Weird Internet Explorer/AOL search problem

[John-Ross]

Running aol 9.1 and if I type something in the top search bar I get something like this: Typed BBC Space Force and the following appears in the search bar on the page that comes up BBC%20Space%20force. The list that appears under this has lots of entries that look like this:

SALR Thread Data v2 id=2270712&lastpostdt=200701091022&lastp...
... =56946&title=BBC%3A%20%27New%20stem%20cell%20source%27%20discovered ..... = What%20music%20would%20you%20like%20to%20wake%20up%20to%20IN%20SPACE%3F ... =How %20do%20we%20force%20some%20hygiene%20habits%20onto%20this%20guy%3F ...

If I type BBC Space force in the search bar at the top of the welcome page it all works normally so what is going on? Only just started doing this. Any AOL experts out there?..................................................................JR

PS I did post this on another site and already the anti-AOL brigade have appeared so please take it as read that I am aware that some folk don't like it.
PPS Have since discovered that I get the same symptoms if I close AOL and use I.E. instead and as AOL uses I.E. in some way, or so it would appear to me, I guess this is something that I.E. is doing and not AOL.

[John-Ross]

The situation just got a wee bit stranger! I fired up our old machine which runs Windows Millenium with Internet Explorer 6, not 8 like the other machine, and with AOL 9 and not 9.1 and guess what, exactly the same problem soooo looks like it may be something their end. The only common factor here is the AOL broadband box. I have asked a friend to check out their machine as they also run AOL. The old machine has not been on-line for weeks so I think that almost rules out the possibility of a recent downloaded Trojan or some such. It would be good to hear from anyone else having the same problem with AOL or even if your are not having problems, I cannot be the only one on this forum using it...............................................................JR

PS My friend just got back to me and it is happening to her machine as well so panic over but are there others out there with this problem just now?

[Debbie62140]

OK, my guess is that either you or someone who uses your computer is a member at 'Something Awful forums' http://forums.somethingawful.com/

SALR is a Firefox extension that enhances your Something Awful forums browsing experience. It adds several features to the forums, including highlighting threads and posts you've already read ... and other stuff.

Try emptying your browser cache and delete temporary internet files.

There's a chance that the AOL DNS may be the culprit. Take a look at this thread and change your AOL box DNS to see if that helps.

http://www.totalfrance.com/france/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51555

Debbie

_________________
In the velvet darkness, of the blackest night, burning bright, there's a guiding star ... No matter what or who you are. (Richard O’Brien)
http://www.ourfrance.net/

[John-Ross]

Hi and thanks for the suggestions but the point is it is not just my two machines doing this. A second friend has been in contact and his machine is doing it too. So that is all the machines have different versions of I.E. and run different ISP software, one AOL 9.1, one AOL 9, one neuf and one SFR. These are all basically AOL of course so they have that in common! Chances are that anyone in France on AOL or associated ISP may have the same problem.....................................JR

PS It is worth noting that 20 is the hexadecimal code for SPACE

[Debbie62140]

Then it's probably the AOL DNS ... change your DNS and see if it still does it.

Actually %20 is the URL coding for a space.

Debbie

_________________
In the velvet darkness, of the blackest night, burning bright, there's a guiding star ... No matter what or who you are. (Richard O’Brien)
http://www.ourfrance.net/

[John-Ross]

Thanks Debbie but would this cause my two friends to have the same fault with their computers bearing in mind that they are using Neuf boxes and live some miles away from me?...........JR

[Debbie62140]

Well Neuf and AOL are one and the same so it's likely that their DNS is the same as yours unless they have changed it.

You didn't say if you use Somethingawful forum or not, do your friends use that forum too?

I would think that the SA forum + AOL/Neuf is the key here otherwise some other TF members would have commented.

Did you try changing your DNS?

Debbie

_________________
In the velvet darkness, of the blackest night, burning bright, there's a guiding star ... No matter what or who you are. (Richard O’Brien)
http://www.ourfrance.net/

[John-Ross]

Hello Debbie,

In answer to your question I had never heard of the Somethingawful forum which would appear to be an American site showing various forums on all sorts of subjects some rather strange. I don't know what would be interesting to us on this site but always happy to learn something new! I am sure my friends, all expat Brits, would not have heard of it either. I don't know why you would think that the things happening as I have described would indicate someone had been looking at that site.

On the subject of DNS I assume that this is something keyed into our AOL box which communicates with a particular AOL server and I assume this would be AOL fr although the version of AOL 9.1 I am using is American and comes up with an American welcome page which I have replaced with AOL.fr welcome page.

