Download Failure Problem in IE 6

[Guest]

Dear Experts (and Microsoft MVPs):

I am experiencing a strange Internet Explorer error on my desktop box that I
hope a System Administrator (or MVP) has seen before. This error is
occurring when I attempt to download a zip file (or a portable document file)
from a web site. This error has occurred on multiple web sites, (including
Microsoft web sites!), so I don’t think it’s a problem with just a single [or
a few] web sites. I’m getting this error whenever I attempt a file download
– regardless of the web site I’m attempting to download from. Prior to a few
days ago file downloads were going without a hitch, so this is something that
has just cropped up. OK, the problem.

When I double-click a zip file download hyperlink, (or a pdf file download
hyperlink), a “File Download†window pops up and the downloading process
attempts to start. Almost immediately a “Microsoft Internet Explorer†window
pops up (over the “File Download†window) and the following message appears
next to a red circle containing a white “X†– which I think is IE’s way of
saying this is a fatal (or critical) error:

Error message text: “Internet Explorer cannot download
<filename.zip/filename.pdf> from <website or web server>. Internet Explorer
was not able to open this internet site. The requested site is either
unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.â€

When I click the “OK†button that accompanies the error message, both the
error message window (and the “File Download†window) close and the download
fails. That is the problem.

Additional Details:

I can navigate to most web sites and read hyperlinked articles with no
problem, so Internet Explorer is working – to that extent. It is only when I
attempt to download (and save) a zip file or a pdf file (or a video clip)
that I get this strange error message. (I am running Internet Explorer
Version: “6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254†on a Windows XP SP2 box –
if that helps any.)

As an example of the strange behavior I’m seeing, I attempted to download
the MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer) utility from Microsoft’s
Internet Explorer 6 home page. (I was hoping to run this utility to see if
there were any misconfigurations [or other errors] in my security settings
and what Microsoft might recommend that I do in order to correct such
problems.) When I clicked on the “Download†button control on Microsoft’s
web page, the “File Download†window opened and the familiar “floating sheetâ€
graphic started moving from left to right - as it normally does when a file
download is in progress. However, the progress bar was blank, (indicating
that no data was being transmitted), and the following informational lines
all displayed blank data.

Estimated time left: <blank – no data displayed>
Download to: <blank – no data displayed>
Transfer rate: <blank – no data displayed>

After approximately 5-8 seconds, the IE “fatal error†window (that I have
described previously) popped up. So, it appears that something is going on
in Internet Explorer which is preventing me from being able to download files
and video clips from the internet.

A friend suggested that I disable my firewall (Zone Alarm Pro) and try a
download with the firewall disabled. I disabled ZA with the same result:
Attempted downloads fail with the same error message dialogue. I also
attempted to lower my security setting from “Medium†to “Low†[in Internet
Explorer] to see if my security settings were somehow affecting file
downloads. However, IE didn’t like this and automatically “readjusted†my
setting back to “Mediumâ€. (Internet Explorer would not let me lower my
security setting. Microsoft must consider this a very “bad†thing to try to
do …)

I have found a KB article, (i.e. KB 317208), entitled “Internet Explorer
Cannot Download Office Documents from an IIS Server When Content Expiration
is Set to Expire Immediately†which reports the same error message that I
have described. However, despite the fact that the error message(s) are
identical, I don’t think this is the source of the problem. KB 317208
indicates that this error is caused by an incorrect setting on the IIS server
– and NOT on the user’s client machine – so I don’t think this is the [real]
source of my problem. However, it is interesting that I’m getting the same
error message (under “Symptomsâ€) as that reported in KB 317208.

I’m at my wits end on this one. If anybody knows what might be going on
here, I will be very grateful for any help or suggestions. In the meantime
I’m back to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base (and this discussion board) to see if
I can track this down.

