IE6 hangs on loading ABCNEWS.COM ESPN.COM HSN.COM DISNEY.COM

[Mike Burgess]

Robert,

"All those other ones are just the previous IE cumulative patches"

Yeah that's what I figured .......

Since he can get here: http://lite.espn.go.com/index
Look in upper right = "for non-standard browsers"

Hopefully re-registering those dll's will help?
____________________________________________________________
Mike Burgess [MVP Windows Shell\User] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 02-07-04]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid
--

jg70124,

"The script returns: ";sp1;Q330994;Q832894"

[Should read - XP]
;SP1;Q330994;Q818529;Q822925;Q828750;Q824145;Q832894;

Mike,

I think that what he has is Ok. All those other ones are just
the previous IE cumulative patches which would have been
superseded by the latest one, Q832894.

Q330994 is the cumulative patch for OE6sp1

BTW I'm impressed by AU. I didn't think that was that smart.


I'm hopeful we'll see some results from the User Agent angle.


Robert

<snip>

 

[jg70124]

Mike,

I re-registered all the .dlls. I also used the little utility you wrote
about, which reported that several of the hotfixes needed to be reinstalled.
So I did that. (And then re-re-registered the .dlls).

But that link is still stalling my browser. So I set all the security
options to "prompt" (as suggested by Robert, I think). If I accept the
first one, it stalls. If I deny the first one, then accept the second one,
I get this script error:

Line: 23
Char: 1
Error: 'checkFlash' is undefined
Code: 0
URL: http://espn.go.com/browserchecker.html

So on the off-chance that this is due to a flash problem, I went to
Macromedia's site and re-installed flash, but I still get the same error.

Again, thanks for all the time you're spending on this.

Jeremy

Robert,

"All those other ones are just the previous IE cumulative patches"

Yeah that's what I figured .......

Since he can get here: http://lite.espn.go.com/index
Look in upper right = "for non-standard browsers"

Hopefully re-registering those dll's will help?
____________________________________________________________
Mike Burgess [MVP Windows Shell\User] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 02-07-04]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid
--

jg70124,
"The script returns: ";sp1;Q330994;Q832894"

[Should read - XP]
;SP1;Q330994;Q818529;Q822925;Q828750;Q824145;Q832894;

Mike,

I think that what he has is Ok. All those other ones are just
the previous IE cumulative patches which would have been
superseded by the latest one, Q832894.

Q330994 is the cumulative patch for OE6sp1

BTW I'm impressed by AU. I didn't think that was that smart.


I'm hopeful we'll see some results from the User Agent angle.


Robert

<snip>

 

[jg70124]

Robert,

Here are my results, again.


....snip...

That is global.js that you are skipping.
The first two lines in there are:

<extract>
self.onerror = function() {return true;}

var agt=navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();

</extract>


So let's run that second line in the Address bar.
javascript:navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase()
What do you get with that? (I usually run just the property name
but in case the function has something to do with your problem
let's include it too.)

mozilla/4.0 (compatible; msie 6.0; windows nt 5.1; .net clr 1.1.4322)

Following that is some convoluted code which attempts to classify
the browser version and platform. I won't extract it here.
But my guess is that there will be something unusual about your
User Agent string which is causing this code to either pick the wrong
browser or platform or simply go off the rails and return nothing
(i.e., execute the first line of the two I extracted).

If you want you could install the Script Debugger and check that
out for yourself. If you just want to identify which script file is involved
a simpler diagnostic procedure is to use FileMon (freeware from
SysInternals) to monitor for *.js accesses.

I ran that thing - didn't see any access to *.js at all. Lots of accesses
by msimn.exe:3356 to my index.dat file though. And a bunch of calls from
pccguide.exe:484 (Trend Micro PCcillin) to .../application
data/mozilla/registry.dat

Any of that make sense to you?

For related problems I often suggest that users visit

< http://www.gemal.dk/browserspy/basic.html >

That may be easier for you.

Ah, sorry - not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for on gemal's site.



Again, thanks for all the time you put in on this. I really appreciate it.

Jeremy

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Robert,
Yeah that's what I figured .......

Since he can get here: http://lite.espn.go.com/index
Look in upper right = "for non-standard browsers"

Was that a typo for "can't"? (He said it wouldn't load.)

