IE8 won't display web page

Ever since I installed IE8 I've been unable to get to one of my favorite
sites - the Audi A4 configurator. Thinking that my wife is smarter then she
pretends to be, I figured she defied all logic and figured out a way to
block it. Ok ok, like she would really know how to do that!

So tonight I installed Firefox and the Audi configurator works just fine.
Come on MS, this is why we don't like to install your software until sp1 is
out! What gives?

To reproduce my problem, go here:
http://www.audiusa.com/audi/us/en2/n...s/Audi_A4.html

The on the left side of the page click on the link that says "Audi
Configurator: Complete your Audi A4". It will pop up a new window. In IE8
I get an HTTP 400 error:
This error (HTTP 400 Bad Request) means that Internet Explorer was able to
connect to the web server, but the webpage could not be found because of a
problem with the address.

For more information about HTTP errors, see Help.

In Firefox it pops right up and works fine. I tried to run the Audi site in
compatibility view but it doesn't matter. Any ideas, besides sticking with
Firefox?

Andre

Hi,
Message headers indicate the OS is Vista, right?

Try:
1. Clearing the Temporary Internet Files and History.
2. Restart the computer (if you haven't already.)
3. Reset (power down for a few minutes) the modem and/or router, if
applicable.
4. With the warning that a reset will delete autocomplete data, such as
passwords and you will have to reinstall or re-enable browser add-ons, work
through this article:
936213- How to optimize or reset Internet Explorer 7:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936213/en-us

Useful for recovering stored passwords before you clear all stored login
data:
IE PassView- NirSoft:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/interne..._password.html

5. 926431- Error message when you start IE7 or try to access a website:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926431
- -
Hope this helps,
Don
[MS MVP- IE]


"Andre" <andre@nospam.com> wrote in message
news68B906F-FC1A-4D0D-8562-7E66A94A5F8F@microsoft.com...
> Ever since I installed IE8 I've been unable to get to one of my favorite
> sites - the Audi A4 configurator. Thinking that my wife is smarter then
she
> pretends to be, I figured she defied all logic and figured out a way to
> block it. Ok ok, like she would really know how to do that!
>
> So tonight I installed Firefox and the Audi configurator works just fine.
> Come on MS, this is why we don't like to install your software until sp1
is
> out! What gives?
>
> To reproduce my problem, go here:
> http://www.audiusa.com/audi/us/en2/n...s/Audi_A4.html
>
> The on the left side of the page click on the link that says "Audi
> Configurator: Complete your Audi A4". It will pop up a new window. In
IE8
> I get an HTTP 400 error:
> This error (HTTP 400 Bad Request) means that Internet Explorer was able to
> connect to the web server, but the webpage could not be found because of a
> problem with the address.
>
> For more information about HTTP errors, see Help.
>
> In Firefox it pops right up and works fine. I tried to run the Audi site
in
> compatibility view but it doesn't matter. Any ideas, besides sticking
with
> Firefox?
>
> Andre

Andre wrote on Thu, 2 Apr 2009 20:45:40 -0700:

> Ever since I installed IE8 I've been unable to get to one of my
> favorite sites - the Audi A4 configurator. Thinking that my wife is
> smarter then she pretends to be, I figured she defied all logic and
> figured out a way to block it. Ok ok, like she would really know how
> to do that!

> So tonight I installed Firefox and the Audi configurator works just
> fine. Come on MS, this is why we don't like to install your software until
> sp1 is out! What gives?

> To reproduce my problem, go here: http://www.audiusa.com/audi/us/en2/n...s/Audi_A4.html

> The on the left side of the page click on the link that says "Audi Configurator:
> Complete your Audi A4". It will pop up a new window. In
> IE8 I get an HTTP 400 error:
> This error (HTTP 400 Bad Request) means that Internet Explorer was able
> to connect to the web server, but the webpage could not be found
> because of a problem with the address.

> For more information about HTTP errors, see Help.

> In Firefox it pops right up and works fine. I tried to run the Audi
> site in compatibility view but it doesn't matter. Any ideas, besides
> sticking with Firefox?

> Andre


In IE8 here on my XP SP2 system it works fine.

400 Bad Request is a server response which suggests that there is a problem
with the request headers. One major issue with IE, and this doesn't just
affect 8, is that the User-Agent string can get very long due to it listing
all the .NET versions installed on the PC. If you use a User-Agent editor
and strip out the .NET version numbers it might help here, as many firewalls
are blocking User-Agent strings that are too long.

In the address bar, type:

javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent)

what does it show?

Now go to http://www.useragentstring.com/ , does it show the same string? If
not, then something running on your PC is corrupting the user-agent, and the
Audi site is throwing this error because it's checking the user-agent string
(many sites don't so you won't have problems). If they are the same, then it
could be that the Audi site is simply rejecting your request because it's
too long. Unfortunately the User Agent Utility from MS hasn't been updated
to work with IE8 yet, it just throws an error stating that the wrong version
of IE is installed. However, you can get registry scripts here:

http://www.fiddlertool.com/ua.aspx

and a handy utility here:

http://www.enhanceie.com/ietoys/uapick.asp

that will allow you to change it.

