Windows XP SP2 and Framesets

Possible bug with SP2 that breaks javascript inter-frame communications.

[jamlove]

Hi, I'm trying to gather some information on a problem some of my customers are having. I have a website that offers online training, and the courses are presented in a window that has three frames (top, middle, bottom). The frames communicate with each other via javascript, allowing browsing functions within the course.

Recently I've been getting more calls from people who installed XP SP2 and are now getting error messages when they open or attempt to browse their course. The course worked fine before SP2. The errors vary slightly (and in fact some users don't get any script errors at all), but the most consistent one is "Permission Denied". This suggests that the frames are now off-limits to each other.

I'm aware that scripting to a frame whose source is another domain is not allowed, but all my frame sources are in the same directory of my server! They are definitely not cross-domain.

Furthermore, I and all my coworkers and *most* of the users have installed SP2 and experienced no such problem. But we can't find a pattern in the affected machines... it's happened on both old and newer machines, various ISPs, various configurations... the only common thread is the recent update to SP2.

Has anyone else out there seen something like this? I saw offhand mention of it on some forums about a month ago, and now my problem is worse and I can't find any more details. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'm sorry I can't give specific detailed settings and configuations for all these users' machines, but they're all over the country. If anyone here can suggest what I might look for, I'm all ears.

Thanks very much,

james

[jamlove]

Sorry, I forgot to mention one last detail: All users are on Internet Explorer. The course does not run in NN or other browsers due to the use of the Microsoft Agent character (not my fault!) :)

So far everyone I've heard from was on IE 6.0+

[anallawalla]

I noticed this while trying to access a site running OReilly WebBoard, which uses frames. FireFox and IE6 both show the same problem. As you say, it is not frames per se (which work fine) but those that use JavaScript.

I'm interested in the solution too.

[encyclo]

Just a thought - example.com and www.example.com are considered separate domains even if they reference the same cotent on the same server: is there a problem relating to the www and non-www versions of the page? Are both accessible or are you rewriting one to the other?

[anallawalla]

I solved my issue - I had also upgraded to Kerio Personal Firewall 4.0. I had to uncheck the Enable Web Filtering checkbox in the Web/Ad Blocking tab.

[kaled]

I would suggest contacting a sample of customers and asking various questions about configuration, security settings, firewalls, etc.

I have had problems with firewall bugs in the past and one company that I shan't name seems to specialise in software that stuffs things up, whether it's virus, firewall or anything else.

Kaled.

[jamlove]

Greetings and thanks for the input. I'm encouraged by your mention of your personal firewall causing a problem, and will look into this further. It seems like an extreme coincidence that people would only have problems after installing SP2, assuming they didn't also alter their firewall settings (or the SP2 installation didn't alter them), but then again, it's always difficult to tell what customers REALLy did, versus what they SAY they did!

As for the domain issue (www vs. non-www), this is true, but I don't think it would be the issue in my case. In the javascript I just use things like top.frametwo.navigate('page.html'), using only relative URLs. Should be guaranteed to be the same domain.

Well, I'll post here if I find anything else out, for anyone else who might see this problem. Thanks again!