If he was doing it with the Prompt tracing and it was failing after the first
prompt it is still consistent with my idea of bad User Agent.
Have you seen the code in flash.js? (Even less robust than the code
at Orbitz that I was complaining about, I think.)

Hopefully re-registering those dll's will help?

Some day I am going to save all the RegMon traces I have done
for these things... I guess it will be most likely to be shdocvw.dll
but ideally an IE Repair would be the best option. Unfortunately
it is only available to XP users who installed IE6sp1 separately
before installing XPsp1. (That installs setupwbv.dll.)

So then they can Run...

rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance


An inferior alternative that I have been suggesting is:

<excerpted from previous reply>

FWIW this is a list of commands created by extracting from fixie.inf
what an IE Repair would do for Windows 2000 users:

regsvr32 /i browseui.dll
regsvr32 /i shdocvw.dll
regsvr32 /i mshtml.dll
regsvr32 mshtmled.dll
regsvr32 actxprxy.dll
regsvr32 /i urlmon.dll

What that represents is the set of re-registrations which
FixIE.inf indicates would be done for Base.W2K.AddReg

N.B. that neither mshtmled.dll nor actxprxy.dll have an entry point
called DllInstall and hence the /i option can not be used for them.

Neither msjava.dll nor shell32.dll are referred to by FixIE.inf
but those are two other modules which are often suggested to XP users
as needing re-registration for repairing in various circumstances.

Note that such re-registrations are normally done by an IE Repair
during a boot while nothing is running so at the very least I think
that it would be best to ensure that iexplore.exe is not active in your
task list. (Close all visible IE windows and then check that the
iexplore.exe is not in the list of Processes in Task Manager.
Ctrl-Shift-Esc,Ctrl-Tab,i,i,...)

</excerpted from previous reply>


FYI

Robert
---

 

[jg70124]

If it is the user agent, where does that live? Is it a file I can
delete and recreate?

I've done the dll re-reg a couple of times, but it doesn't seem to have
made a difference. I'll do it again and check to make sure there are no
instances of iexplore.exe in the task list. Is there any
troubleshooting info to be gathered from the fact it's not working?

Jeremy

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Robert,

Here are my results, again.


...snip...


mozilla/4.0 (compatible; msie 6.0; windows nt 5.1; .net clr 1.1.4322)

I ran that thing - didn't see any access to *.js at all. Lots of accesses
by msimn.exe:3356 to my index.dat file though. And a bunch of calls from
pccguide.exe:484 (Trend Micro PCcillin) to .../application
data/mozilla/registry.dat

Any of that make sense to you?

Yes. I suspect you aren't using a filter. ;o

In FileMon Press Ctrl-L and enter *.js into the Include: box

That means that you are only interested in seeing accesses of
files which have an extension of .js (JavaScript).

Ah, sorry - not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for on gemal's site.

If you're not seeing *anything* in the Settings column it means that we may
have isolated your problem to having something to do with executing
JavaScript. This seems unlikely because you can use those JavaScript
fragments in the Address bar and because you can see the rest of the
problem pages after you skip the first scripting prompt.

For example, I just ran it after denying use of Scripting. There was
one prompt and then I saw nothing in the Settings column but all the
labels in the Variables column.

Hmm... it looks as if that is all that this page is doing. I thought it was
also sending the UserAgent that it received so that we could check
if that was being stripped somewhere on the connection path.
Then we could compare the UserAgent which was sent with the
UserAgent which was received. I think that there are sites which do this.
Perhaps Mike or somebody else has a better link.

Again, thanks for all the time you put in on this. I really appreciate it.

Jeremy

Good luck

Robert
---

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

If it is the user agent, where does that live? Is it a file I can
delete and recreate?

It used to exist self-contained in the registry.
E.g. in RegEdit search HKCU for value name User Agent
Now apparently it is constructed each time it is needed from
information listed in the HKLM subkey labeled User Agent.

<
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...&[email protected]#s >

(Google Groups search for
insubject:user insubject:agent author:jesper group:microsoft.*.ie6.ieak
)

<quote>
There has been changes to urlmon.dll file regarding this behavior.
You should be able to use the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent

In here you can for example add a string called 'Version' and it will
replace your current IE version info.

I've done the dll re-reg a couple of times, but it doesn't seem to have
made a difference. I'll do it again and check to make sure there are no
instances of iexplore.exe in the task list. Is there any
troubleshooting info to be gathered from the fact it's not working?

