How did you extract them? E.g. with right-click Copy Shortcut
or by capturing the text portion of the anchor?
(I'm thinking that HTML source may be the problem
in a similar way that phishing sites exploit it.)
Also a common problem with HTML links is for posters
to try pasting in a partial URL and then editing it,
not realizing that they are only editing an anchor's displayed
text, not the actual HREF itself. In order to do that
in OE they should use the Edit menu's Remove Hyperlink
command, edit the text and then when it is converted
to a link the HREF and the text will be the same.



Cheers & thanks for your ongoing advice!

Alan



HTH

Robert
---

Robert Aldwinckle wrote:
Let's examine your examples in more detail then.

Are the examples you gave from HTML E-mail?
How did you extract them? E.g. with right-click Copy Shortcut
or by capturing the text portion of the anchor?
(I'm thinking that HTML source may be the problem
in a similar way that phishing sites exploit it.)
Also a common problem with HTML links is for posters
to try pasting in a partial URL and then editing it,
not realizing that they are only editing an anchor's displayed
text, not the actual HREF itself. In order to do that
in OE they should use the Edit menu's Remove Hyperlink
command, edit the text and then when it is converted
to a link the HREF and the text will be the same.

Thanks very much for all your advice, Robert. The problem is actually
occuring on my parents' machine - I use Outlook myself and don't have any
problems with it. Unfortunately I've only been home for the course of this
week and have been trying to fix it while I was here - I think it may all be
a bit too complex for them to try scripting, etc.

The examples of sites not working all come from e-mails and newsgroup
postings. The majority of these are NOT HTML based, but in fact plain-text.
It's possible that these are ALL plain text, I can't quite remember for
certain. This certainly confirms that the problem is not due to a malformed
URL in the message itself. As I mentioned it seems to be the case that
sometimes a link will work, other times it doesn't. Many of the links are
from automated plain-text forum e-mails notifying me of an update to a
thread I'm watching - this may however just be because most of the links I
click on in e-mails are in those types of e-mails!

Sometimes the links work, yet in the very next e-mail I'll find it doesn't
work. These are e-mails sent from the same site and the same server.

Interestingly it seems that right-click and copy shortcut does NOT work on
links where I've clicked and received an 'invalid syntax error' message. I
instead have to highlight the text and do a copy and paste.

I've clicked on a number of links in Firefox (I use the portable verion on a
USB stick to monitor some newsgroups) and have had no issues at all with
links there.

So in summary it seems to be a problem with URLs in plain text e-mails that
OE is automatically turning into links. It does not seem to be related to
the URLs themselves as far as I can tell - sometimes a URL will work and
then refuse to work a few hours later. Almost identical URLs will work/not
work with no discernable pattern.

At least the workaround of highlight, copy, paste does work, it's just
annoying that the problem is so inconsistent!

Any suggestions from the MVPs? - is this linked to the MSKB article I
referenced initially?

Cheers

Alan

Try going to Start | Program Access and Defaults and make OE default and see
if that fixes it.

steve

"Alan J Robertson" wrote
in message news
Robert Aldwinckle wrote:
Let's examine your examples in more detail then.

Are the examples you gave from HTML E-mail?
How did you extract them? E.g. with right-click Copy Shortcut
or by capturing the text portion of the anchor?
(I'm thinking that HTML source may be the problem
in a similar way that phishing sites exploit it.)
Also a common problem with HTML links is for posters
to try pasting in a partial URL and then editing it,
not realizing that they are only editing an anchor's displayed
text, not the actual HREF itself. In order to do that
in OE they should use the Edit menu's Remove Hyperlink
command, edit the text and then when it is converted
to a link the HREF and the text will be the same.

Thanks very much for all your advice, Robert. The problem is actually
occuring on my parents' machine - I use Outlook myself and don't have any
problems with it. Unfortunately I've only been home for the course of
this week and have been trying to fix it while I was here - I think it may
all be a bit too complex for them to try scripting, etc.

