IE8 will not resolve ip addresses

[Bill_G]

One of our techs went to service a Canopy link, and found his XP Pro laptop with IE8 will not resolve ip addys entered directly into the addy bar. He can ping the devices. He can web to them with Opera. But, IE8 says it cannot display the web page (and then there is a whole diagnostic discussion that is pretty worthless). He can go to google.com. He can surf anyplace he wants when he uses a name. But, if he uses a direct address, he gets the same error. Very odd behavior.

Any ideas on what to do to beat IE8 into submission?

[alex]

One of our techs went to service a Canopy link, and found his XP Pro laptop with IE8 will not resolve ip addys entered directly into the addy bar. He can ping the devices. He can web to them with Opera. But, IE8 says it cannot display the web page (and then there is a whole diagnostic discussion that is pretty worthless). He can go to google.com. He can surf anyplace he wants when he uses a name. But, if he uses a direct address, he gets the same error. Very odd behavior.

Any ideas on what to do to beat IE8 into submission?

This might sound funny...

Have the tech put http://x.x.x.x in the address bar. I've run in to this issue before just by typing in the IP address and it complains.

-alex

[Bill_G]

Alex - We tried that. IE8 automagically puts the http:// in front of the addy, and then immediately posts the "cannot display the webpage". On the other hand, if I put the addy of a vpn gateway that I have disabled http services, it thinks about it for a bit, and then we get redirected to a Google search page with all the relevant hits for that address.

If I fire up an old Win95 box with IE5 in the same subnet, we can get into the Canopy just fine. I'm drilling through the security options of IE8 to see if something in there is specifically preventing a connection.

Confirmed on my laptop by upgrading to IE8.

The tech came in to say Firefox works okay too. Opera ok. Firefox ok. IE8 no joy on the same laptop confirming it is not a ip problem.

[Batwings21]

Thats because IE8 sucks. I've ran into similar problems, and always keep firefox around for just such applications.

[wavetar]

Wierd...no problems with using IE8 on IP223 boxes...but I haven't tried with a Canopy unit. Fun for tomorrow!

[Bill_G]

Yeah. I'll be interested in your results. I doubt it has anything to do with Canopy, and something to do with routing versus security. In our system, the local netscreen is the dhcp server giving all the local shop pc's public ip's in the 192.168.2.x range with the standard triple nickle netmask (255.255.255.0) with the netscreen as the gateway. We have a vpn tunnel to hq to connect to resources there in the 10.0.x.x subnets. All of our backbone is in the 66.88.x.x subnets including our Canopy connections to a local tower where it drops to fiber and into a distributed isp we maintain. The netscreen does all the routing from policies we've written. My laptop with IE6 could web into all the gear. After I upgraded it to IE8, it couldn't. However, I can still ping everything and telnet into them. I tried to back out of IE8 and restore IE6, but no joy. Now IE6 acts stupid. Yet, Firefox works just fine. An old win95 box with IE5 works fine in the same 192.168 public subnet. There has to be something in IE8 that gets set, and then remains set. Possibly a registry entry I'm not familiar with. I'll do some poking around in the kiddie hack sites to see if anyone has experienced this before.

[Jim202]

And people wonder why so many of us refuse to let IE8 be installed on our computers. That's why there is a custom selection when doing Windows updates.
It lets us stupid people choose which updates we want allowed into out computers.

I like Firefox and have had zero problems with it. It is just that the dreamers at Motorola haven't managed to kick the limited advantages of IE to allow us
dumb people to get into MOL with it something other than IE.

Jim

Yeah. I'll be interested in your results. I doubt it has anything to do with Canopy, and something to do with routing versus security. In our system, the local netscreen is the dhcp server giving all the local shop pc's public ip's in the 192.168.2.x range with the standard triple nickle netmask (255.255.255.0) with the netscreen as the gateway. We have a vpn tunnel to hq to connect to resources there in the 10.0.x.x subnets. All of our backbone is in the 66.88.x.x subnets including our Canopy connections to a local tower where it drops to fiber and into a distributed isp we maintain. The netscreen does all the routing from policies we've written. My laptop with IE6 could web into all the gear. After I upgraded it to IE8, it couldn't. However, I can still ping everything and telnet into them. I tried to back out of IE8 and restore IE6, but no joy. Now IE6 acts stupid. Yet, Firefox works just fine. An old win95 box with IE5 works fine in the same 192.168 public subnet. There has to be something in IE8 that gets set, and then remains set. Possibly a registry entry I'm not familiar with. I'll do some poking around in the kiddie hack sites to see if anyone has experienced this before.