No. That was just a guess. As I told Mike I should make an inventory
of which re-registrations do what. I take it that you never had IE6sp1
installed by itself and haven't been able to do a proper IE Repair?

See my other reply about Gemal's site. If nothing is showing up there
under the column Setting I think that we have reproduced the problem.
I'm just disappointed that we can't see what the actual User Agent that
the remote site is receiving. Some proxy servers and other security
packages may strip it off the transmission which might account for
your problem otherwise. I know that we can find a site which displays
what User Agent it receives; I just don't happen to have a link for one
right now. Hopefully Mike or someone else will suggest a better one.


Good luck

Robert
---

 

[Mike Burgess]

Jeremy,

"several of the hotfixes needed to be reinstalled"

I'm curious .... does the below show any different?

javascript:navigator.appMinorVersion

"Error: 'checkFlash' is undefined"

It appears it's (IE) still choking on detecting Flash?
Do you have any problems with Flash files on other sites?

____________________________________________________________
Mike Burgess [MVP Windows Shell\User] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 02-07-04]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid
--

Mike,

I re-registered all the .dlls. I also used the little utility you wrote
about, which reported that several of the hotfixes needed to be reinstalled.
So I did that. (And then re-re-registered the .dlls).

But that link is still stalling my browser. So I set all the security
options to "prompt" (as suggested by Robert, I think). If I accept the
first one, it stalls. If I deny the first one, then accept the second one,
I get this script error:

Line: 23
Char: 1
Error: 'checkFlash' is undefined
Code: 0
URL: http://espn.go.com/browserchecker.html

So on the off-chance that this is due to a flash problem, I went to
Macromedia's site and re-installed flash, but I still get the same error.

Again, thanks for all the time you're spending on this.

Jeremy

Robert,

"All those other ones are just the previous IE cumulative patches"

Yeah that's what I figured .......

Since he can get here: http://lite.espn.go.com/index
Look in upper right = "for non-standard browsers"

Hopefully re-registering those dll's will help?
____________________________________________________________
Mike Burgess [MVP Windows Shell\User] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 02-07-04]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid
--

jg70124,
"The script returns: ";sp1;Q330994;Q832894"

[Should read - XP]
;SP1;Q330994;Q818529;Q822925;Q828750;Q824145;Q832894;


Mike,

I think that what he has is Ok. All those other ones are just
the previous IE cumulative patches which would have been
superseded by the latest one, Q832894.

Q330994 is the cumulative patch for OE6sp1

BTW I'm impressed by AU. I didn't think that was that smart.


I'm hopeful we'll see some results from the User Agent angle.


Robert

<snip>

 

[Mike Burgess]

Robert,

Was that a typo for "can't"? (He said it wouldn't load.)

"jg70124,
And yes, I can see the lite version of ESPN just fine"

--
The dll's I was referring to were from here:
General troubleshooting for scripting errors
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/troubleshoot/
____________________________________________________________
Mike Burgess [MVP Windows Shell\User] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 02-07-04]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid
--

 

[Mike Burgess]

Robert,

"Hopefully Mike or someone else will suggest a better one"

Quick "User Agent" check:
http://www.changedetect.com/changedetect/browser-check.asp

Browser Capabilities Test Page:
https://www.cyscape.com/showbrow.asp
http://www.pcpitstop.com/
http://www.browsertune.com/bt2kfast/
http://www.verisign.com/advisor/check.html
____________________________________________________________
Mike Burgess [MVP Windows Shell\User] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 02-07-04]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid
--

It used to exist self-contained in the registry.
E.g. in RegEdit search HKCU for value name User Agent
Now apparently it is constructed each time it is needed from
information listed in the HKLM subkey labeled User Agent.

<

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...&[email protected]#s >

 

[PA Bear]

<waving> Hi, Mike! Hi, Robert! Long time, no see.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Robert,
Quick "User Agent" check:
http://www.changedetect.com/changedetect/browser-check.asp

That's perfect for showing what is being received in the headers.

Browser Capabilities Test Page:
https://www.cyscape.com/showbrow.asp

No response?

Backed up to home site and found it by clicking on [More]
at top of page. That's better than the Gemal page.
Even useful with JavaScript disabled.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/

Nothing about UserAgent? (1 hit in the forum where it is almost
anecdotal)

http://www.browsertune.com/bt2kfast/
http://www.verisign.com/advisor/check.html

---

 

[jg70124]

Jeremy,
I'm curious .... does the below show any different?

javascript:navigator.appMinorVersion

Nope. Still shows ";SP1;Q330994;Q832894;"

It appears it's (IE) still choking on detecting Flash?
Do you have any problems with Flash files on other sites?

