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cfug.aspx begins download upon entering the 'NN
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ebuddy
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Jan 26, 2008, 10:31 AM
 
When I first pop open a Forum topic, a file begins to download called cfug.aspx. Whenever I open a thread topic this cfug.aspx attempts to download also. I'm using 10.3.9/Safari. This is an HTML file format and I wonder if it is you all or me. I realize this probably should've gone into the bug-fix thread, but I wanted this to get attention as soon as possible as this is not happening elsewhere, just here.

Thanks.
ebuddy
     
Oisín
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Jan 26, 2008, 12:42 PM
 
I’ve never seen that happen anywhere, in neither Safari 2 nor Safari 3.

I don’t believe I’ve ever been on MacNN on a Panther machine since the redesign, however.
     
Thorzdad
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Jan 26, 2008, 04:27 PM
 
I'm getting the same file downloading, too. It seems to be random, though. I read a few threads and nothing happened. Then, I hit this thread, and the cfug.aspx file started downloading. It also started downloading when I opened this thread we're in now.

10.3.9 / Safari 1.3.2

Never had this happen before.
     
Chuckit
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Jan 26, 2008, 05:58 PM
 
Interesting. Safari 1.3 seems to be a common thread. If you open it in TextEdit, does the file contain anything? Also, is anybody experiencing this able to pinpoint when it started happening?
Chuck
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Thorzdad
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Jan 26, 2008, 06:06 PM
 
The action appears to be in the code for the website itself. Do a View Source and then search for "aspx". This is what you will find:

<!-- BEGIN TEMPLATE: navbar_link -->

&gt; <span style="white-space:nowrap;"><a href="61/feedback/360248/cfug-aspx-begins-download-upon-entering/post/3588327/#post3588327">cfug.aspx begins download upon entering the 'NN</a></span>

<!-- END TEMPLATE: navbar_link -->

Apparently MacNN itself is forcing the download.
     
Chuckit
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Jan 26, 2008, 06:22 PM
 
I don't see what in that code you think is forcing a download. That's just the HTML to create the last element of the "You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > Feedback > cfug.aspx begins download upon entering the 'NN" at the top of the page. If you search for it anywhere but this thread, the name won't show up at all (or at least it doesn't for me). If you find another thread where the download happens and it shows up in the source, that would be interesting to see.
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Thorzdad
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Jan 26, 2008, 06:41 PM
 
Still...something is suddenly making Safari 1.3x try to download cfug.aspx. Safari wasn't doing this yesterday.
     
Fishing guy
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Jan 26, 2008, 07:47 PM
 
Same thing started with my mac today. Only a few sites do it, but the ones that are doing it seem to start a download from allmost all the new links on that site. Googled aspx files. They seem to be MS server files. That is a file used by the server to display information. Still have not found out why today this started happening, tried all the debugging menu items, caches still nothing. One thing though, seems like after you stop the download, the page that started to load or reloading that same page won't start the download again. Did the download ever get anywhere? I let it continue a few times but all it does is bring up the window. Nothing really downloads. Using Panther 10.3.9 Safari 1.3.2
     
ghporter
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Jan 26, 2008, 07:52 PM
 
".aspx" files are used by Microsoft's ASP.Net web building tools. They typically contain the tools and controls that are used by an active or dynamic web page. Read the Wiki here. It sounds like something on the page (maybe an ad) is linking in an ASP-built dynamic page and the fact that its a Safari browser isn't being caught, so Safari tries to download the probably IE-specific code. Bad coding. Bad advertising, too. It's nothing about our site; the "leased out" advertising space is likely the culprit. We're looking into it to see precisely where it comes from. Any details that anyone could provide will help us figure out which advertiser is using the offending code so we can get this fixed.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
anappleaday
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Jan 27, 2008, 07:47 AM
 
I went to this site: chicoer.com about 30 minutes ago and opened two new tabs for news stories.

The cfug file tried to download a total of three times. I stopped and deleted all three files. When I googled cfug.aspx this site came up.

Are the downloads harmful?
     
Thorzdad
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Jan 27, 2008, 08:59 AM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
It's nothing about our site; the "leased out" advertising space is likely the culprit. We're looking into it to see precisely where it comes from. Any details that anyone could provide will help us figure out which advertiser is using the offending code so we can get this fixed.
I did notice that the first couple of times I got the download, the top ad banner was a big green Comcast ad. Not sure if that helps
     
kdesh
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Jan 27, 2008, 02:15 PM
 
My Ibook started downloading this "cfug.aspx" yesterday as well. Seems to happen only when I've opened emails in hotmail.com
K
     
tristan13
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Jan 27, 2008, 05:28 PM
 
The same thing has been happening on my powerbookG4. I notice it when I'm on hotmail, either refreshing the page or opening messages.
     
reader50
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Jan 27, 2008, 06:17 PM
 
Has anyone managed to download it? The copy I got from an affected person was an empty file - 0 bytes in size. If we could latch the complete file, it may contain clues to who owns it.
     
