problems submitting form from one domain to another

[Tyler Style]

Hullo - looking for a little advice here. I have a form on a page in one
domain submitting to a cgi in another domain. Weirdly, on some Windows XP
systems, a form on the page fails to submit/post properly to the cgi and
users get the message from IE that it "Cannot find server: The page cannot
be displayed The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web
site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust
your browser settings. "

Accessing the same pages from a different computer does not result in this
error. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

Tyler
reply-to: (e-mail address removed)

 

[Tyler Style]

UPDATE
On Firefox, it gives a timeout error trying to connect to the server the
form is being submitted to.

 

[Randell D.]

UPDATE
On Firefox, it gives a timeout error trying to connect to the server the
form is being submitted to.

Your PCs are likely to be configured differently...

If the name of the server that contains your cgi is called
myServer.com, then try and ping it. Do this using the client PC that
makes your form post work correctly, and do it again on the client PC
that fails to process your form. Compare the results...

To ping:
Click on start - then click on Run - enter command.com and press Enter.

A black DOS screen opens - Type the command ping followed by a space,
followed by the name of the server (in our example, myserver.com).

This should loop four three or four times before exiting - You can
always perform a CTRL+C to exit it. Read the output and see if it says
100% successful or 0% sucessful.

If one says is 100% and the other 0% then you've got a networking
configuration issue - not a javascript /scripting/web design issue.

To come out of your dos session, just type exit at the dos prompt...

randell d.

 

[Tyler Style]

Thanks Randell! But it isn't a networking problem. Both ping and tracert
show no problems, and almost identical results between machines that do and
do not work. All other network functions on these machines work just fine -
except when trying to submit the form to the webserver. Other forms, other
webservers - no probs. FTP'ing - no probs. Mail - no probs.

Nor is it too heavy a load on the webserver - it is a test machine, and
sees a load of .75 to 1.2% averaged over five minute intervals.

I am pulling out my hair over this, and seriously considering placing a
$200 call to Microsoft....

Tyler

 

[Randell D.]

Thanks Randell! But it isn't a networking problem. Both ping and tracert
show no problems, and almost identical results between machines that do and
do not work. All other network functions on these machines work just fine -
except when trying to submit the form to the webserver. Other forms, other
webservers - no probs. FTP'ing - no probs. Mail - no probs.

Nor is it too heavy a load on the webserver - it is a test machine, and
sees a load of .75 to 1.2% averaged over five minute intervals.

I am pulling out my hair over this, and seriously considering placing a
$200 call to Microsoft....

Tyler

Does one machine use a proxy and the other not?

I know its a long shot, but are you posting to some unusual port number
that might be stopped via a local software based firewall on one, but
not the other?

Might I make the assumption that on the webclient where the post fails,
you are actually reading the form from the webserver, and not the
cache? You've mentioned that you have tried two different browsers on
the failing client so a cache problem is unlikely - but like you, I too
am scratching my head why this might be.

Ah! When you pinged the server - did you get to see the same IP
addresses? THE EXACT SAME IP? Don't laugh but... because on a unix box
a couple of months ago I had similar problems where both boxes pinged
but had different IP's (one was missing a zero due to a local hosts file
entry as opposed to DNS and thus I was getting the response from a
different server).

I'm wondering if the domain name that your web page is hosted on has a
local hosts entry which would lead me to believe that you might have a
local web server running on the broken client, and a hosts file pointing
in the wrong direction for your tests...

Again... its a long shot... but these are fences that have made me fall
once or twice...

You got me curious on this one - If you do get it in the mean time, let
us know where the fault lay...I am sure others would be curious too...

randelld

 

[Tyler Style]

Hey Randell! Thanks for the further advice. Alas, still no dice...

1. No proxies are being used by the problem machine I have access to except
for email spam filtering.
2. The form is definitely not from cache. Even if it was, it should still
post properly.
3. Pinging the server shows the same IP as the one I am posting to in the
form. I don't think this would be the issue, as that would mean all
submissions should fail, no?
4. The client doesn't have IIS installed, and it's HOSTS file only shows
localhost.
5. My mind has become a hollow echoing bell, ringing "Why? Why? Why?..."

If I ever discover the answer, I shall definitely post it here. I'm
convinced it is an SP2 issue, with some 'security' feature tripping on some
kind of configuration problem.

Tyler