Forbidden access to forums using IE9

[tcc]

Hi,

I'm getting "403 forbidden" when trying to access the forums using IE9

I have to use IE9 dev tools (f12) each time and change to user agent Mozilla Firefox, then access is ok. Its the only user agent that works. All the other agents including Chrome, Opera, IE6, 7, or 8 fail.

Tim

[tcc]

Hi,

Not getting 403 forbidden anymore

Something changed on servers?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

A bit, yes

[cybmole]

Hi,

I'm getting "403 forbidden" when trying to access the forums using IE9

I have to use IE9 dev tools (f12) each time and change to user agent Mozilla Firefox, then access is ok. Its the only user agent that works. All the other agents including Chrome, Opera, IE6, 7, or 8 fail.

Tim

i am now getting "403 forbidden" with IE9 today - was OK a a few days ago. I can access all pages via google chrome so it is not an ISP blacklist issue.

some security "enhancement" on your side is now blocking IE9 access for the entire site, not just the forum pages.

[cybmole]

still broken for me - chrome works, IE9 is forbidden - is just me, or a general problem ?

[cybmole]

so -
no one cares

or all the people h care are blocked from saying so ???

it is ridiculous that the leading browser Ie9 cannot access the site

I am p***d off with having to change browser to do so & with the lack of response.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I use IE9 without any issue to access this website. This is on Windows 7 64 bits.

[cybmole]

I use IE9 without any issue to access this website. This is on Windows 7 64 bits.

strange, because that is what I use. so I guess it must be due to an extension. I use roboform with IE9, to handle log-ins. maybe you are blocking that. guessing here as "spam relay" is not something I know a lot about.

I can access the main videolan & download pages ok with IE9 - it is jsut the forum that I am locked out of

EDIT UPDATE - it is NOT caused by extensions _ i ran IE9 in safe mode ( -= no add-ons) & still got 403 forbidden. I also opened a ticket with roboform But I expect them to say " not their problem"

I have other PCs -so will try from those soon as they have vista & win 7 32 bit respectively. meanwhile any other troubleshooting suggestions please. I see no point in searching blacklists because my access via google chrome is OK,.

could it be to do with county of origin + browser type, I am in UK, I am guessing you are not.

PS I also have running malwarebytes pro which is real-time filtering for malicious web sites, but the impact of that should be browser independent ?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Usually this is caused by too many conflicting .Net installations.

[cybmole]

Usually this is caused by too many conflicting .Net installations.

i have only the .net that came with windows 7 + whatever windows update has added.

my control panel program features shows four .net frameworks:

v4 client profile,
v4 extended,
v1.1,
v2.0 sp1 compact

I am very reluctant to mess with those as it could lead to other things not working correctly

PS I just tried firefox - that works fine, as does chrome. the issue seems specific to IE9

IE9 fails also in private browsing mode.

I am out ideas of what/how to test next.

[cybmole]

update - from a different computer in the house Ie9 win 7 32 bit, I can access the forum OK.

so ANy ideas at all why the other computer cannot, even in safe mode.

the other computer runs malwarebytes & peerblock ( but with http enabled) as it my main on-line computer, but it's hard to blame those since the other computer is OK when I use firefox or chrome.

and this issue is specific to videolan forum I have no issues with any other sites

[cybmole]

OK guys I've solved this.

it would have been nice to have had some help in doing so but anyway....

in pursuit of another bug - the " do you want to save gzip.html" question that was appearing everything I used google tool-bar search- I found a suggestion to check the two tick boxes under the http1.1 subheader in internet explorer advanced options.

After ticking those two previously unticked boxes, I go my forum access back.
FYI I ticked "use http1.1" & "use http1.1 through proxy connections". both were previously unticked.
Pretty sure the previous unticked values were IE9 defaults, I don't recall ever messing with them.

Now can anyone explain please why those boxes have anything to do with the 403 forbidden access to forums error ?

and can that info be put somewhere where others who are still getting the 403 forbidden error have some chance of finding it.
PS ticking those fixed the google toolbar bug also.

