Internet Explorer Returns Error Message When Being Redirected

• Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4.0, 4.01 for Windows NT 4.0
• Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4.0, 4.01 for Windows 95
• Microsoft Windows 98

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to view a Web Site, Internet Explorer 4.0, 4.01, or 4.01 Service Pack 1 (SP1) may intermittently return any of the following error messages:

• Internet Explorer cannot open the internet site URL:<site> the downloaded file is not available. This could be due to your security language setting or because the server was unable to retrieve the requested file.



• Internet Explorer cannot open the internet site URL:<site> the connection to the server was reset.



• Object Moved This object may be found <here>

CAUSE

Internet Explorer does not properly handle an HTTP/1.1 302 redirect returned from a proxy server or Internet server when the HTTP/1.1 302 redirect is sent to Internet Explorer in two separate TCP frames (one with the HTTP/1.1 302 redirect, and the other with a HTML body containing a page for the new location).

When Internet Explorer receives the first TCP frame with an HTTP/1.1 302 redirect, Internet Explorer processes the redirect command and attempts to use the open socket connection to the server that sent the redirect. This occurs because Internet Explorer has not processed the second TCP frame containing the FIN or the "socket close connection" command, so Internet Explorer assumes that the current state of the socket connection is still open. This is an intermittent problem because Internet Explorer may recognize that the socket connection was closed by the server and open a new socket connection to the server if Internet Explorer receives the TCP frames close enough together, or if no HTML body is sent at all.

NOTE: With a network packet analyzer, the server returns a standard HTTP "302 - Object Moved" header back to the browser, which is normal behavior for the redirect process. The browser should handle this and go to the redirected site.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain and install Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 2. You can obtain Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 2 from the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/ie/download

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: 2798.exe

Keywords          : kberrmsg msiew95 msient win98 
Version           : WINDOWS:
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb 

Last Reviewed: April 2, 1999