What I have tried is as suggested on this site http://help.aol.co.uk/broadband/error-dns-server-unavailable-or-unreachable/article/20060802093109990027 with somewhat dire results. I tried the repair ACS series of steps and then setup a new broadband location. This had no obvious effect but when I ran it again AOL refused to connect and found no connection device and going over the sequence again several times did not help and reconnection was not possible. In the end I had to download AOL 9.1 again from the net and we are now back to square one. So I don't know which server for AOL I am connecting to currently, I hate to think the data is going all the way to the USA and back but as you can detect I know little about the workings of the net or AOL so any light you can shine would be much appreciated..............JR

PS The fault, if it is a fault, is still as described in my first post on this subject

[Debbie62140]

Hi John,

The reason that I suspected that you or someone using your computer was a member of 'SomethingAwful forum' was that the url returned (pasted into your first post) started with SALR which is 'Something Awful Last Read' it's a firefox extension to do neat stuff on the something awful forum. I have googled SALR and can find no other internet meaning for that acronym.

All the DNS does is resolve Domain Names into an IP address. The DNS (Domain Name Server) is AOL by default in your box I would think. Most modem/routers allow you to change the DNS in the configuration menu. Personally I find that using www.opendns.com resolves web pages faster than my default Orange DNS, also less timeouts and pages not found. It would only take a minute or two to change the DNS settings that your box uses and it might solve your problem, or at least it would show that the problem is with AOL or on your machine.

Here's a good page that explains how DNS works:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/dns.htm

Debbie

_________________
In the velvet darkness, of the blackest night, burning bright, there's a guiding star ... No matter what or who you are. (Richard O’Brien)
http://www.ourfrance.net/

[John-Ross]

Hi again Debbie and ok I think that for the example I gave that it was pure coincidence that it had SALR in it. Thanks for the how stuff works link and I will give that a good read before doing anything.

One thing I have noticed is that if I type a proper URL into the top search box it all works well and the %20 stuff does not appear. In the past I have found I could use the top search box with just key words to be offered a list of sites related to those key words. Now this only works properly in the search box on the AOL welcome page and not the top one. The top search box must be part of the AOL 9.1 software that I downloaded into the computer whereas the search box in the welcome page must be part of the page that I downloaded from the net to replace the American welcome page though I don't know what difference that would make but difference there is!.......Thanks again for your tolerance of a computer illiterate!.................JR

[John-Ross]

Ok well tried OpenDNS and I am afraid no difference except, and this may be my imagination, web pages seem to load more quickly than they did. It really is no big deal to go on as we are except that the search bar at the top of the welcome page is masked by any other web page you have open so if you don't want to close it before doing another search you have to click and drag it down out of the way before typing new search words. To be honest I am still not sure how OpenDNS has modified the way I access the web so will have to get more info on that. Thanks for the help Debbie.........JR

[John-Ross]

Well even weirder as the problem I reported has just disappeared today. The only Windows update today has been this one which I would not have thought could be responsible but what do I know. Maybe AOL has done an update, don't know how you could tell!....................................JR

Definition Update for Windows Defender - KB915597 (Definition 1.63.422.0)

Date d'installation : ‎28/‎07/‎2009 09:27

État de l'installation : Réussite

Type de mise à jour : Important

Install this update to revise the definition files used to detect spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Once you have installed this item, it cannot be removed.

[ex-user21]

If it's a problem gone away, let's hope that's the end of it!

What version Internet Explorer are you using?

[John-Ross]

I.E.8 on one and I.E.6 on the other. Likewise AOL 9.1 and AOL 9.0 and Vista Home Premium on one and Millenium on the other. I would still like to know if anybody else had these probs and what the cause was. I don't think anything I did got rid of it so my money is on the AOL box or AOL itself as these were the only common factors........................JR

Tried 5 or 6 computer techie sites and only one suggested OpenDNS which did nothing to solve the problem, to difficult box for all the others!

[ex-user21]

OpenDNS wouldn't solve the problem as it resolves IP addresses and doesn't perform a search function.

It is probably simply a glitch in the way the briowser/ISP treats spces in serach strings and web pages. Strictly in a search string the protocol is to replace spaces with a non-breaking space character, and in web pages replace spaces with %20 as Debbie said.

It looks like for a time that was borked in your (and the other folk you mention) configuration and could be caused I expect by many things. If it happens again let us know, but I'm betting this is intermittent at worst!

Good luck!