[genegold]

I'm getting the 403 error for these forums with both IE9 and Opera 12; it's only working with Waterfox 12 (FF x64). In my case the two HTTP 1.1 boxes in IE9 were already checked. So why is this block happening? It's not something I run into anywhere else, except for those occasional websites that are intentionally browser sniffing. Thanks,

[cybmole]

I'm getting the 403 error for these forums with both IE9 and Opera 12; it's only working with Waterfox 12 (FF x64). In my case the two HTTP 1.1 boxes in IE9 were already checked. So why is this block happening? It's not something I run into anywhere else, except for those occasional websites that are intentionally browser sniffing. Thanks,

I wish you luck - seems that the guys who maintain the forum code either don't know enough or don't care enough to fix the 403 forbidden situation - I never got a sensible response -

you could try all the things that I tried ( as per earlier posts) test with safe mode, test with a laptop or 2nd pc from same IP address, test with chrome, ...toggle those HTTP1.1 settings on & off again... post your findings to help the next victim.

[genegold]

Who are the administrators? I haven't found a list anywhere, unlike other forums.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This is happening because we have a very strong spam system.
We refuse browsers that have fishy user-agents, IPs on blocklists and known open-proxies.

This is not fun, but this is the only way we can reduce the spam on this forum.

[genegold]

This is happening because we have a very strong spam system.
We refuse browsers that have fishy user-agents, IPs on blocklists and known open-proxies.

This is not fun, but this is the only way we can reduce the spam on this forum.

So exactly which of those do Opera and IE9 inherently have? Yeah, I know there's a lot about Microsoft and security, although I'm not up on how it applies to IE9, but aside from some sites that browser sniff I've never seen another site of any kind that refuses Opera on security grounds, except when it's a code phrase for not wanting to put the resources into improving their site. So, please be specific.

[cybmole]

to be fair - I have never seen any spam on this forum, so they are doing something right! - but blocking real users & then not helping with their issues is something else

[genegold]

I wrote Opera and here's what one of its developers had to say:

"...Given the information in the thread, I suspect that the blocking is more due to ISP IP address blocking than User Agent sniffing, or it may be that both have to match, since other browsers could access. It depends on how that system works.

This type of problem is not due to a security issue, ... and will be passed on to the Open The Web project.

For more information regarding Opera's security policies, you may look at the following links:
http://www.opera.com/security/policy/
http://www.opera.com/security/rating/
http://my.opera.com/securitygroup/blog/ ... sue-anyway

Sincerely,
Yngve N. ...
Opera Software ASA"

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This is happening because we have a very strong spam system.
We refuse browsers that have fishy user-agents, IPs on blocklists and known open-proxies.

This is not fun, but this is the only way we can reduce the spam on this forum.

So exactly which of those do Opera and IE9 inherently have? Yeah, I know there's a lot about Microsoft and security, although I'm not up on how it applies to IE9, but aside from some sites that browser sniff I've never seen another site of any kind that refuses Opera on security grounds, except when it's a code phrase for not wanting to put the resources into improving their site. So, please be specific.

IE9 installation that are blocked usually have a lot of .Net runtimes like many of the spamming bots.
Some Opera plugins change the correct headers and are detected like some of the spamming bots.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

to be fair - I have never seen any spam on this forum, so they are doing something right!

Without this system, we had 100s of spams per days. Now we have a dozens or so.

[kdean]

Who are the administrators? I haven't found a list anywhere, unlike other forums.

"The Team" text link at the bottom right of the site.

memberlist.php?mode=leaders

[genegold]

I have to laugh. Talking about spam, today, August 2, I received an email, dated today, that the topic has received a new reply since my last visit. That would have been July 17 - one I had already received notice of back then ("notify me when a reply is posted"). Who exactly are the pot and the kettle here?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Imagine how much more spam we would have then?

[genegold]

Not sure why I got an email notification on Sept 14 for an Aug 2 post, which seems to be the last, but I am finding that Opera 12.50 (Win 7x64) does show the forums now - at least on my laptop from China.