The examples of sites not working all come from e-mails and newsgroup
postings. The majority of these are NOT HTML based, but in fact
plain-text. It's possible that these are ALL plain text, I can't quite
remember for certain. This certainly confirms that the problem is not due
to a malformed URL in the message itself. As I mentioned it seems to be
the case that sometimes a link will work, other times it doesn't. Many of
the links are from automated plain-text forum e-mails notifying me of an
update to a thread I'm watching - this may however just be because most of
the links I click on in e-mails are in those types of e-mails!

Sometimes the links work, yet in the very next e-mail I'll find it doesn't
work. These are e-mails sent from the same site and the same server.

Interestingly it seems that right-click and copy shortcut does NOT work on
links where I've clicked and received an 'invalid syntax error' message.
I instead have to highlight the text and do a copy and paste.

I've clicked on a number of links in Firefox (I use the portable verion on
a USB stick to monitor some newsgroups) and have had no issues at all with
links there.

So in summary it seems to be a problem with URLs in plain text e-mails
that OE is automatically turning into links. It does not seem to be
related to the URLs themselves as far as I can tell - sometimes a URL will
work and then refuse to work a few hours later. Almost identical URLs
will work/not work with no discernable pattern.

At least the workaround of highlight, copy, paste does work, it's just
annoying that the problem is so inconsistent!

Any suggestions from the MVPs? - is this linked to the MSKB article I
referenced initially?

Cheers

Alan

I am curious, Steve. Do you live in Maryland. If you do, and you live
close to Leeds road, I am a good friend of your wife. My name is Krissy.
But, I am just curious, you may not be the only Steve Cochran in the world.

--
KRISTINE CAMPBELL
"Steve Cochran" wrote in message
...
Try going to Start | Program Access and Defaults and make OE default and
see
if that fixes it.

steve

"Alan J Robertson"
wrote
in message news
Robert Aldwinckle wrote:
Let's examine your examples in more detail then.

Are the examples you gave from HTML E-mail?
How did you extract them? E.g. with right-click Copy Shortcut
or by capturing the text portion of the anchor?
(I'm thinking that HTML source may be the problem
in a similar way that phishing sites exploit it.)
Also a common problem with HTML links is for posters
to try pasting in a partial URL and then editing it,
not realizing that they are only editing an anchor's displayed
text, not the actual HREF itself. In order to do that
in OE they should use the Edit menu's Remove Hyperlink
command, edit the text and then when it is converted
to a link the HREF and the text will be the same.

Thanks very much for all your advice, Robert. The problem is actually
occuring on my parents' machine - I use Outlook myself and don't have
any
problems with it. Unfortunately I've only been home for the course of
this week and have been trying to fix it while I was here - I think it
may
all be a bit too complex for them to try scripting, etc.

The examples of sites not working all come from e-mails and newsgroup
postings. The majority of these are NOT HTML based, but in fact
plain-text. It's possible that these are ALL plain text, I can't quite
remember for certain. This certainly confirms that the problem is not
due
to a malformed URL in the message itself. As I mentioned it seems to
be
the case that sometimes a link will work, other times it doesn't. Many
of
the links are from automated plain-text forum e-mails notifying me of
an
update to a thread I'm watching - this may however just be because most
of
the links I click on in e-mails are in those types of e-mails!

Sometimes the links work, yet in the very next e-mail I'll find it
doesn't
work. These are e-mails sent from the same site and the same server.

Interestingly it seems that right-click and copy shortcut does NOT work
on
links where I've clicked and received an 'invalid syntax error'
message.
I instead have to highlight the text and do a copy and paste.

I've clicked on a number of links in Firefox (I use the portable verion
on
a USB stick to monitor some newsgroups) and have had no issues at all
with
links there.