[jackhackett]

It is just that the dreamers at Motorola haven't managed to kick the limited advantages of IE to allow us dumb people to get into MOL with it something other than IE.

I don't know where Moto gets it's developers from... who in their right mind makes a browser specific website these days? Probably the same guys that write the CPS.

If you do need to keep IE around for MOL and want something else to use the rest of the time try one of these:

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet

throw one on a thumbdrive, good to go.

[motorola_otaku]

It is just that the dreamers at Motorola haven't managed to kick the limited advantages of IE to allow us dumb people to get into MOL with it something other than IE.

I don't know where Moto gets it's developers from... who in their right mind makes a browser specific website these days? Probably the same guys that write the CPS.

I'd suspect it's because Opera and Firefox have plugins to mask the user's local information. Remember, this is the same company that uses ANI on their 800 number to direct callers to account-specific menus and call-takers.

[Bill_G]

I was working on the link at the tower yesterday plugged directly into a 66.88.x.x router with my laptop assigned an addy in that subnet, and got the same results again - IE8 says it cannot display that page when I attempt to web into our Canopy. The response is almost immediate. Yet, I can web into other devices, and I can use other browsers to work the Canopy. Very odd. The fact that the response is so quick tells me IE8 is acting on a filter, but I cannot find a list. Is there place IE8 can store restricted sites and addresses that might be hidden from ordinary users?

[Al]

For troubleshooting purposes, have you tried inserting your IP addresses into the hosts file? It's at \windows\system32\drivers\etc. IE8 always looks at the hosts file first before it tries to resolve the IP you've given it....so your entry would look like: canopyxxx 66.88.xx.xx.

If the above fails, try using IE with no add-ons(only available with IE7 and IE8): Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools ->Internet Explorer(no add-ons).

[Batwings21]

I had the same issue last week, that's what I get for posting in this thread. LOL However there was a pc at one end of the link that ha ie8 and it DID display the page just fine. I'm not sure what the difference was as I did not have a chance to explore the settings. Also a call to Motorola tech support yielded nothing but try another browser.

[Bill_G]

Thanks Al. I don't hold out much hope for the hosts file idea since ping works, and other browsers on the same laptop can web into the Canopys with the literal addy in the url bar. The hosts file is a local dns, and we haven't named the devices, or put them in undefined routes. But, it's worth a try. I will definitely try the IE no add-ons suggestion. I didn't even know that existing. Lernt me sumthin new. Thanks.

[Bill_G]

And unfortunately neither of those ideas worked. IE8 with no add-ons was just as quick at declaring it could not display the page as IE8 with add-ons enabled. I drilled through the security settings adding the specific ip addys to trusted sites with no change. Just for s&g's I added an entry to the hosts file naming the link and listing the literal addy. No joy as I suspected since I was never trying to resolve a name. There's nothing odd in the route table, and the correct mac shows up in the arp table. I may send in my question to Microsoft support to see if they have any suggestions.

[joescanner]

Total shot in the dark, Bill, but have you tried to fully qualify the url? i.e. http://123.45.67.89:80/ (or s://...:443/ as the case may be). Tried to use the contrived name you used in the hosts file? (http://somehost:80/)?

[Bill_G]

Yes Joe, as a matter of fact, but thanks for the idea. Both of those were suggested earlier in the thread, and unfortunately no joy. I brought in a Win7 laptop today with IE8, plugged it into the same switch, it got an addy from dhcp in the same subnet as the laptop in question, and it brought up the webpage to the Canopy link just fine. Nary a complaint. Both laptops can web into the WES servers through our firewall. And both can go to the company intranet. Combed through the settings, and they both look the same. Very strange.