TIA,

Alan C. Lawhon
Huntsville, Alabama

 

[Guest]

This is a little embarrassing, but (maybe) I've stumbled upon the solution to
my own problem. I located my "Temporary Internet Files" folder, clicked on
"Properties" and discovered that the size of the folder was 911 MB - which
was quite substantial. The "Size on Disk" was 1.32 GB - also quite
substantial. The folder statistics further indicated that there were 39,292
files [in the folder] along with 28 subfolders. (When I looked inside the
folder, I only saw a couple of hundred cookie files, so there must be 39,000+
"hidden" files in there.)

Next I opened up IE and drilled down to "Tools," "Internet
Options,"Temporary Internet Files". I clicked the "Settings" button and
noted the following information. Under "Amount of disk space to use:" the
slider was right in the middle of the range, but the variable size box (to
the right of the slider) read "9996 MB". I think the problem here might be
that I've exceeded the allocated space allotment for my Temporary Internet
Files folder. If that is indeed the case, could this cause downloads to fail
in Internet Explorer - or does the browser cache have nothing to do with the
Temporary Internet Files folder?

Thanks,

Alan C. Lawhon

Dear Experts (and Microsoft MVPs):

I am experiencing a strange Internet Explorer error on my desktop box that I
hope a System Administrator (or MVP) has seen before. This error is
occurring when I attempt to download a zip file (or a portable document file)
from a web site. This error has occurred on multiple web sites, (including
Microsoft web sites!), so I don’t think it’s a problem with just a single [or
a few] web sites. I’m getting this error whenever I attempt a file download
– regardless of the web site I’m attempting to download from. Prior to a few
days ago file downloads were going without a hitch, so this is something that
has just cropped up. OK, the problem.

When I double-click a zip file download hyperlink, (or a pdf file download
hyperlink), a “File Download†window pops up and the downloading process
attempts to start. Almost immediately a “Microsoft Internet Explorer†window
pops up (over the “File Download†window) and the following message appears
next to a red circle containing a white “X†– which I think is IE’s way of
saying this is a fatal (or critical) error:

Error message text: “Internet Explorer cannot download
<filename.zip/filename.pdf> from <website or web server>. Internet Explorer
was not able to open this internet site. The requested site is either
unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.â€

When I click the “OK†button that accompanies the error message, both the
error message window (and the “File Download†window) close and the download
fails. That is the problem.

Additional Details:

I can navigate to most web sites and read hyperlinked articles with no
problem, so Internet Explorer is working – to that extent. It is only when I
attempt to download (and save) a zip file or a pdf file (or a video clip)
that I get this strange error message. (I am running Internet Explorer
Version: “6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254†on a Windows XP SP2 box –
if that helps any.)

As an example of the strange behavior I’m seeing, I attempted to download
the MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer) utility from Microsoft’s
Internet Explorer 6 home page. (I was hoping to run this utility to see if
there were any misconfigurations [or other errors] in my security settings
and what Microsoft might recommend that I do in order to correct such
problems.) When I clicked on the “Download†button control on Microsoft’s
web page, the “File Download†window opened and the familiar “floating sheetâ€
graphic started moving from left to right - as it normally does when a file
download is in progress. However, the progress bar was blank, (indicating
that no data was being transmitted), and the following informational lines
all displayed blank data.

Estimated time left: <blank – no data displayed>
Download to: <blank – no data displayed>
Transfer rate: <blank – no data displayed>

After approximately 5-8 seconds, the IE “fatal error†window (that I have
described previously) popped up. So, it appears that something is going on
in Internet Explorer which is preventing me from being able to download files
and video clips from the internet.

A friend suggested that I disable my firewall (Zone Alarm Pro) and try a
download with the firewall disabled. I disabled ZA with the same result:
Attempted downloads fail with the same error message dialogue. I also
attempted to lower my security setting from “Medium†to “Low†[in Internet
Explorer] to see if my security settings were somehow affecting file
downloads. However, IE didn’t like this and automatically “readjusted†my
setting back to “Mediumâ€. (Internet Explorer would not let me lower my
security setting. Microsoft must consider this a very “bad†thing to try to
do …)

I have found a KB article, (i.e. KB 317208), entitled “Internet Explorer
Cannot Download Office Documents from an IIS Server When Content Expiration
is Set to Expire Immediately†which reports the same error message that I
have described. However, despite the fact that the error message(s) are
identical, I don’t think this is the source of the problem. KB 317208
indicates that this error is caused by an incorrect setting on the IIS server
– and NOT on the user’s client machine – so I don’t think this is the [real]
source of my problem. However, it is interesting that I’m getting the same
error message (under “Symptomsâ€) as that reported in KB 317208.

