Somehow I Managed to Block Scripting (JavaScript)

[peterinwa]

I know there's a JavaScript forum but I think this is the best place for this.

Somehow I have managed to stop JavaScript or scripting and I am getting the <noscript> messages from my own webpages that are on the internet. The copies on my PC hard drive work fine.

I am pretty convinced that I did it in Norton Internet Security 2004 because it happens with both Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape. Though I did at times make changes in IE... but not Netscape.

I have very thoroughly read all the Norton and IE Help files and everything at the Symantec site and I just can't figure it out.

I have gone over and over all the possible changes I could make to IE Tools/Internet Options and the Norton screens both for Internet Security and Anti-virus.

Until I resolve this I'm just using another PC to check the websites on the web. Works fine, so I also know it's not the websites.

Lastly, I believe that JavaScript is only failing for my websites, yet I can't find where they are listed in Norton as sites to block like on the Web Contents Options screen where Scripting is also marked Permit.

Any ideas? Thanks, Peter

[rocknbil]

Peter I wish you the best of luck, I won't get into the long sordid story but suffice it to say I've had nightmares with Norton for over 10 years across Mac and PC platforms.

MY issue was with scripting AND file downloads, and nothing got rid of it except reformatting my drive (Norton simply would NOT uninstall, either automatically or manually) and setting up an XP2 OS with Grisoft AVG instead of Norton. Haven't had a problem since. Will be watching as I'm interested to see the input on this one.

[tedster]

One thing about your troubleshooting so far - you have not yet definitely pinned down the source of the blocking action. Because you also see the symtpoms in Netscape, you can pretty much rule out IE for now at least.

How about a temporary "Disable" for Norton? If it is creating your situation, then that should make the difference - and then at least you would know for sure it was in the NIS configuration. And if the problem persists, you should be able to rule out Norton as the root of it.

Another idea, by any chance are you also letting the Windows Firewall (or any other firewall or protection application) run at the same time as NIS?

And a final suggestion would be to run the Microsoft "System File Checker" from
[support.microsoft.com...] for WinXP
[support.microsoft.com...] for Win 2K

I know it looks like only your domains are being affected, but it's always good to rule out more general system troubles if you can.

[peterinwa]

Thanks for the help.

I totally disabled Norton and it went away. Then I turned it back on one thing at a time to find the problem.

It turns out that having ad blocking on is synonymous with having script blocking turned on. It causes Norton's symError code to be inserted into my JavaScript pages, crashing them.

I thought ad blocking looked for words like ads and banners and gif sizes of common ads. Well, I believe it does. But it also appears to insert the symError code simply because I have <script> on the page.

I will have to tell my users to turn off ad blocking or go away.

Thanks, Peter

[peterinwa]

I have concluded that anytime you have Norton Ad Blocking on Norton inserts their symError code into any page containing JS, but only on my complex JS pages does it cause them to crash.
The exception is that all of my pages were crashing until I removed the open.windows from them. There are no more open.windows on any of my pages, but the complex ones must have something else Norton doesn't like.

One thing I have done is taken away the mystery for (myself and) my users. On the pages that fail, I test:

if (window.symError){alert("abc")}

and tell them what's up. In additon, I have placed the following text on my help page:

"Ad blocking software generally looks for words like "ad" or "banner" or a graphic of a size commonly used for banners or other types of ads. We have avoided these words and don't use graphics in our ads, so our calculators work even with ad blocking software turned on. The exception is Norton Internet Security (NIS).

NIS Ad Blocking affects any webpage created with JavaScript, the code we use to make our calculators run. It inserts Norton code into all of our pages, but most are simple enough that it doesn't bother them. The calculators are complex and the insertion of the Norton code causes them to fail.

If you are using NIS with Ad Blocking turned on, you will get a message telling you what the problem is. The only solution we know of is to go to the NIS screen and turn Ad Blocking off."

Should anyone having problems with Norton's insertion of their symError code I would love to receive an e-mail.

Peter