Tally A
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Jan 28, 2008, 11:04 AM
 
Use hotmail, but this does not happen each time.
Have contacts whose addresses are Comcast which, in the last 2 days, has returned my "sent", but delivered all sent to me.

Use iBookG4, OS X10.3.9

Dismissed this a few wks ago because the file was empty.
Download window pops up and am able to stop it before it is completed.
Runs for a while tho. Anyone know for how long?

(Just joined this forum (via Google) because it had stopped for 1-2wks and just now began again. Appreciate the discussion/help)
     
ickystay
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Jan 28, 2008, 06:04 PM
 
I've been getting it from Hotmail too. Here's the address (without the http):

://a1.interclick.com/cfug.aspx?ng=74100f4f-894e-4081-9442-05c827c5e806

I've never let it complete.

eMac OSX 10.3.9 Safari 1.3.2
     
C.A.T.S. CEO
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Jan 28, 2008, 06:11 PM
 
It seems to only affect Panther machines running Safari 1.3, maybe the different ad coders (or whatever they're called) decided that they shouldn't support Safari 1.
Signature depreciated.
     
besson3c
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Jan 28, 2008, 06:25 PM
 
ASP is a MS only language, my guess is that an ad is relying on an ASP file.
     
Thorzdad
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Jan 29, 2008, 07:33 AM
 
ASP has been around a long time, though. One has to wonder why, all of a sudden, this sort of behavior should occur? Has there been some sort of major revision in the way ASP is implemented/served/whatever? Something new in ASP.NET?
     
hwojtek
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Jan 29, 2008, 07:58 AM
 
No, it is a misconfiguration of a web server, that doesn't service the .aspx files as a script. .aspx is a "script-executable", a precompiled .asp servlet, which is triggered by visiting it's URL and then does something - displays some ads, stores information to a database, creates a Hotmail or Yahoomail workspace, etc.
If a web server is misconfigured and .aspx file extension isn't listed as a script engine file, the web server will do the only thing it is able to do with any type of file - it will initiate the browser to download it. , The actions to take when a client hits a file on the server are file-extension based. Somebody forgot to configure the server to handle the .aspx properly.

Most browsers have their MIME settings configured in a way they can properly handle common extensions (like .mov, .jpg, .png etc) - and probably the newer versions of Safari "know", that .aspx is a precompiled, server-side script, not some data to download. But apparently 1.3 doesn't and downloads the improperly served .aspx file.

Such server misconfigs happen once in a while if a single server within a large cluster has been added/changed/upgrade and while upgrading, some fine-tuning of server configuration hasn't been propagated properly.

So, judging by the occurrences of this download - linked to some ads displaying on a few sites - it's just a glitch in the adserver cluster. Nothing to worry about.
Wojtek

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ebuddy  (op)
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Jan 29, 2008, 08:55 AM
 
Originally Posted by hwojtek View Post
No, it is a misconfiguration of a web server, that doesn't service the .aspx files as a script. .aspx is a "script-executable", a precompiled .asp servlet, which is triggered by visiting it's URL and then does something - displays some ads, stores information to a database, creates a Hotmail or Yahoomail workspace, etc.
If a web server is misconfigured and .aspx file extension isn't listed as a script engine file, the web server will do the only thing it is able to do with any type of file - it will initiate the browser to download it. , The actions to take when a client hits a file on the server are file-extension based. Somebody forgot to configure the server to handle the .aspx properly.

Most browsers have their MIME settings configured in a way they can properly handle common extensions (like .mov, .jpg, .png etc) - and probably the newer versions of Safari "know", that .aspx is a precompiled, server-side script, not some data to download. But apparently 1.3 doesn't and downloads the improperly served .aspx file.

Such server misconfigs happen once in a while if a single server within a large cluster has been added/changed/upgrade and while upgrading, some fine-tuning of server configuration hasn't been propagated properly.

So, judging by the occurrences of this download - linked to some ads displaying on a few sites - it's just a glitch in the adserver cluster. Nothing to worry about.
Excellent info hwojtek. Sorry I've been absent from this thread. The good news is, I believe ghporter et.al got this taken care of from the MacNN side. It hasn't been happening since that day. Interestingly, I've not had the problem anywhere else nor any time prior to a few days ago. Weird. I never let the download complete, but it quickly became like playing whack-a-mole.
ebuddy
     
Tally A
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Jan 29, 2008, 09:06 AM
 
Much help -thanks!