I’m at my wits end on this one. If anybody knows what might be going on
here, I will be very grateful for any help or suggestions. In the meantime
I’m back to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base (and this discussion board) to see if
I can track this down.

TIA,

Alan C. Lawhon
Huntsville, Alabama

 

[Guest]

I have had quite a bit of discussion and back-and-forth today with some
friends about this problem. Earlier today I received a pdf file as an
attachment to an email. I tried saving this pdf file to my "My Documents"
folder. The copy (and transfer) worked perfectly, so the downloading problem
seems to be isolated to IE 6.

A friend thinks that I most likely have a corrupted (or bad) DLL file that
is causing downloads to fail. If that is the case, would this problem be
fixed by simply reinstalling IE 6, and, if so, how do I go about doing a
fresh reinstall of the browser? (Would I need to save my "Favorites" to an
html file before I attempt a fresh reinstall?)

Thanks,

Alan C. Lawhon
Huntsville, Alabama

Dear Experts (and Microsoft MVPs):

I am experiencing a strange Internet Explorer error on my desktop box that I
hope a System Administrator (or MVP) has seen before. This error is
occurring when I attempt to download a zip file (or a portable document file)
from a web site. This error has occurred on multiple web sites, (including
Microsoft web sites!), so I don’t think it’s a problem with just a single [or
a few] web sites. I’m getting this error whenever I attempt a file download
– regardless of the web site I’m attempting to download from. Prior to a few
days ago file downloads were going without a hitch, so this is something that
has just cropped up. OK, the problem.

When I double-click a zip file download hyperlink, (or a pdf file download
hyperlink), a “File Download†window pops up and the downloading process
attempts to start. Almost immediately a “Microsoft Internet Explorer†window
pops up (over the “File Download†window) and the following message appears
next to a red circle containing a white “X†– which I think is IE’s way of
saying this is a fatal (or critical) error:

Error message text: “Internet Explorer cannot download
<filename.zip/filename.pdf> from <website or web server>. Internet Explorer
was not able to open this internet site. The requested site is either
unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.â€

When I click the “OK†button that accompanies the error message, both the
error message window (and the “File Download†window) close and the download
fails. That is the problem.

Additional Details:

I can navigate to most web sites and read hyperlinked articles with no
problem, so Internet Explorer is working – to that extent. It is only when I
attempt to download (and save) a zip file or a pdf file (or a video clip)
that I get this strange error message. (I am running Internet Explorer
Version: “6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254†on a Windows XP SP2 box –
if that helps any.)

As an example of the strange behavior I’m seeing, I attempted to download
the MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer) utility from Microsoft’s
Internet Explorer 6 home page. (I was hoping to run this utility to see if
there were any misconfigurations [or other errors] in my security settings
and what Microsoft might recommend that I do in order to correct such
problems.) When I clicked on the “Download†button control on Microsoft’s
web page, the “File Download†window opened and the familiar “floating sheetâ€
graphic started moving from left to right - as it normally does when a file
download is in progress. However, the progress bar was blank, (indicating
that no data was being transmitted), and the following informational lines
all displayed blank data.

Estimated time left: <blank – no data displayed>
Download to: <blank – no data displayed>
Transfer rate: <blank – no data displayed>

After approximately 5-8 seconds, the IE “fatal error†window (that I have
described previously) popped up. So, it appears that something is going on
in Internet Explorer which is preventing me from being able to download files
and video clips from the internet.

