Internet problems - help needed please

Wraith

Wraith

Active Member
I was browsing the net earlier and it was all fine for a while. Then, while looking through the BF2s forums, I clicked on a topic link and got this error message. An internet browser asking what program to open an internet website with? I tried several more websites including this one (which is why the error message has this site not BF2s), and all of them gave the same message.

I then tried using Internet Explorer and got this result.

I also tried logging in to BF2, Company of Heroes and Teamspeak, all of which failed.

I did a full virus scan (clean) and spyware scan (only tracking cookies for automatic log-in on this site and a couple of others). No obvious answers so far. I then restarted my computer and things were back to normal. However, I am more than a little freaked out with this, so if someone could give an explanation (and help to fix this) I'd be extremely grateful.
 
VibroAxe

VibroAxe

Junior Administrator
As a guess, and I stress this is only a guess

The Gobeldy goop error message is probably one of the pictures which for some reason was opened as a normal page, the presence on application/octet-stream in the other error implies that something went wrong in the transmission of headers between the server and your computer...

This could possibly be something more complex, or could just be a glitch in the hulk of bugs which is called windows. Also could be something to do with modem or router, is your modem USB?

Someone else probably has more time or experience than me though...
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
Yep, that's a weird one. Some thoughts:

MozillaZine on "Opening files using plugins" said:
Sometimes a misconfigured web server will send a file with an inappropriate MIME type and, instead of the file automatically opening with the browser plugin, an "Opening" dialog box will appear, asking you to either save the file or open it with a chosen external application. This may happen with .wmv (Windows Media Video) files sent as "text/plain" instead of the correct "video/x-ms-wmv" MIME type (see bug 250914, probably related to the fix for bug 220807, outlined here). A Google Groups search shows that this can also occur when downloading .swf (Shockwave Flash) flies and, most likely, other types of files for which a plugin is installed, when the inappropriate "text/plain" MIME type is sent. A similar issue can occur with the "application/octet-stream" MIME type [2]. (Note that the MIME type of the file being downloaded will appear in the Mozilla Suite and SeaMonkey "Opening" dialog box, but not in Firefox.) If the problem occurs with some downloads of a particular type file but not others, it is likely that the web server is misconfigured; unfortunately there is nothing you can do in such cases except to contact the website about the problem.
Click to expand...
Source: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Opening_files_using_plugins

Also, a weird and wonderful article on IIS mis-sending MIME headers, but that's not relevant to THN Games (as we use Apache).

http://www.iis-resources.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5131&forum=3

Still, you appear to have had some more general issue. How's your hard drive? Feeling healthy? I imagine a write failure could do all sorts of weird shit.
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
Sounds like a random bug to me. Would freak me out a little too! If you have restarted and everything is back to normal then I wouldn't worry about it too much, especially as your adware and virus scans were clean.

If it happens again then it will be a problem... but as long as everything is OK now it should be fine :)
 
Wraith

Wraith

Active Member
Thanks guys. Seems like the general consensus is "just one of those things". I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on it.

Wraith

P.S. Ronin, I hope my HD is healthy, it's brand new (just like the rest of this comp) :D
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
Wraith said:
I hope my HD is healthy, it's brand new
Click to expand...

Unfortunately that's no guarantee, as I'm sure Haven would regale in dismal detail. :p

But as you say, it's a good chance it was just a glitch. You OS is patched up to the eyeballs, yes? Windows XP SP2 + security fixes? If so, I wouldn't worry overly given the other precautions you've wisely taken.
 
Wraith

Wraith

Active Member
Ronin Storm said:
Unfortunately that's no guarantee, as I'm sure Haven would regale in dismal detail. :p

But as you say, it's a good chance it was just a glitch. You OS is patched up to the eyeballs, yes? Windows XP SP2 + security fixes? If so, I wouldn't worry overly given the other precautions you've wisely taken.
Click to expand...

I realise newness is not a guarantee, but I did say "I hope ...."

And yes, XP is fully patched (apart from the Microsoft spyware - erm, I mean anti-spyware :p ).
 
Haven

Haven

Administrator
Staff member
Looks like a proxy mis-configuration mate. I run my own web proxy and have had similar issues when it all went a bit tits up. Disabling the proxy (whilst I fixed it) cleared it all up for me. However I expect you are being transparently proxied which would mean there is not a lot you can do about it.
 
Wraith

Wraith

Active Member
haven said:
Looks like a proxy mis-configuration mate. I run my own web proxy and have had similar issues when it all went a bit tits up. Disabling the proxy (whilst I fixed it) cleared it all up for me. However I expect you are being transparently proxied which would mean there is not a lot you can do about it.
Click to expand...

Erm ..... in English please :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top