But why was I still playing whack-a-mole last night?


(Am just a Granny here, a geezerette - I type just like I drive but don't know how to build a car. What do I need to do?)
     
Oisín
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Jan 29, 2008, 10:00 AM
 
Most browsers have their MIME settings configured in a way they can properly handle common extensions (like .mov, .jpg, .png etc) - and probably the newer versions of Safari "know", that .aspx is a precompiled, server-side script, not some data to download. But apparently 1.3 doesn't and downloads the improperly served .aspx file.
A bit off-topic, but I really wish they’d added .m4v and .m4a to that list of file formats Safari knows what to do with. Every time I click a link to either an .m4v or an .m4a file anywhere, Safari downloads the file and adds a .txt extension to it.
     
besson3c
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Jan 29, 2008, 10:05 AM
 
Originally Posted by Oisín View Post
A bit off-topic, but I really wish they’d added .m4v and .m4a to that list of file formats Safari knows what to do with. Every time I click a link to either an .m4v or an .m4a file anywhere, Safari downloads the file and adds a .txt extension to it.
The web server also has to be configured to serve these MIME types. I'm willing to bet that the problem is there, not with Safari.
     
Oisín
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Jan 29, 2008, 10:30 AM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
The web server also has to be configured to serve these MIME types. I'm willing to bet that the problem is there, not with Safari.
I thought the point was that the browser contains a ‘list’ of file types, so that it will know what to do with the file, even if the server hasn’t been set up properly?

Otherwise, Safari 1.3 and Safari 3 should both be choking on these .aspx files, no, since they’re obviously on a misconfigured server?
     
besson3c
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Jan 29, 2008, 11:04 AM
 
Originally Posted by Oisín View Post
I thought the point was that the browser contains a ‘list’ of file types, so that it will know what to do with the file, even if the server hasn’t been set up properly?

Otherwise, Safari 1.3 and Safari 3 should both be choking on these .aspx files, no, since they’re obviously on a misconfigured server?

The web server has a list of MIME types associated with appropriate content type headers that are used to serve these files. When this file is requested on the web server, the appropriate content type is included in the HTTP request.

Once the download has been completed (or in the case of a fast start Quicktime movie or the like, once enough has been downloaded), the browser MIME types are used to determine what app should handle files of this type/extension. However, if the file is served as a text/html, even if you have the proper MIME types set in your browser it won't matter, as the HTTP request will return as being a text document, and your browser will dutifully attempt to display the document as a text document like it does for any other file that returns with the same header.
     
besson3c
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Jan 29, 2008, 11:08 AM
 
Specifically, your Apache mime.types file needs to include the following:

audio/mpeg mpga mp2 mp3 m4a
The m4a is what I added. It's also worth checking on the following:

video/quicktime qt mov m4v mp4
I can't remember which ones are there by default...
     
Oisín
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Jan 29, 2008, 11:31 AM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
The web server has a list of MIME types associated with appropriate content type headers that are used to serve these files. When this file is requested on the web server, the appropriate content type is included in the HTTP request.

Once the download has been completed (or in the case of a fast start Quicktime movie or the like, once enough has been downloaded), the browser MIME types are used to determine what app should handle files of this type/extension. However, if the file is served as a text/html, even if you have the proper MIME types set in your browser it won't matter, as the HTTP request will return as being a text document, and your browser will dutifully attempt to display the document as a text document like it does for any other file that returns with the same header.
So... what you’re saying, then, is that in the case of this .aspx file, the MIME types are correctly set on the server (since newer browsers handle the file correctly, the HTTP request must return an executable, right?), but Safari 1.3’s browser MIME type is inadequate?

Shouldn’t this go for all .aspx files, then? Or am I misunderstanding you?
     
Thorzdad
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Jan 29, 2008, 11:41 AM
 
Originally Posted by Oisín View Post
So... what you’re saying, then, is that in the case of this .aspx file, the MIME types are correctly set on the server (since newer browsers handle the file correctly, the HTTP request must return an executable, right?), but Safari 1.3’s browser MIME type is inadequate?