A friend suggested that I disable my firewall (Zone Alarm Pro) and try a
download with the firewall disabled. I disabled ZA with the same result:
Attempted downloads fail with the same error message dialogue. I also
attempted to lower my security setting from “Medium†to “Low†[in Internet
Explorer] to see if my security settings were somehow affecting file
downloads. However, IE didn’t like this and automatically “readjusted†my
setting back to “Mediumâ€. (Internet Explorer would not let me lower my
security setting. Microsoft must consider this a very “bad†thing to try to
do …)

I have found a KB article, (i.e. KB 317208), entitled “Internet Explorer
Cannot Download Office Documents from an IIS Server When Content Expiration
is Set to Expire Immediately†which reports the same error message that I
have described. However, despite the fact that the error message(s) are
identical, I don’t think this is the source of the problem. KB 317208
indicates that this error is caused by an incorrect setting on the IIS server
– and NOT on the user’s client machine – so I don’t think this is the [real]
source of my problem. However, it is interesting that I’m getting the same
error message (under “Symptomsâ€) as that reported in KB 317208.

I’m at my wits end on this one. If anybody knows what might be going on
here, I will be very grateful for any help or suggestions. In the meantime
I’m back to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base (and this discussion board) to see if
I can track this down.

TIA,

Alan C. Lawhon
Huntsville, Alabama

 

[Gary Smith]

IE can run into problems managing the TIF folder when the number of stored
fiels gets large -- and 39,292 sounds large to me. The first thing I
would do is to empty the folder. In IE, go to Tools > Internet Options
and click the "Delete Files" button in the center of the General Tab.
Check the box labeled "Delete all offline content" and click OK. When
it's done (may take a while), click the Settings button and set the amount
of disk space to use to 50 or 100K. Then try your downloads again. If
clearing the TIF doesn't fix the problem, more drastic measures may be
needed, but it's always best to try the easy apporach first.

This is a little embarrassing, but (maybe) I've stumbled upon the solution to
my own problem. I located my "Temporary Internet Files" folder, clicked on
"Properties" and discovered that the size of the folder was 911 MB - which
was quite substantial. The "Size on Disk" was 1.32 GB - also quite
substantial. The folder statistics further indicated that there were 39,292
files [in the folder] along with 28 subfolders. (When I looked inside the
folder, I only saw a couple of hundred cookie files, so there must be 39,000+
"hidden" files in there.)

Next I opened up IE and drilled down to "Tools," "Internet
Options,"Temporary Internet Files". I clicked the "Settings" button and
noted the following information. Under "Amount of disk space to use:" the
slider was right in the middle of the range, but the variable size box (to
the right of the slider) read "9996 MB". I think the problem here might be
that I've exceeded the allocated space allotment for my Temporary Internet
Files folder. If that is indeed the case, could this cause downloads to fail
in Internet Explorer - or does the browser cache have nothing to do with the
Temporary Internet Files folder?

Alan C. Lawhon

Dear Experts (and Microsoft MVPs):

I am experiencing a strange Internet Explorer error on my desktop box that I
hope a System Administrator (or MVP) has seen before. This error is
occurring when I attempt to download a zip file (or a portable document file)
from a web site. This error has occurred on multiple web sites, (including
Microsoft web sites!), so I don?t think it?s a problem with just a single [or
a few] web sites. I?m getting this error whenever I attempt a file download
? regardless of the web site I?m attempting to download from. Prior to a few
days ago file downloads were going without a hitch, so this is something that
has just cropped up. OK, the problem.

When I double-click a zip file download hyperlink, (or a pdf file download
hyperlink), a ?File Download? window pops up and the downloading process
attempts to start. Almost immediately a ?Microsoft Internet Explorer? window
pops up (over the ?File Download? window) and the following message appears
next to a red circle containing a white ?X? ? which I think is IE?s way of
saying this is a fatal (or critical) error:

Error message text: ?Internet Explorer cannot download
<filename.zip/filename.pdf> from <website or web server>. Internet Explorer
was not able to open this internet site. The requested site is either
unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.?

When I click the ?OK? button that accompanies the error message, both the
error message window (and the ?File Download? window) close and the download
fails. That is the problem.