Don't seem to be. And this all started because of trouble accessing Orbitz,
which doesn't use flash.

 

[jg70124]

Robert,
Quick "User Agent" check:
http://www.changedetect.com/changedetect/browser-check.asp

IP Address 138.89.88.25
Browser Type Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET
CLR 1.1.4322)
Referred By (none)
Browser Accepts */*
Server Date/Time 02/11/2004 10:13:00 PM

Browser Capabilities Test Page:
https://www.cyscape.com/showbrow.asp

Browser: IE 6.0
Property Value
Majorver 6
Minorver 0
Minorverlet
Version 6
Fullversion 6.0
Browser IE
BrowserBuild 6,0,2800,1106
ServicePack ;SP1;Q330994;Q832894;
Gecko False
GeckoBuildDate
Beta False
Frames True
IFrames True
Tables True
Cookies Session = Enabled / Permanent = Enabled
CookiesEnabled True
Backgroundsounds True
VBScript True
VBScriptEnabled True
VBScriptBuild 5.6.8515
JavaScript True
JavaScriptEnabled True
JavaScriptBuild 5.6.8515
JavaApplets True
JavaEnabled True
JavaVersion 1.1.4
JavaVendor Microsoft Corp.
MSJVMBuild 5,0,3810,0
ActiveXControls True
ActiveXEnabled True
ImagesEnabled True
WinInstallerMinVer 2
AOL False
AOLVersion 0
SSL True
SSLEnabled True
SSLActive False
SSLKeySize 128 bits
Win16 False
Crawler False
CDF True
Platform WinXP
NETCLRInstalled True
NETCLRVersion 1.1.4322
Language English
LangUser en-us
LangSystem en-us
TimeZoneDiff No difference
BrowserDateTime Thursday, February 12, 2004 1:14:22 AM
BrowserDateTimeMs 1076566462000 ms
AuthenticodeUpdate 2
StyleSheets True
Proxy False
ProxyString
Firewall False
OSDetails Microsoft
MSN False
Gold False
DHTML True
FileUpload Yes
MouseOver True
PNG True
FontSmoothing True
FontColor True
FontSize True
TextSize Medium
TableBGColor True
JavaScriptVer 1.3
IPAddr 138.89.88.25
pool-138-89-88-25.mad.east.verizon.net
Country US
TableBGImage True
CompressGZip True
EmailCrawler False
Height 768
HeightAvail 583
Width 1024
WidthAvail 993
ConnectionType lan
ConnectionSpeed 1277050 bits/sec (155.89 KBytes/sec)
Plugin_Flash Version 7 (version 7,0,19,0)
Plugin_FlashVerEx 7,0,19,0
Plugin_Director Installed (version 8.5.1.0)
Plugin_DirectorVerEx 8.5.1.0
Plugin_QuickTime Installed (version 6.5.0)
Plugin_QuickTimeVerEx 6.5.0
Plugin_Acrobat Installed (version 5.0.5)
Plugin_AcrobatVerEx 5.0.5
Plugin_RealPlayer RealOne Player installed (build 6.0.11.847)
Plugin_RealPlayerBuild 6.0.11.847
Plugin_MediaPlayer Installed (build 8,0,0,4490)
Plugin_MediaPlayerVerEx 8,0,0,4490
Plugin_iPIXViewer Not installed
Plugin_SVGViewer Installed
Plugin_CrystalReports Not installed
Plugin_Viewpoint Installed
Plugin_Authorware Not installed
Plugin_Mapguide Not installed
Plugin_Citrix Not installed
Plugin_JavaVer Click here to test
Plugin_Custom Not tested or result unavailable
NetMeetingBuild 4,4,0,3400
ColorDepth 16.77 Million Colors (32-bit True Color)
XML True
MSXML Version 3
WAP False
WAP_DeviceModel Unknown
WAP_Gateway
WAP_SubscriberID
WAP_MaxDeckSize 0
HDML False
PDA False
CharHeightAvail 0
CharWidthAvail 0
Referrer

http://www.pcpitstop.com/
http://www.browsertune.com/bt2kfast/
http://www.verisign.com/advisor/check.html
____________________________________________________________
Mike Burgess [MVP Windows Shell\User] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 02-07-04]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid
--

It used to exist self-contained in the registry.
E.g. in RegEdit search HKCU for value name User Agent
Now apparently it is constructed each time it is needed from
information listed in the HKLM subkey labeled User Agent.