Shouldn’t this go for all .aspx files, then? Or am I misunderstanding you?
I think what he's saying is that the newer browsers know how to handle what the misconfigured servers are pushing out. Safari 1.3, on the other hand, remains confused.
     
hwojtek
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Jan 29, 2008, 12:01 PM
 
Originally Posted by Oisín View Post
So... what you’re saying, then, is that in the case of this .aspx file, the MIME types are correctly set on the server (since newer browsers handle the file correctly, the HTTP request must return an executable, right?), but Safari 1.3’s browser MIME type is inadequate?
Shouldn’t this go for all .aspx files, then? Or am I misunderstanding you?
I'd say the MIME on the server is set to application/octet-stream and .aspx. is not recognized as a script (I believe IIS 6 would set the proper MIME automatically, if .aspx was set correctly). This is the reason why the file is downloaded and not executed on the server.
I believe this particular server 'misbehaved' and the sysadmin leaned to MS KB 326965 to make it do 'something'. This article says, that if in trouble:

1. Open the IIS Microsoft Management Console (MMC), right-click the local computer name, and then click Properties.
2. Click MIME Types.
3. Click New.
4. In the Extension box, type an asterisk (*).
5. In the MIME Type box, type application/octet-stream.
Check the #5.
Wojtek

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besson3c
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Jan 29, 2008, 02:42 PM
 
At any rate, it's a very bad idea for an ad provider to be pushing out ads that only work on Windows Apache/IIS servers, considering the existence of a very significant (some would say majority) of servers running Linux/Apache.
     
Chuckit
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Jan 29, 2008, 02:55 PM
 
Originally Posted by Oisín View Post
I thought the point was that the browser contains a ‘list’ of file types, so that it will know what to do with the file, even if the server hasn’t been set up properly?
But Safari isn't supposed to do anything with an ASP file. It's a server-side script.
Chuck
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Oisín
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Jan 29, 2008, 03:41 PM
 
Originally Posted by Chuckit View Post
But Safari isn't supposed to do anything with an ASP file. It's a server-side script.
Very true. Very true.
     
besson3c
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Jan 29, 2008, 03:51 PM
 
Originally Posted by Oisín View Post
So... what you’re saying, then, is that in the case of this .aspx file, the MIME types are correctly set on the server (since newer browsers handle the file correctly, the HTTP request must return an executable, right?), but Safari 1.3’s browser MIME type is inadequate?

Shouldn’t this go for all .aspx files, then? Or am I misunderstanding you?

The server configuration is completely web browser agnostic. I have no idea why different versions of Safari would treat certain MIME types differently. Then again, Safari 1.3 was a very young browser at the time, there was probably a huge gamut of bugs of all sorts.

Isn't Safari 2.x an option to anybody that can run some sort of version of Safari?
     
Oisín
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Jan 29, 2008, 03:55 PM
 
Safari 2 is Tiger only, if I recall correctly.

Edit: Yup, Safari 2.0.1 requires 10.4.2.
     
besson3c
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Jan 29, 2008, 04:22 PM
 
Well, given how badly Safari 2.x sucked, I can only imagine how bad 1.3 is today...
     
Oisín
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Jan 29, 2008, 04:37 PM
 
Safari 2 sucked? I didn’t notice. Sure, there are a few sites that Safari 2 would choke on, but not Safari 3; but I think I still almost prefer Safari 2 over Safari 3, since 3 is so buggy and unstable.

But that’s a topic for quite a different thread, I think.
     
irishgirl
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Jan 29, 2008, 08:51 PM
 
i'm having the same cfug.aspx problem and it's driving me nuts. mainly it's showing up everytime i open an email in Hotmail. does anyone know the next step -- what can i do to stop it from happening, rather than just diagnosing the problem? is it something that the geniuses at the Mac store can fix?
     
besson3c
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Jan 29, 2008, 08:54 PM
 
Originally Posted by irishgirl View Post
i'm having the same cfug.aspx problem and it's driving me nuts. mainly it's showing up everytime i open an email in Hotmail. does anyone know the next step -- what can i do to stop it from happening, rather than just diagnosing the problem? is it something that the geniuses at the Mac store can fix?
The fix for this does not rest with Safari, but with server modifications.

The best you can do is simply block these ads using an ad blocker. This will not actually solve the problem, but it may make it so that you don't have to deal with the annoyance.
     
irishgirl
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Jan 29, 2008, 09:10 PM
 
thank you. i'll try that -- anything!
     
besson3c
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Jan 29, 2008, 09:18 PM
 
If you use Safari, check out PithHelmet, last I checked it is free... There are many benefits to running an ad blocker utility regardless of this cfug.aspx thing anyway...
     
Ladlestein
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Jan 29, 2008, 10:23 PM
 
For the browser to react to the .aspx page like it is, it would have to fetch it as an IFRAME or similar, and then the server of that ad would have to be misconfigured in the fashion that's been suggested. But that'd be a little surprising, because those ad servers for DoubleClick, ZEDO, Google, etc. are all surely by now configured to handle that content type, right?

Could some (overly) intelligent proxy server be the culprit somewhere?

Or maybe it's an ad that itself includes an IFRAME served not by the ad server but by the advertiser's own incompetent staff. That might be more likely.
     
   
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