Additional Details:

I can navigate to most web sites and read hyperlinked articles with no
problem, so Internet Explorer is working ? to that extent. It is only when I
attempt to download (and save) a zip file or a pdf file (or a video clip)
that I get this strange error message. (I am running Internet Explorer
Version: ?6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254? on a Windows XP SP2 box ?
if that helps any.)

As an example of the strange behavior I?m seeing, I attempted to download
the MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer) utility from Microsoft?s
Internet Explorer 6 home page. (I was hoping to run this utility to see if
there were any misconfigurations [or other errors] in my security settings
and what Microsoft might recommend that I do in order to correct such
problems.) When I clicked on the ?Download? button control on Microsoft?s
web page, the ?File Download? window opened and the familiar ?floating sheet?
graphic started moving from left to right - as it normally does when a file
download is in progress. However, the progress bar was blank, (indicating
that no data was being transmitted), and the following informational lines
all displayed blank data.

Estimated time left: <blank ? no data displayed>
Download to: <blank ? no data displayed>
Transfer rate: <blank ? no data displayed>

After approximately 5-8 seconds, the IE ?fatal error? window (that I have
described previously) popped up. So, it appears that something is going on
in Internet Explorer which is preventing me from being able to download files
and video clips from the internet.

A friend suggested that I disable my firewall (Zone Alarm Pro) and try a
download with the firewall disabled. I disabled ZA with the same result:
Attempted downloads fail with the same error message dialogue. I also
attempted to lower my security setting from ?Medium? to ?Low? [in Internet
Explorer] to see if my security settings were somehow affecting file
downloads. However, IE didn?t like this and automatically ?readjusted? my
setting back to ?Medium?. (Internet Explorer would not let me lower my
security setting. Microsoft must consider this a very ?bad? thing to try to
do ?)

I have found a KB article, (i.e. KB 317208), entitled ?Internet Explorer
Cannot Download Office Documents from an IIS Server When Content Expiration
is Set to Expire Immediately? which reports the same error message that I
have described. However, despite the fact that the error message(s) are
identical, I don?t think this is the source of the problem. KB 317208
indicates that this error is caused by an incorrect setting on the IIS server
? and NOT on the user?s client machine ? so I don?t think this is the [real]
source of my problem. However, it is interesting that I?m getting the same
error message (under ?Symptoms?) as that reported in KB 317208.

I?m at my wits end on this one. If anybody knows what might be going on
here, I will be very grateful for any help or suggestions. In the meantime
I?m back to Microsoft?s Knowledge Base (and this discussion board) to see if
I can track this down.

TIA,

Alan C. Lawhon
Huntsville, Alabama

 

[Guest]

Gary:

Thanks so much!! My "download problem" is fixed. (Hallalujah !!!)

I had tried your suggested solution earlier, but I was not checking the
"Delete all offline content" checkbox - which apparently made all the
difference in the world. Also, I wasn't sure if maybe, (just maybe), a vital
DLL file had gotten corrupted or damaged in my Windows installation, (as some
of my friends on a message board were suggesting), so I shut down all my
running applications and inserted my Windows XP SP2 CD and let it run a
reinstall. Amazingly, it worked!

I have followed your suggestion that I lower the slider (under the
"Settings" button in TIF) to a much lower value. This simple action has had
the much desired side effect of substantially increasing my available disk
space on my system drive. (Interestingly, my free space on drive C:\ had
fallen below 10 percent - which is not good.) Needless to say, I plan to
periodically "clear" my TIF so that this little problem never occurs again.

Thanks so much for pulling my fat out of the fire on this one. Oh, BTW,
tell your bosses that I approved a 30 percent pay raise on your next
performance appraisal !!!

Thanks again for taking the time to help me with this problem.

