IE: Page cannot be displayed (not usual error)!

IE page not displaying randomly

[The_Warden]

Hi. I'm having a major problem with the IE browser. For some odd reason if you are using Internet Explorer v5 to latest on Windows '95/'98/2000 it shows the default IE page "page cannot be displayed" when referencing my web site. This seems to be random from what I can tell. The only way to fix this is to refresh the page once. This seems to occur very frequently and happens with many users (multiple networks, ISPs, etc). I've tested all other major browsers on market and they work fine. So it seems to be a IE problem or a IE incompatibility problem. I've tried doing searches for this issue on Microsoft's knowledge base and newsgroups. The only thing I found that was close to being relevant was Microsoft Knowledge Base Article # Q203402.
I have two systems setup one is the web server and the other is the database server. The web site is heavily based in PHP and MySQL. SSL is used throughout the entire representative section of the web site. I do use one cookie for storing the session ID. The rest of the session data being stored is done by using PHP. The functionality of the web site is fine just the annoying "page cannot be displayed". Here's my system setup details...

System 1: Web Server
Platform: OpenBSD v3.0 i386
Web Daemon: Apache HTTPD v1.3.19
Apache Modules: mod_ssl, PHP 4.1.1, mod_auth_mysql (used to authenticate to web site using MySQL database).
OpenSSL: 0.9.6b [engine] 9 Jul 2001
SSL Certificate: RSA using DES Cipher 3

System 2: Database Server
Platform: OpenBSD v2.9 i386
Database: MySQL v11.15 Distrib 3.23.37

I believe I've mentioned everything that you may need to know. If you have any suggestions or know of someone that can help please let me know. This issue is becoming a big problem and I need to get this resolved as soon as possible.

Thanks!

[pageoneresults]

Hello The_Warden, welcome to Webmaster World. You said...

> For some odd reason if you are using Internet Explorer v5 to latest on Windows '95/'98/2000 it shows the default IE page "page cannot be displayed" when referencing my web site.

Are you following a link from your favorites? I have also found this issue using IE6 but only when following from my Favorites list.

[NFFC]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld The_Warden,

Is the cookie required to view the site, is it set from the same domain as the site?

[David]

It sounds like its a problem with ssl. IE 5.0 has a problem with some secure servers. I had to add some lines in the Apache config once to solve the problem. If I remember right It had to do with forcing the keep-alive.

My cert was with Thwart and they had a section on there site about it. I would check with your Cert company.

[The_Warden]

Not sure if this is the proper way to reply to you replies on here. How do I direct a message to someone publicly? StickyMail is not publicly right? Sorry newbie here <G>. Let me answer all the replies here.

pageoneresults
The links that are being followed are followed directly from my web site and the "page cannot be displayed" error message appears on both secure and non-secure pages (at least from what I can tell).

NFFC
The cookie is not 100% required per-say. It just keeps track of the session if it disapears a new one is created or if cookies are not possible it tracks them on the server. Cookies are only used on the secure section of the web page and not on the non-secure side.

David
I use Apache so I can't see how IE is having a problem with that. To my knowledge Apache only has a problem with IBM's WebSphere. You can surf thousands of other web sites running Apache and you do not experience the anonying "Page cannot be displayed" message.

BTW, my certificate is self signed. We do not require authoirty to sign the certified since the users of our web site are our representatives. Do you think self signing the cert might be an issue?

[brotherhood of LAN]

Maybe applicable here,

Reading a magazine I see someone had a similar problem, it turns out their firewall was the cause.

To quote part of their question, "About 10% of the time I open IE I get a page cannot be displayed".

Maybe it has something to do with your security

[bobriggs]

Did you also see Q305217?

[support.microsoft.com...]

This happens to me quite often also. Win2K, IE6. I find it happens a lot when I attempt log on to my credit card site. The symptom is an immediate Page cannot be displayed error message - As if it didn't even make the request.

[The_Warden]

brotherhood_of_LAN
What magazine did you read this in (vol/issue/etc.)? We use a Watchguard Firebox II. Need anymore info please let me know. I willing to take an avenue to try and learn/resolve this issue (smile).

bobriggs
I don't believe this is it. The error occurs on IE 6 (current) as well and it occurs randomly.. not just the initial page. Also I do not receive a SSL timeout. It's just a "page cannot be displayed" default error message page by IE. I can post (if I'm allowed to/can) a image of what I mean.