So in summary it seems to be a problem with URLs in plain text e-mails
that OE is automatically turning into links. It does not seem to be
related to the URLs themselves as far as I can tell - sometimes a URL
will
work and then refuse to work a few hours later. Almost identical URLs
will work/not work with no discernable pattern.

At least the workaround of highlight, copy, paste does work, it's just
annoying that the problem is so inconsistent!

Any suggestions from the MVPs? - is this linked to the MSKB article I
referenced initially?

Cheers

Alan




---
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Virus Database (VPS): 0606-2, 02/07/2006
Tested on: 2/7/2006 8:20:02 PM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com

Incoming! Duck!

KRISTINE CAMPBELL wrote:
I am curious, Steve. Do you live in Maryland. If you do, and you live
close to Leeds road, I am a good friend of your wife. My name is Krissy.
But, I am just curious, you may not be the only Steve Cochran in the
world.

ROFL......



"PA Bear" wrote in message
...
Incoming! Duck!

KRISTINE CAMPBELL wrote:
I am curious, Steve. Do you live in Maryland. If you do, and you live
close to Leeds road, I am a good friend of your wife. My name is Krissy.
But, I am just curious, you may not be the only Steve Cochran in the
world.

No. Not me.

I hope you aren't too good a friend of my wife. She never mentioned you,
but I've been afraid something could be going on. She's never home.


"KRISTINE CAMPBELL" wrote in message
...
I am curious, Steve. Do you live in Maryland. If you do, and you live
close to Leeds road, I am a good friend of your wife. My name is Krissy.
But, I am just curious, you may not be the only Steve Cochran in the
world.

--
KRISTINE CAMPBELL
"Steve Cochran" wrote in message
...
Try going to Start | Program Access and Defaults and make OE default
and see
if that fixes it.

steve

"Alan J Robertson"
wrote
in message news
Robert Aldwinckle wrote:
Let's examine your examples in more detail then.

Are the examples you gave from HTML E-mail?
How did you extract them? E.g. with right-click Copy Shortcut
or by capturing the text portion of the anchor?
(I'm thinking that HTML source may be the problem
in a similar way that phishing sites exploit it.)
Also a common problem with HTML links is for posters
to try pasting in a partial URL and then editing it,
not realizing that they are only editing an anchor's displayed
text, not the actual HREF itself. In order to do that
in OE they should use the Edit menu's Remove Hyperlink
command, edit the text and then when it is converted
to a link the HREF and the text will be the same.

Thanks very much for all your advice, Robert. The problem is actually
occuring on my parents' machine - I use Outlook myself and don't have
any
problems with it. Unfortunately I've only been home for the course of
this week and have been trying to fix it while I was here - I think it
may
all be a bit too complex for them to try scripting, etc.

The examples of sites not working all come from e-mails and newsgroup
postings. The majority of these are NOT HTML based, but in fact
plain-text. It's possible that these are ALL plain text, I can't quite
remember for certain. This certainly confirms that the problem is not
due
to a malformed URL in the message itself. As I mentioned it seems to
be
the case that sometimes a link will work, other times it doesn't.
Many of
the links are from automated plain-text forum e-mails notifying me of
an
update to a thread I'm watching - this may however just be because
most of
the links I click on in e-mails are in those types of e-mails!

Sometimes the links work, yet in the very next e-mail I'll find it
doesn't
work. These are e-mails sent from the same site and the same server.

Interestingly it seems that right-click and copy shortcut does NOT
work on
links where I've clicked and received an 'invalid syntax error'
message.
I instead have to highlight the text and do a copy and paste.

I've clicked on a number of links in Firefox (I use the portable
verion on
a USB stick to monitor some newsgroups) and have had no issues at all
with
links there.

So in summary it seems to be a problem with URLs in plain text e-mails
that OE is automatically turning into links. It does not seem to be
related to the URLs themselves as far as I can tell - sometimes a URL
will
work and then refuse to work a few hours later. Almost identical URLs
will work/not work with no discernable pattern.