Alan C. Lawhon
Huntsville, Alabama

IE can run into problems managing the TIF folder when the number of stored
fiels gets large -- and 39,292 sounds large to me. The first thing I
would do is to empty the folder. In IE, go to Tools > Internet Options
and click the "Delete Files" button in the center of the General Tab.
Check the box labeled "Delete all offline content" and click OK. When
it's done (may take a while), click the Settings button and set the amount
of disk space to use to 50 or 100K. Then try your downloads again. If
clearing the TIF doesn't fix the problem, more drastic measures may be
needed, but it's always best to try the easy apporach first.

This is a little embarrassing, but (maybe) I've stumbled upon the solution to
my own problem. I located my "Temporary Internet Files" folder, clicked on
"Properties" and discovered that the size of the folder was 911 MB - which
was quite substantial. The "Size on Disk" was 1.32 GB - also quite
substantial. The folder statistics further indicated that there were 39,292
files [in the folder] along with 28 subfolders. (When I looked inside the
folder, I only saw a couple of hundred cookie files, so there must be 39,000+
"hidden" files in there.)

Next I opened up IE and drilled down to "Tools," "Internet
Options,"Temporary Internet Files". I clicked the "Settings" button and
noted the following information. Under "Amount of disk space to use:" the
slider was right in the middle of the range, but the variable size box (to
the right of the slider) read "9996 MB". I think the problem here might be
that I've exceeded the allocated space allotment for my Temporary Internet
Files folder. If that is indeed the case, could this cause downloads to fail
in Internet Explorer - or does the browser cache have nothing to do with the
Temporary Internet Files folder?

Alan C. Lawhon

Dear Experts (and Microsoft MVPs):

I am experiencing a strange Internet Explorer error on my desktop box that I
hope a System Administrator (or MVP) has seen before. This error is
occurring when I attempt to download a zip file (or a portable document file)
from a web site. This error has occurred on multiple web sites, (including
Microsoft web sites!), so I don?t think it?s a problem with just a single [or
a few] web sites. I?m getting this error whenever I attempt a file download
? regardless of the web site I?m attempting to download from. Prior to a few
days ago file downloads were going without a hitch, so this is something that
has just cropped up. OK, the problem.

When I double-click a zip file download hyperlink, (or a pdf file download
hyperlink), a ?File Download? window pops up and the downloading process
attempts to start. Almost immediately a ?Microsoft Internet Explorer? window
pops up (over the ?File Download? window) and the following message appears
next to a red circle containing a white ?X? ? which I think is IE?s way of
saying this is a fatal (or critical) error:

Error message text: ?Internet Explorer cannot download
<filename.zip/filename.pdf> from <website or web server>. Internet Explorer
was not able to open this internet site. The requested site is either
unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.?

When I click the ?OK? button that accompanies the error message, both the
error message window (and the ?File Download? window) close and the download
fails. That is the problem.

Additional Details:

I can navigate to most web sites and read hyperlinked articles with no
problem, so Internet Explorer is working ? to that extent. It is only when I
attempt to download (and save) a zip file or a pdf file (or a video clip)
that I get this strange error message. (I am running Internet Explorer
Version: ?6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254? on a Windows XP SP2 box ?
if that helps any.)

As an example of the strange behavior I?m seeing, I attempted to download
the MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer) utility from Microsoft?s
Internet Explorer 6 home page. (I was hoping to run this utility to see if
there were any misconfigurations [or other errors] in my security settings
and what Microsoft might recommend that I do in order to correct such
problems.) When I clicked on the ?Download? button control on Microsoft?s
web page, the ?File Download? window opened and the familiar ?floating sheet?
graphic started moving from left to right - as it normally does when a file
download is in progress. However, the progress bar was blank, (indicating
that no data was being transmitted), and the following informational lines
all displayed blank data.

Estimated time left: <blank ? no data displayed>
Download to: <blank ? no data displayed>
Transfer rate: <blank ? no data displayed>

After approximately 5-8 seconds, the IE ?fatal error? window (that I have
described previously) popped up. So, it appears that something is going on
in Internet Explorer which is preventing me from being able to download files
and video clips from the internet.

