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Re: Odd Behavior in IE5
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Re: Odd Behavior in IE5

  • To: NTBUGTRAQLISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM
  • Subject: Re: Odd Behavior in IE5
  • From: "Glen R. J. Neff" <gneffCW.NET>
  • Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 09:43:01 -0400
  • Approved-By: Russ.CooperRC.ON.CA
  • Comments: To: Mark <markNTSHOP.NET>
  • Importance: Normal
  • In-Reply-To: <022f01be97ec$55a5fc50$5267aecffrog.dev.nul>
  • Reply-To: "Glen R. J. Neff" <gneffCW.NET>
  • Sender: Windows NT BugTraq Mailing List <NTBUGTRAQLISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM>
I too have noticed some problems with FTP in IE5.  I noticed them in the
betas as well, but I thought they were so blatantly obvious that I didn't
report 'em.

The problems I've observed are with how IE5 handles passive FTP.  They've
been especially apparent to me because my NT boxes at home are behind Linux
IP Masq., which requires passive mode for outgoing FTP, as does our firewall
here at work.

I've always surmised that IE4, which handles it fine, first attempts FTP
connections in non-passive mode, then switches to passive mode if necessary.

In IE5, if you select an FTP link which points directly to a file
(ftp://ftp.acme.com/pub/subdir/file.zip) it will switch to passive mode and
pull the file just fine.  But if you attempt to hit a URL that specifies a
directory on an FTP server (ftp://ftp.acme.com/pub/), after a long pause,
you'll get an error dialogue like:

        An error occurred opening that folder on the FTP Server.
        Make sure you have permission to access that folder.

        Detail:
        200 Type Set to A.
        200 PORT command successful.
        425 Can't build data connection: Operation timed out.

Likewise, here's an example of the output from NT's command line FTP client
which has no support for passive mode:

D:\>ftp ftp.cdrom.com
Connected to wcarchive.cdrom.com.
220 wcarchive.cdrom.com FTP server (Version DG-3.1.27 Wed Dec 2 01:29:08 PST
1998) ready.
User (wcarchive.cdrom.com:(none)): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your email address as password.
Password:
230-Welcome to wcarchive - home FTP site for Walnut Creek CDROM.
<snip>
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
425 Can't build data connection: Connection refused.
ftp>

And to really demonstrate my point, here's some sample output from a UN!X
based FTP client:

gneffjedi-/home/gneff$ ftp ftp.cdrom.com
Connected to wcarchive.cdrom.com.
220 wcarchive.cdrom.com FTP server (Version DG-3.1.27 Wed Dec 2 01:29:08 PST
1998) ready.
Name (ftp.cdrom.com:gneff): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your email address as password.
Password:
230-Welcome to wcarchive - home FTP site for Walnut Creek CDROM.
<snip>
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
425 Can't build data connection: Connection refused.
ftp> passive
Passive mode on.
ftp> ls
227 Entering Passive Mode (209,155,82,18,32,226)
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for 'file list'.
total 91760
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  wheel       696 Nov 19  1997 README
<snip>
drwxrwxr-x  2 root  wheel      2048 May  6 21:26 pub
226 Transfer complete.
ftp>

Can anyone else collaborate the problems with IE5 I've outlined here?

Glen R. J. Neff
NT Administrator
Cable & Wireless Internet Operations Center

"There is no spoon."

-----Original Message-----
From:   Windows NT BugTraq Mailing List
[mailto:NTBUGTRAQLISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent:   Thursday, May 06, 1999 14:15
To:     NTBUGTRAQLISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM
Subject:        Odd Behavior in IE5

Has anyone noticed this?

<snip>

After putting a sniffer to work to catch this network activity, it appears
that IE5 will actually make a connection to every FTP site listed in the
Address drop down list *before* displaying the Address list -- this is what
causes the delay in displaying the list of TypedURLs in the Address drop
down list.

<snip>

I wish I'd stuck with IE 4.x - doh.

Mark