w3.org reference in DOCTYPE causing access denied errors

Mthales · Aug 7, 2006

I have a set of html files that a number of different people use through various versions of ie and firefox. For most people they work absolutely fine, but for a few they get access denied errors.
The address in the error points to w3.org and the only place this address is used in these documents is in the doctype definition in the header, which looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

Could anyone please suggest what setting or variation it could be that stops these few users being able to access these documents?

Thanks for any help/advice you can offer.

--------------------------------------
My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and that I am therefore excused from saving universes.

biglurch · Aug 7, 2006

Have you ran the page through a xhtml validator, and if so does it validate?

Live by the code, Die by the code!!

Mthales · Aug 7, 2006

biglurch - thanks for the idea. I have run a few of the documents in question through the validator that can be found here:

http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/index.html.en

and it said there were no errors with them.

--------------------------------------
My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and that I am therefore excused from saving universes.

ChrisHunt · Aug 7, 2006

I've never seen this happen myself - AFAIK browsers do not try to retrieve the DTD specified in the DOCTYPE; they just check to see if you've got one, and apply standards/quirks mode as appropriate.

Do these people experience the same error when viewing other people's pages that have a full DOCTYPE? If not, it may be something else in your page. Is there a URL so we can see for ourselves?

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

cLFlaVA · Aug 7, 2006

especially if you're trying to access external documents via javascript. do you have frames on your page perhaps, where one frame contains an external web site?

*cLFlaVA
----------------------------
[tt]somebody set up us the bomb! [bomb]

[/tt]

[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.coryarthus.com/[/url]

Mthales · Aug 7, 2006

Thank you all for looking at this problem for me. I'm sorry but these pages are on a company intranet which is not accessible to you all. However I can post what I hope will be relevant snippets of the html involved.

ChrisHunt could you please explain what you mean by a full DOCTYPE?

CLFlaVA - The page contains no javascript and no frames. It really should be very very simple. Just a page of html and a stylesheet.

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
    "[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">[/URL]
<!--
#$Header_Start$
#***********************************************************************
# FILENAME    : 8_AddingUsers.html
# TITLE       : Adding a Microsoft Windows User Account
# REVISION    : 1.1
# BASELINE    : file name
# PACKAGE     : file name
# CSCI        : SPM
# CSC         :
# APPL. LEVEL : 3
# AUTHORITY   : name
# COPYRIGHT   : company
#***********************************************************************
#
#$Id_Start$
# @(#) SP_56616621-108_0003.html dv(1.1) 2003/02/06 (c) TT&S
#$Id_End$
#$Base_Id_Start$
# @(#) s_base:SP_56616621-108_0003.html _main_3 YYYY/MM/DD (c) TT&S
#$Base_Id_End$
#
#***********************************************************************
#$Header_End$
-->

<html xmlns="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"[/URL] xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
  <link href="../Styles/default.css" rel="stylesheet" type=
  "text/css" />

  <title>Adding a Microsoft Windows User Account</title>
</head>

<body>
  <h1 class="sectiontitle">8.0 Users</h1>

  <h1 class="subsectiontitle">8.1 Change Administrator Login Password</h1>

  <table class="procedure" cellpadding="7" cellspacing="0" width=
  "100%" summary=" ">
     <tr><td>
     The table contents has been snipped
     </td></tr>
 </table>
</body>
</html>

--------------------------------------
My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and that I am therefore excused from saving universes.

ChrisHunt · Aug 7, 2006

A full DOCTYPE is one which includes the URL of the dtd file, like the one you're using.

You could try removing the [tt]<?xml ... ?>[/tt] line from the start of the document - you don't need it, and it can throw some browsers into quirks mode. I've not heard of it causing access denied errors though (though that could be something to do with the set-up of your intranet & firewall).

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

Mthales · Aug 7, 2006

Ahh yes good idea - I'll try that and report back on how I get on.
Thanks

--------------------------------------
My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and that I am therefore excused from saving universes.

Foamcow · Aug 7, 2006

Can you copy and paste the Access Denied error?

It sounds to me like your firewall is blocking access to the W3C site for some users on your intranet.

Do the users get the error when just trying to visit the pages in a conventional browser or are they attempting to validate the pages or something?

<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Earl & Thompson Marketing - Marketing Agency Services in Gloucesterhire

ChrisHirst · Aug 8, 2006

Foamcow said:
It sounds to me like your firewall is blocking access to the W3C site for some users on your intranet.

Or

Internet access for these users is via a proxy server and w3.org is not on the allowed list.

Or

The IT team have a "whitelist" of allowed sites setup in Group Policies (assuming use of AD on the network)

The exact error message would tell you which it is.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Mthales · Aug 8, 2006

Yes the firewall or proxy will be blocking access to the w3c site for these users. We are on a very tightly controlled network where most users do not have access to anything that is outside the company.

My problem is why are they needing to access that site in the first place and how can I stop it?

And they are not doing anything that forces validation as far as I know - they are just using "standardly configured" ie or firefox.

M

--------------------------------------
My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and that I am therefore excused from saving universes.

ChrisHirst · Aug 8, 2006

Copy the contents of the DTD document (

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd

) to a location inside your network and reference that in your (X)HTML documents. Use RC "Save Target As ..." NOT a File Save AS ... in IE on the link above

So in your document it becomes

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://[your site]/path_to_file/file_name.dtd">

Browsers need to access the dtd as it determines the events and attributes associated with the document type.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

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w3.org reference in DOCTYPE causing access denied errors

Mthales

Technical User

biglurch

Programmer

Mthales

Technical User

ChrisHunt

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cLFlaVA

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Mthales

Technical User

ChrisHunt

Programmer

Mthales

Technical User

Foamcow

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ChrisHirst

IS-IT--Management

Mthales

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ChrisHirst

IS-IT--Management

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