A friend suggested that I disable my firewall (Zone Alarm Pro) and try a
download with the firewall disabled. I disabled ZA with the same result:
Attempted downloads fail with the same error message dialogue. I also
attempted to lower my security setting from ?Medium? to ?Low? [in Internet
Explorer] to see if my security settings were somehow affecting file
downloads. However, IE didn?t like this and automatically ?readjusted? my
setting back to ?Medium?. (Internet Explorer would not let me lower my
security setting. Microsoft must consider this a very ?bad? thing to try to
do ?)

I have found a KB article, (i.e. KB 317208), entitled ?Internet Explorer
Cannot Download Office Documents from an IIS Server When Content Expiration
is Set to Expire Immediately? which reports the same error message that I
have described. However, despite the fact that the error message(s) are
identical, I don?t think this is the source of the problem. KB 317208
indicates that this error is caused by an incorrect setting on the IIS server
? and NOT on the user?s client machine ? so I don?t think this is the [real]
source of my problem. However, it is interesting that I?m getting the same
error message (under ?Symptoms?) as that reported in KB 317208.

I?m at my wits end on this one. If anybody knows what might be going on
here, I will be very grateful for any help or suggestions. In the meantime
I?m back to Microsoft?s Knowledge Base (and this discussion board) to see if
I can track this down.

TIA,

Alan C. Lawhon
Huntsville, Alabama

 

[Gary Smith]

You're welcome. I'm glad I could help. Cleaning the TIF regularly is a
good preventative for a lot of IE problems. IE just doesn't deal well
with large numbers of files.

Gary:

Thanks so much!! My "download problem" is fixed. (Hallalujah !!!)

I had tried your suggested solution earlier, but I was not checking the
"Delete all offline content" checkbox - which apparently made all the
difference in the world. Also, I wasn't sure if maybe, (just maybe), a vital
DLL file had gotten corrupted or damaged in my Windows installation, (as some
of my friends on a message board were suggesting), so I shut down all my
running applications and inserted my Windows XP SP2 CD and let it run a
reinstall. Amazingly, it worked!

I have followed your suggestion that I lower the slider (under the
"Settings" button in TIF) to a much lower value. This simple action has had
the much desired side effect of substantially increasing my available disk
space on my system drive. (Interestingly, my free space on drive C:\ had
fallen below 10 percent - which is not good.) Needless to say, I plan to
periodically "clear" my TIF so that this little problem never occurs again.

Thanks so much for pulling my fat out of the fire on this one. Oh, BTW,
tell your bosses that I approved a 30 percent pay raise on your next
performance appraisal !!!

Thanks again for taking the time to help me with this problem.

Alan C. Lawhon
Huntsville, Alabama

IE can run into problems managing the TIF folder when the number of stored
fiels gets large -- and 39,292 sounds large to me. The first thing I
would do is to empty the folder. In IE, go to Tools > Internet Options
and click the "Delete Files" button in the center of the General Tab.
Check the box labeled "Delete all offline content" and click OK. When
it's done (may take a while), click the Settings button and set the amount
of disk space to use to 50 or 100K. Then try your downloads again. If
clearing the TIF doesn't fix the problem, more drastic measures may be
needed, but it's always best to try the easy apporach first.

This is a little embarrassing, but (maybe) I've stumbled upon the solution to
my own problem. I located my "Temporary Internet Files" folder, clicked on
"Properties" and discovered that the size of the folder was 911 MB - which
was quite substantial. The "Size on Disk" was 1.32 GB - also quite
substantial. The folder statistics further indicated that there were 39,292
files [in the folder] along with 28 subfolders. (When I looked inside the
folder, I only saw a couple of hundred cookie files, so there must be 39,000+
"hidden" files in there.)

Next I opened up IE and drilled down to "Tools," "Internet
Options,"Temporary Internet Files". I clicked the "Settings" button and
noted the following information. Under "Amount of disk space to use:" the
slider was right in the middle of the range, but the variable size box (to
the right of the slider) read "9996 MB". I think the problem here might be
that I've exceeded the allocated space allotment for my Temporary Internet
Files folder. If that is indeed the case, could this cause downloads to fail
in Internet Explorer - or does the browser cache have nothing to do with the
Temporary Internet Files folder?

