Cannot download a Word doc with IE, but can with Mozilla

[Mark Wang]

Hi all --

Please try the following URL:

http://www.wcfellowship.org/wcc/2005/scholarship_form.doc

It works fine in Mozilla. But when I try to download in IE 6
(6.0.2900.2180.xp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158, or
6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2_gdr.040517-1325), it gives me this unhelpful error:

"Internet Explorer cannot download scholarship_Form.doc from
www.wcfellowship.org.

Internet Explorer was not able to open this Internet site. The
reqeusted site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try
again later."

It works fine in Mozilla.

The server logs (we are using IIS 5) seem to indicate a successful
download, with a 200 HTTP status code.

Even more strangely, I can access the site itself fine in IE... just
can't download that Word doc, so it is not a network, server, or DNS
issue. I have also turned off all virus protection for testing and
still get this error.

Can anyone think of a possible cause? Please let me know if you need
more info. Thank you!

-- Mark

 

[Mark Wang]

BTW, scholarship_Form.doc in the error message is actually
"scholarship_form.doc", ie, the error is not related to
capitalization...

 

[Mark Wang]

OK, I found that the download works if there is HTTP referer
information being sent (eg, link from another web page), but it fails
if there is no HTTP referer (manually typing the URL into the browser).
Any ideas as to why?! This is not logical...

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Hi all --

Please try the following URL:

http://www.wcfellowship.org/wcc/2005/scholarship_form.doc

It works fine in Mozilla. But when I try to download in IE 6

Are you trying to *open* it in IE6 or download it in IE6.
Use right-click, Save Target As... to do the latter.

It's possible that you have your IE set up so that it will open
..doc files only in Word or WordViewer (similar to the way that
..pdf files can be made to be opened only in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader
instead of being allowed also to be opened by a browser.)

You can find KB articles about how to change this as you prefer
using the Folder Options tool. Note most of the articles were
written for earlier versions of IE but still have applicability to IE6.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[Courtney]

Add www.wcfellowship.org to your trusted sites list.

courtney sends....