Hi everyone,
Yesterday I upgraded to NIS 2009 (from 2005), and almost immediately ran across an apparent problem. I regularly download web log files from my website host, and these are normally zipped-up (as <filename>.log.gz). Before the upgrade, I would simply click on these, get the 'open/save/cancel' pop-up, and save the zipped-up file (the web log analyzer program I use is then happy to unzip them for me). After installing NIS 2009, on clicking the log file, for most of the files, IE would actually display the decompressed contents (i.e. it looks as though the 'confirm open after download' box in the 'registered file types' file-program association had been de-checked, so it was opening before downloading). However on the 'latest' log file (periodically added to throughout the week, before becoming a 'fixed' file for the whole of that week), the pop-up would just flash up and immediately vanish, with no chance to save the file.
It thus looks to me like NIS 2009 has changed something somewhere to cause this changed behaviour: whether this is in IE, the registry, or some sort of DLL file I do not know. Two very lengthy (3 hours in total?) remote-control sessions with members of the Technical Issues Support chat line have failed to resolve the problem, and during this many things were tried, including:
- turning NIS 2009 completely off, but the problem remains (suggesting to me that the issue is not so much in NIS, but what was done elsewhere during the install)
- disabling all add-ons in IE
- deleting all temporary files, cookies etc. in IE
- even hitting the dreaded 'Reset Internet Explorer settings' button (= "do not touch this dial!" - major pain reseting everything afterwards...)
Also something clearly had messed-up the registered file list, as neither the .log or .gz association was shown, even after having re-made them. In the end I resorted to deleting the registry keys for these file types, and then when the association was re-made, I was able to finally re-check the 'confirm open after download' box, and this meant that at least IE was not attempting to open the file immediately (and the file types are now visible on the list). In this state, the majority of files can now be saved, but it is saving the decompressed file (again, something has changed to cause this decompression), and clicking the 'latest' file results in an IE error (paraphrasing):
IE cannot display this webpage, either:
- not connected to the Internet;
- the website has problems;
- or an error in the address etc.
If I right-click and 'save target as', IE clearly again attempts to open the file, finds a problem, and a rude pop-up appears:
"IE cannot download <file> from www<whatever>. IE was not able to open this Internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later."
It thus looks as though there is some sort of subtle syntax error in the 'latest' logfile which is upsetting IE, but only because it is trying to decompress the file, which it wasn't before!
I have contacted my web host, and they are adamant that there is no problem, nor have there been any changes at their end. It seems unlikely therefore that I will get them to acknowledge any problem in the format of the 'latest' file, and I suspect it would be nigh-on impossible to get anything done about IE itself. Therefore what I would like to know is - what did NIS change during the installation, hopefully so that I can put it back the way it was before!? I have spent many hours searching both the Internet and various fora, but so far drawn a blank.
Any help or insight anyone can give will be greatly appreciated!
Tim
I am running:
XP Home, with Service Pack 3
Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.11
NIS 16.0.0125
For any Symantec people, I can provide the service call refs if requested