Link mysteriously being commented out by browser!?

[acarruth]

Hi there,

I have a coldFusion generated page, and the following happens to one user on an IE6 WinXP system (I can't reproduce this). I believe the user uses ComCast internet service in the United States.

<td><p>Go to: <a href="index.cfm"> The Link</a></td>

shows up in his browser as:

<td><p>Go to: <!--ref="index.cfm" The Link --></td>

making the link disappear.. what mechanism would comment this out? The users says he has run a spyware search/removal tool and it came up with nothing. Could the ISP be doing something?

Thanks!

 

[BabyJeffy]

Indeed... it would be a simple task for an ISP to filter out any occurance of "<a h" with "<!--" and the same with the closing tag "</a>" with " -->".

You could look at a quick fix (until a proper solution comes out of the woodword)... put an onclick on the <td> (or wrap the text "The Link" with a <span> with an onclick in it).

Hope that helps you at this stage,
Jeff

 

[tviman]

Is it the only link on the page or are there more, and this is the only link that's being commented out?

There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!

 

[ChrisHunt]

Can't think what motive the ISP might have for mangling your pages like this. I suppose it's possible (though unlikely) that the page became a bit garbled this first time your user loaded it, and has since become cached. Get him to hold down [Shift] and refresh the page.

Alternatively, if the page is being altered by the ISP for some inexplicable and/or sinister motive, try subtly changing the HTML to see if it evades the routine. For example, try this:

<td><p>Go to: <a class="x" href="index.cfm">The Link</a></td>

-- Chris Hunt

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk

 

[acarruth]

It is the only link being commented out.

Turns out the user (or, I suppose, the ISP?) has some software installed which blocks potentially malicious or privacy-intruding code.. the query string of the link had the term 'ID' in it, and I guess the software thought it was a tracking mechanism? When I changed 'ID' to 'id' in the link, it was no longer commented out.

Sounds like some shoddy ad-aware software, or even a virus.. who knows.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions!

 

[MichiganRon]

acurruth,

Good catch. I have one suggestion (though you may already know this): Always use lowercase in your HTML tags and arguments. In order to be XHTML compliant, they all need to be lowercase. This might not make a difference right now, but it's good form to look to the future, when it might matter.

-Ron

We all play from the same deck of cards, it's how we play the hand we are dealt which makes us who we are. -Me

murof siht edisni kcuts m'I - PLEH