Alan C. Lawhon

"Alan C. Lawhon" wrote:

Dear Experts (and Microsoft MVPs):

I am experiencing a strange Internet Explorer error on my desktop box that I
hope a System Administrator (or MVP) has seen before. This error is
occurring when I attempt to download a zip file (or a portable document file)
from a web site. This error has occurred on multiple web sites, (including
Microsoft web sites!), so I don?t think it?s a problem with just a single [or
a few] web sites. I?m getting this error whenever I attempt a file download
? regardless of the web site I?m attempting to download from. Prior to a few
days ago file downloads were going without a hitch, so this is something that
has just cropped up. OK, the problem.

When I double-click a zip file download hyperlink, (or a pdf file download
hyperlink), a ?File Download? window pops up and the downloading process
attempts to start. Almost immediately a ?Microsoft Internet Explorer? window
pops up (over the ?File Download? window) and the following message appears
next to a red circle containing a white ?X? ? which I think is IE?s way of
saying this is a fatal (or critical) error:

Error message text: ?Internet Explorer cannot download
<filename.zip/filename.pdf> from <website or web server>. Internet Explorer
was not able to open this internet site. The requested site is either
unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.?

When I click the ?OK? button that accompanies the error message, both the
error message window (and the ?File Download? window) close and the download
fails. That is the problem.

Additional Details:

I can navigate to most web sites and read hyperlinked articles with no
problem, so Internet Explorer is working ? to that extent. It is only when I
attempt to download (and save) a zip file or a pdf file (or a video clip)
that I get this strange error message. (I am running Internet Explorer
Version: ?6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254? on a Windows XP SP2 box ?
if that helps any.)

As an example of the strange behavior I?m seeing, I attempted to download
the MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer) utility from Microsoft?s
Internet Explorer 6 home page. (I was hoping to run this utility to see if
there were any misconfigurations [or other errors] in my security settings
and what Microsoft might recommend that I do in order to correct such
problems.) When I clicked on the ?Download? button control on Microsoft?s
web page, the ?File Download? window opened and the familiar ?floating sheet?
graphic started moving from left to right - as it normally does when a file
download is in progress. However, the progress bar was blank, (indicating
that no data was being transmitted), and the following informational lines
all displayed blank data.

Estimated time left: <blank ? no data displayed>
Download to: <blank ? no data displayed>
Transfer rate: <blank ? no data displayed>

After approximately 5-8 seconds, the IE ?fatal error? window (that I have
described previously) popped up. So, it appears that something is going on
in Internet Explorer which is preventing me from being able to download files
and video clips from the internet.

A friend suggested that I disable my firewall (Zone Alarm Pro) and try a
download with the firewall disabled. I disabled ZA with the same result:
Attempted downloads fail with the same error message dialogue. I also
attempted to lower my security setting from ?Medium? to ?Low? [in Internet
Explorer] to see if my security settings were somehow affecting file
downloads. However, IE didn?t like this and automatically ?readjusted? my
setting back to ?Medium?. (Internet Explorer would not let me lower my
security setting. Microsoft must consider this a very ?bad? thing to try to
do ?)

I have found a KB article, (i.e. KB 317208), entitled ?Internet Explorer
Cannot Download Office Documents from an IIS Server When Content Expiration
is Set to Expire Immediately? which reports the same error message that I
have described. However, despite the fact that the error message(s) are
identical, I don?t think this is the source of the problem. KB 317208
indicates that this error is caused by an incorrect setting on the IIS server
? and NOT on the user?s client machine ? so I don?t think this is the [real]
source of my problem. However, it is interesting that I?m getting the same
error message (under ?Symptoms?) as that reported in KB 317208.

I?m at my wits end on this one. If anybody knows what might be going on
here, I will be very grateful for any help or suggestions. In the meantime
I?m back to Microsoft?s Knowledge Base (and this discussion board) to see if
I can track this down.

TIA,

Alan C. Lawhon
Huntsville, Alabama