[bobriggs]

That Q refers to 5.5 and 6.0, also the message is just 'page cannot be displayed', it doesn't mention an SSL timeout on the page returned, just that that's the part of the problem.

And I also can find a lot of stuff like this:
..SSL certificate, I sometimes have to reload my page .. [cobalt-knowledge.sun.com]

[keyplyr]

If the site in question is the one in your profile, I had no problems opening your page using IE6.

Sounds like it is an ISP proxy issue and not IE.

[The_Warden]

bobriggs
Alright I will read over these two articles and see. But I doubt this is the route for the solution since this error occurs on non-secure pages (no SSL). Although it does occur more so in the secure area from my personal findings. I'll trying tweaking the server a bit based on those articles and see if that improves things.

Thanks!

[The_Warden]

keyplyr
It's random it may seem find but it takes a bit sometimes. I can surf the site for 15 minutes and it seems find and bang "page cannot be displayed" error. It's odd. The only place it seems to occur more so is in the secure area. ISP proxy has been mentioned to me but would this not be doubtful since this error doesn't occur in any other browser (Mozilla, Opera, Netscape Communicator, etc.)? No error occurs in other browsers. Also the secure users are from Canada coast to coast and US coast to coast. So we are dealing with multiple ISPs.

Try this everyone if you wouldn't mind. Log in to the secure area using the below credentials (account will only be valid for a limited time).

ID: vguest
PW: zT23va0J

Note: Password is case sensative.

[David]

This work around solved the problem for me

[modssl.org...]

[The_Warden]

David
Thanks, I wasn't aware of this. I will give your suggestion and the others a try and see what happens. I'll let everyone know here how it goes.

[talentologist]

Warden, we are having identical problems. SSL is an unliekly culprit because, like you, it happens on non-secure and secure pages. Most of our pages are non-secure.

Can you tell me if you are any closer to solving this? Are you aware if DNS caching issues in IE 6? where IE6 caches unsuccessful DNS lookups?

We cannot catch this fly and it's very frustrating. We are IIS & ASP, though and if you are having the same issues with Apache - PHP, maybe we need to look closer at things like the load balancer and firewall.

[The_Warden]

Well from what I can tell so far and tests I've done internally on our network IE: Page cannot be displayed has been resolved by using the link provided by David. Thanks David! The situation doesn't match exactly but I figured why not give it a try. Well I tried the very first step and it has seem to have fixed the problem.

Looks like once again IE is at fault on how it handles SSL and HTTP 1.1. This now brings more concerns and questions. Here they are...

1. What are the drawbacks of forcing an IE user to use HTTP 1.0 protocol and not having keeplive on?

2. Is there a patch to fix SSL and HTTP 1.1 protocols in IE? Seems to me these issues have been around since IE 2.0 or 3.0. I thought they were resolved and such issues are suppose to be no longer present in IE 5+???

3. Where would I go to get a more detailed understanding of what the modssl FAQ talks about? I want to know what each command/parameter does (i.e. ssl-unclean-shutdown, etc.)?

talentologist
Go to this URL that David provided, [modssl.org ]. If you have any questions let me know.

[Maverick]

I believe I am experiencing the same problem that Warden first reported. It's comforting to know that I'm not the only one who has seen this very unusual problem. The most frustrating thing about it is that the problem behavior is intermittent and very difficult to reproduce consistently.

Unfortunately, the link which David posted does not appear to be active. As a result, I can't read about the fix!

Would anyone who has visted this link be so kind as to explain the resolution or provide an alternative link to the same info? In lieu of this, I would be interested to know if the fix/work-around involves patching or configuring the client's browser. If it does, I would have no choice but to dismiss this a non-viable solution because I have no way of requiring users visiting my site to perform those steps. My hope is that a resolution can be implemented on the server side without the need for user action.

Thanks!

[j3gum]

The modssl.org site recommends the following line in the ssl virtual host section of your Apache configuration file:

SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" \
nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \
downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

You can put that on one line without the "\" continuation character.

Who's starting the email campaign to get this IE bug closed? :)