For instance, on my XP SP2 system my user agent could be stripped down to

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; )

and it still identifies my browser as IE8.


It could be something else entirely though. Have you tried running in No
Add-ons mode? Start>Run and type

iexplore.exe -extoff

if that works, then you have an add-on installed for IE that is messing with
the requests sent to the Audi site (and likely many others too but has so
far not broken anything).

--
Dan

"Andre" <andre@nospam.com> wrote in message news68B906F-FC1A-4D0D-8562-7E66A94A5F8F@microsoft.com...
> Ever since I installed IE8 I've been unable to get to one of my favorite sites - the Audi A4 configurator. Thinking that my wife
> is smarter then she pretends to be, I figured she defied all logic and figured out a way to block it. Ok ok, like she would
> really know how to do that!
>
> So tonight I installed Firefox and the Audi configurator works just fine. Come on MS, this is why we don't like to install your
> software until sp1 is out! What gives?
>
> To reproduce my problem, go here: http://www.audiusa.com/audi/us/en2/n...s/Audi_A4.html
>
> The on the left side of the page click on the link that says "Audi Configurator: Complete your Audi A4". It will pop up a new
> window. In IE8 I get an HTTP 400 error:


On which OS with which version of Flash?

On XPsp3 without any version of Flash installed I see only a message:

<quote>
You need a current version of the Flash plugin to view this content.
</quote>

As I had even worse symptoms after installing the latest version of Flash
while testing another site, I uninstalled all Flash support. If I wanted to see
Flash programs now I would not try to use the latest version of its support
for Windows XP and instead find an earlier version in Adobe's archive site.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---


> This error (HTTP 400 Bad Request) means that Internet Explorer was able to connect to the web server, but the webpage could not be
> found because of a problem with the address.
>
> For more information about HTTP errors, see Help.
>
> In Firefox it pops right up and works fine. I tried to run the Audi site in compatibility view but it doesn't matter. Any ideas,
> besides sticking with Firefox?
>
> Andre
>
>
>

Thanks for all the replies. Here are some answers/comments:

- I'm running Vista Biz, all updates applied
- I just installed the latest version of flash - 10,0,22,87
- javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent) and http://www.useragentstring.com/
both return the same thing - below
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET
CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.2; Windows-Media-Player/10.00.00.3990; .NET CLR
3.5.30428; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618)

- I tried running IE8 in no add-in mode and the Audi configurator still
doesn't work
- I run TracksEraserPro, so there are very few temp files ever saved - only
a few cookies that I choose to save
- I turn my computer off every night and restart my computer every morning.
- I don't know how a router could allow Firefox to work but not allow IE8 to
work. I'm a software developer, so I am fairly technical. And in all my
years in the business, I've never known a router to allow 1 program to work
but not allow another to work. Especially when we're talking about versions
of software. The Audi configurator worked fine in IE7 - and once again I'll
state what I've already stated...it works fine in Firefox. This is
obviously an IE8 issue.

I welcome any additional suggestions.

Andre

Hi,
Try disabling any third-party firewall, security suite, antivirus programs.

I don't have any problems with the original site
http://www.audiusa.com/audi/us/en2/n...s/Audi_A4.html
or the configurator link
http://ak4-fr.audi.de/entry?mandant=...ge&pr=8K256L\1
with IE8 on Vista.

Don
[MS MVP- IE]


"Andre" <andre@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:uCWgUuJtJHA.5652@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Thanks for all the replies. Here are some answers/comments:
>
> - I'm running Vista Biz, all updates applied
> - I just installed the latest version of flash - 10,0,22,87
> - javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent) and
http://www.useragentstring.com/
> both return the same thing - below
> Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; SLCC1;
..NET
> CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.2; Windows-Media-Player/10.00.00.3990; .NET CLR
> 3.5.30428; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618)
>
> - I tried running IE8 in no add-in mode and the Audi configurator still
> doesn't work
> - I run TracksEraserPro, so there are very few temp files ever saved -
only
> a few cookies that I choose to save
> - I turn my computer off every night and restart my computer every
morning.
> - I don't know how a router could allow Firefox to work but not allow IE8
to
> work. I'm a software developer, so I am fairly technical. And in all my
> years in the business, I've never known a router to allow 1 program to
work
> but not allow another to work. Especially when we're talking about
versions
> of software. The Audi configurator worked fine in IE7 - and once again
I'll
> state what I've already stated...it works fine in Firefox. This is
> obviously an IE8 issue.
>
> I welcome any additional suggestions.
>
> Andre
>

Don,

Thanks again for the reply. I disabled my av, windows firewall and all
tried IE8 without add-ins. The Audi configurator still gives me a dead
page.

I have a notebook that still has IE7, on the same home network, and the Audi
configurator doesn't work. If you have any other suggestions, I'm open to
them. Thanks again for trying to help with this.

Andre