At least the workaround of highlight, copy, paste does work, it's just
annoying that the problem is so inconsistent!

Any suggestions from the MVPs? - is this linked to the MSKB article I
referenced initially?

Cheers

Alan




---
avast! Antivirus: Inbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0606-2, 02/07/2006
Tested on: 2/7/2006 8:20:02 PM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com

Did you see this?



AFLAC!

I'm in big trouble now.

This may change my mind about munging my email address. VBG


steve

"PA Bear" wrote in message
...
Incoming! Duck!

KRISTINE CAMPBELL wrote:
I am curious, Steve. Do you live in Maryland. If you do, and you live
close to Leeds road, I am a good friend of your wife. My name is Krissy.
But, I am just curious, you may not be the only Steve Cochran in the
world.

Screen wipe, please.

Steve Cochran wrote:
No. Not me.

I hope you aren't too good a friend of my wife. She never mentioned you,
but I've been afraid something could be going on. She's never home.


"KRISTINE CAMPBELL" wrote in message
...
I am curious, Steve. Do you live in Maryland. If you do, and you live
close to Leeds road, I am a good friend of your wife. My name is Krissy.
But, I am just curious, you may not be the only Steve Cochran in the
world.

--
KRISTINE CAMPBELL
"Steve Cochran" wrote in message
...
Try going to Start | Program Access and Defaults and make OE default
and see
if that fixes it.

steve

"Alan J Robertson"
wrote
in message news Robert Aldwinckle wrote:
Let's examine your examples in more detail then.

Are the examples you gave from HTML E-mail?
How did you extract them? E.g. with right-click Copy Shortcut
or by capturing the text portion of the anchor?
(I'm thinking that HTML source may be the problem
in a similar way that phishing sites exploit it.)
Also a common problem with HTML links is for posters
to try pasting in a partial URL and then editing it,
not realizing that they are only editing an anchor's displayed
text, not the actual HREF itself. In order to do that
in OE they should use the Edit menu's Remove Hyperlink
command, edit the text and then when it is converted
to a link the HREF and the text will be the same.

Thanks very much for all your advice, Robert. The problem is
actually
occuring on my parents' machine - I use Outlook myself and don't have
any
problems with it. Unfortunately I've only been home for the course
of
this week and have been trying to fix it while I was here - I think
it
may
all be a bit too complex for them to try scripting, etc.

The examples of sites not working all come from e-mails and newsgroup
postings. The majority of these are NOT HTML based, but in fact
plain-text. It's possible that these are ALL plain text, I can't
quite
remember for certain. This certainly confirms that the problem is
not
due
to a malformed URL in the message itself. As I mentioned it seems to
be
the case that sometimes a link will work, other times it doesn't.
Many of
the links are from automated plain-text forum e-mails notifying me of
an
update to a thread I'm watching - this may however just be because
most of
the links I click on in e-mails are in those types of e-mails!

Sometimes the links work, yet in the very next e-mail I'll find it
doesn't
work. These are e-mails sent from the same site and the same server.

Interestingly it seems that right-click and copy shortcut does NOT
work on
links where I've clicked and received an 'invalid syntax error'
message.
I instead have to highlight the text and do a copy and paste.

I've clicked on a number of links in Firefox (I use the portable
verion on
a USB stick to monitor some newsgroups) and have had no issues at all
with
links there.

So in summary it seems to be a problem with URLs in plain text
e-mails
that OE is automatically turning into links. It does not seem to be
related to the URLs themselves as far as I can tell - sometimes a URL
will
work and then refuse to work a few hours later. Almost identical
URLs
will work/not work with no discernable pattern.

At least the workaround of highlight, copy, paste does work, it's
just
annoying that the problem is so inconsistent!

Any suggestions from the MVPs? - is this linked to the MSKB article I
referenced initially?

Cheers

Alan




---
avast! Antivirus: Inbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0606-2, 02/07/2006
Tested on: 2/7/2006 8:20:02 PM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com