@header("Location: $HTTP_REFERER"); not working in Bedford

[EricGen]

Hello,

I have a weird problem. I have an add to cart link on a page which calls a page called AddCart.php with item ID as parameter. This page adds things to the database and then calls
@header("Location: $HTTP_REFERER");
It works fine everywhere as far as I know, yet 2 people from Bedford, UK, have told me within 3 days that when they click on add to cart they get the IE standard 'Page unavailable' page. I have been over their IE configuration with one of them and it is configured exactly the same as me, where it works fine. Has anybody got an idea please?

Thanks

Eric

[Dreamquick]

Norton etc. block the referrer, get them to check what "privacy" tools they have installed & running. Aside from that no ideas why you'd get a "page unavailable".

- Tony (also in bedford)

[Receptional Andy]

Also near Bedford so if you wanted to sticky me the link I'd be happy to test it for you. Aside from something related to their ISP though, I can't think of any reason why Bedford itself might be the problem ;)

[EricGen]

Yes, I can't see why Bedford either, probably just a coincidence but a strange one.

I don't know about Norton, I know their anti-virus, what other software is it (and the etc...) If that's the case, what's the best/preferred way round?

Thanks

[DanA]

Their firewall, any firewall such as Outpost, many "privacy" tools can block or spoof the REFERRER, even Mozilla or Firefox.
Used with IE you get a "unavailable page", used with Mozilla usually a blank page.
You should warn your users or change the code, but some privacy tools or security options will block javascript too...

[EricGen]

Thanks everybody for finding the problem.

The solution I have implemented is simply to store the current page name in a session variable just after retrieving the previous page name from it. It was quite straightforward as all scripts include the same header file

[Mr_Brutal]

Hi EricGen,

You never said whether or not you discovered what the exact problem was so i thought i'd mention something i heard a while back. A single department in a company had their router set so that the time-to-live of TCP/IP packets was far too small - whenever they tried to connect to websites or send email there traffic would live just long enough to move through a couple of routers before dying. The department worked out that they could only send emails to people within a radius of about 150km or something :) Their IT support were stumped till someone discovered the router settings.

I don't know if your two customers were using the same ISP or even if using your cart somehow altered the traffic in someway but its almost possible :) If someone can find the story its a good read but it was a while back - oh and my details may be a bit off!

Seya

[EricGen]

The problem was correctly diagnosed by everybody, the 2 people who reported the problem had Norton firewall on their machine. It's just a coincidence that they were both from Bedford. We've been live for about 10 months and it's the first time we've heard of that problem.

Thanks again everybody for sorting out my problem