<

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...&[email protected]#s >

 

[jg70124]

Robert, Michael, et al,

Hey thanks for trying to help with this. I'm to the point now where I'm
considering scorching my drive and re-installing the OS clean (as opposed to
the upgrade I did 2 weeks ago). Because of this problem, but also because
I'm having some other seemingly unrelated networking problems (can't see the
domain controller at work).

And for the record, I opened a tech support case at MS. Did chat for 45
minutes, dude was clueless. So then I responded to the case notes that the
problem was still not fixed. Their response came 3 days later - "Case
closed. Thank you for using MS Tech Support."

Nice.

Anyway, thanks again.

Jeremy

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I'm to the point now where I'm considering scorching my drive
....

Jeremy,

I think you may be giving up too soon. The diagnostics are again pointing
back to your JavaScript support. So one thing we could do to test that
idea would be to find a site which does comprehensive testing of JavaScript.

Have you been through any of those other test sites that Mike gave?
E.g. the PCPitStop or BrowserTune sites?

When you updated your Scripting package were any potentially interfering
packages running? BTW this is mentioned in the WU troubleshooter
article that Mike pointed you at.


Here's something else which might be useful. Pretend that the line
of script which you caused to fail (because of denying the first scripting
prompt) succeeds. To do that try executing this from your Address bar
with full prompting and tell us what you see after allowing all prompts:

javascript:top.location.replace('http://espn.go.com/main.html')

BTW that failure was an easy way to invoke the script debugger
if you have it installed and script debugging active.

E.g. going to the Downloads site, searching on Debugger finds this:

<title>Download details: Script Debugger for Windows NT 4.0, 2000, and XP</title>
< http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...e0-94fd-4569-b3c4-dffdf19ccd99&DisplayLang=en >


Good luck

Robert
---

Robert, Michael, et al,

Hey thanks for trying to help with this. I'm to the point now where I'm
considering scorching my drive and re-installing the OS clean (as opposed to
the upgrade I did 2 weeks ago). Because of this problem, but also because
I'm having some other seemingly unrelated networking problems (can't see the
domain controller at work).

.....

 

[Buttons]

I posted this a few days ago but I found out if i set IE to use a
proxy server, all those web sites load up without a problem. Remove
the proxy and its back to no load. It seems odd that this would work.
Maybe the proxy is filtering something that direct connects aren't.

Buttons

 

[jg70124]

Robert,

Well, it turns out that when I upgraded from XP Home to XP Pro, I also
killed my ability to print to the IP printers at work, and the tech support
guys were unable to fix it even after much fiddling. So I've scorched my
drive and reloaded XP Home. I've just finished reapplying all the XP
patches (making many restore points along the way), and I'm now back to
6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-1633; SP1;

All the web sites are working fine.

If I have to get back up to XP Pro, I will choose to do a clean install
instead of an upgrade and see if that makes a difference.

Jeremy

...

Jeremy,

I think you may be giving up too soon. The diagnostics are again pointing
back to your JavaScript support. So one thing we could do to test that
idea would be to find a site which does comprehensive testing of JavaScript.

Have you been through any of those other test sites that Mike gave?
E.g. the PCPitStop or BrowserTune sites?

When you updated your Scripting package were any potentially interfering
packages running? BTW this is mentioned in the WU troubleshooter
article that Mike pointed you at.


Here's something else which might be useful. Pretend that the line
of script which you caused to fail (because of denying the first scripting
prompt) succeeds. To do that try executing this from your Address bar
with full prompting and tell us what you see after allowing all prompts:

javascript:top.location.replace('http://espn.go.com/main.html')

BTW that failure was an easy way to invoke the script debugger
if you have it installed and script debugging active.

E.g. going to the Downloads site, searching on Debugger finds this:

<title>Download details: Script Debugger for Windows NT 4.0, 2000, and

<

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2f465be0-94fd-4569-
b3c4-dffdf19ccd99&DisplayLang=en >

 

[PA Bear]

From your headers: Newsreader: "Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106"

WinXP Home or Pro, you appear to be missing at least one important security
patch. Check in at Windows Update.