"Paul A. Rombouts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Andrew M. Bishop wrote (subject was: Re: Bug#140617: wwwoffle: zlib problem with
> groups.yahoo.com):
>
> > We have discussed before on this list servers that cannot send
> > correctly compressed data using the deflate method. It does seem
> > problematic for some people.
>
>
> I've had a problem with the website abcnews.go.com that also turned to be
> deflate-compression related.
> When I use Mozilla the site displays OK, but the Internet Explorer users on my
> LAN got a blank page.
WWWOFFLE should detect that it cannot inflate the data it gets back
from the server and send an appropriate error message, not a blank page.
> It turns out the server recognizes Mozilla by the User-Agent string and avoids
> sending compressed data in that case. It does "deflate" the content for
> other browsers, but WWWOFFLE can't "inflate" it.
What does Internet Explorer ask for and what does the site send if
WWWOFFLE is not used?
> Can someone give me an example of a site that deflates its content correctly, so
> that WWWOFFLE can inflate it?
> Maybe it sounds a bit cynical, but up to now I have only seen examples to the
> contrary.
Me too.
I blame Mozilla for this state of affairs. They have been asking for
deflated content, but have not been able to inflate it when they get
it back. (This is Mozilla bug number 105292, it was certainly still
there in version 0.9.8). If the server is trying to work around this
problem then it should still send gzipped data, since it knows that
Mozilla can handle that.
On the other hand if Internet Explorer asks for deflated content and
they can inflate it while WWWOFFLE cannot then I blame Microsoft.
I have examined the data that comes back from some of these servers
and I cannot see a deflate header in it. I have implemented in
WWWOFFLE the deflate/inflate method that is described in the HTTP RFC
documents. If anybody thinks that Microsoft or the server is correct
and I am wrong then please tell me why.
--
Andrew.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew M. Bishop [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/
WWWOFFLE users page:
http://www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/wwwoffle/version-2.7/user.html
