Are there any issues with ASP and proxy servers?

[John Sheppard]

Hello there,

I am unsure as to where to ask for help about this, so I thought I might try
here.

Our website works correctly for 99.9% of customers, however we have one set
of customers who access our website from what appears to be a proxy server
of some kind. i.e. The IP address is always the same no matter where the
location of the computer is.

My site is a framed site, and the specific problem is that a list of links
in one frame will not load a page on another frame. I don't believe this is
a browser compatibily problem. (I wont rule it out though). But there are no
problems as far as I can tell on other peoples computers.

My question is....Is there anything special that needs to be done to make
sure a site works through proxy servers, or is this likly to be some other
problem such as an SSL problem (the whole site is under ssl), browser
incompatibility problem, or just downright dodgy programing on my behalf?

Thank you so much for any help or ideas on where to start with this problem.
Kind regards
John Sheppard

 

[Mark Schupp]

ASP has no knowledge of framesets, it just returns a single page. The
browser controls which frame it is displayed in. Sounds like a client-side
problem. How are the links in one frame used to load another frame? Show an
example. What error do you get?

 

[Jeff Cochran]

I am unsure as to where to ask for help about this, so I thought I might try
here.

Our website works correctly for 99.9% of customers, however we have one set
of customers who access our website from what appears to be a proxy server
of some kind. i.e. The IP address is always the same no matter where the
location of the computer is.

My site is a framed site, and the specific problem is that a list of links
in one frame will not load a page on another frame. I don't believe this is
a browser compatibily problem. (I wont rule it out though). But there are no
problems as far as I can tell on other peoples computers.

My question is....Is there anything special that needs to be done to make
sure a site works through proxy servers, or is this likly to be some other
problem such as an SSL problem (the whole site is under ssl), browser
incompatibility problem, or just downright dodgy programing on my behalf?

ASP doesn't know about the path taken to a remote system, or anything
in between. Proxies have no effect on ASP per se, but there are any
number of things that could be causing your issues. Have the client
test outside thier proxy to eliminate it from the mix.

Jeff

 

[John Sheppard]

The website is www.boso.com.au if you log in with postcode 4170 you can get
in. The problem is with the links down the left side which are a javascript
dhtml menu. I have experimented with removing the dhtml and putting just
plain links but the problem is still the same.

This is heading away from an asp problem but here is the javascript used to
redirect the page.
parent.main.document.location = "./displayCategoryList.asp?listingGroupId="
+ listingGroupId + "&categoryId=" + categoryId + "&browseOption=" +
parent.data.browseOptions + "&cardFileId=" + parent.data.trolley.cardFileId

The main reason I ruled out any of that as the problem was because a
standard link wasn't working either. I figured perhaps it was something to
do with the target asp page. I have a logging function that fires first
thing on the target asp page, and it is not firing. Is it possible that
their proxy server has some kind of ban on that page?

If thats not a possibility I think I should go back and start trouble
shooting from scratch to make sure I havnt made a mistake.

Thanks heaps for your ideas
John

 

[John Sheppard]

ASP doesn't know about the path taken to a remote system, or anything
in between. Proxies have no effect on ASP per se, but there are any
number of things that could be causing your issues. Have the client
test outside thier proxy to eliminate it from the mix.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, I will try that and see if that solves the problem.

Other than basic coding problems. Would you be able to list other things
that might be causing the issue?
For example could it be SSL or could it be my web provider not liking my
clients computers or something like that?

Thank you
John

 

[Mark Schupp]

Give the user a url to call the ASP page that is not showing directly. That
should tell you if it is something with that page or with the javascript
menu.

I have seen proxy servers do some wierd things like truncating the page
before the <body> tag (keeps onload event from firing) and adding popup
blocking code.

If the page displays when called directly then have one of the users
right-click on the menu frame, select view source, and send it to you so
that you can see if it is different than what other users get.

 

[John Sheppard]

Thanks mark...
I have narrowed it down to some javascript problem I think. Im still not
100% sure yet though.
There are some linked javascript pages on the page, which might be causing
problems. Weather that has anything to do with the proxy server im not sure.
Since this is an asp group I'll leave it at that for now though.

Thank you very much for your help and advice.
It's much appreciated.
John