Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 12:14:51 -0600 From: Mark To: NTBUGTRAQ@LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM Subject: Odd Behavior in IE5 Has anyone noticed this? After you visit an FTP site, IE5 places that URL in the TypedURLs list (just like it does with Web site addresses,) as seen in the drop down "Address" list at the top of the screen in IE5 (TypedURLs is the registry key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER where these entries are stored.) Then if you open a new instance of IE5 and click on the "Address" drop down list, there is a slight delay before the list is actually displayed -- and if you watch the network, there is activity on the network while this delay is taking place. After putting a sniffer to work to catch this network activity, it appears that IE5 will actually make a connection to every FTP site listed in the Address drop down list *before* displaying the Address list -- this is what causes the delay in displaying the list of TypedURLs in the Address drop down list. I haven't the foggiest idea why this needs to occur -- it makes no sense to me, and certainly places a burden on a given FTP server as well as putting unnecessary traffic on intranets and the internet -- not to mention any security logs that track these connections -- plus it causes a significant delay in displaying the Address list, especially if a FTP site is not answering... I wish I'd stuck with IE 4.x - doh. Mark ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 08:42:05 -0400 From: Margaret Leber To: NTBUGTRAQ@LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM Subject: Re: Odd Behavior in IE5 Mark wrote: > Has anyone noticed this?...that IE5 will actually make a connection to every > FTP site listed in the Address drop down list *before* displaying the Address list -- I'll bet this is related to the behavior noted by Ken Williams back in April that IE5 attempts to fetch favicon.ico from sites when you bookmark them. It sounds like an outgrowth of the "integrated explorer" philosophy that manifests when you start treating local filesystem folders like websites (looking for display text and backgrounds in default "standard" filenames and the like). Treating a local folder as if it's a remote server is one thing. Treating a remote server as if it's a local filesystem is quite another. It generates unwanted and spurious network traffic, and broadcasts what a workstation user is up to. Requests to remote servers are *much* more expensive (to *both* ends of the conversation) than local filesystem access, and IMHO shouldn't be happening if the user didn't explicitly ask for them. These behavors are startling and counterintuitive. I'm so tired of suddenly having the lights go off in the kitchen when I flush the toilet, without knowing why. Somebody in Redmond needs to read "The Psychology of Everyday Things". MS seems to think that these kinds of "decommoditizations" are a value-add. I disagree. -- 
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 09:43:01 -0400 From: Glen R. J. Neff To: NTBUGTRAQ@LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM Subject: Re: Odd Behavior in IE5 I too have noticed some problems with FTP in IE5. I noticed them in the betas as well, but I thought they were so blatantly obvious that I didn't report 'em. The problems I've observed are with how IE5 handles passive FTP. They've been especially apparent to me because my NT boxes at home are behind Linux IP Masq., which requires passive mode for outgoing FTP, as does our firewall here at work. I've always surmised that IE4, which handles it fine, first attempts FTP connections in non-passive mode, then switches to passive mode if necessary. In IE5, if you select an FTP link which points directly to a file (ftp://ftp.acme.com/pub/subdir/file.zip) it will switch to passive mode and pull the file just fine. But if you attempt to hit a URL that specifies a directory on an FTP server (ftp://ftp.acme.com/pub/), after a long pause, you'll get an error dialogue like: An error occurred opening that folder on the FTP Server. Make sure you have permission to access that folder. Detail: 200 Type Set to A. 200 PORT command successful. 425 Can't build data connection: Operation timed out. Likewise, here's an example of the output from NT's command line FTP client which has no support for passive mode: D:\>ftp ftp.cdrom.com Connected to wcarchive.cdrom.com. 220 wcarchive.cdrom.com FTP server (Version DG-3.1.27 Wed Dec 2 01:29:08 PST 1998) ready. User (wcarchive.cdrom.com:(none)): anonymous 331 Guest login ok, send your email address as password. Password: 230-Welcome to wcarchive - home FTP site for Walnut Creek CDROM. 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. ftp> ls 200 PORT command successful. 425 Can't build data connection: Connection refused. ftp> And to really demonstrate my point, here's some sample output from a UN!X based FTP client: gneff@jedi-/home/gneff$ ftp ftp.cdrom.com Connected to wcarchive.cdrom.com. 220 wcarchive.cdrom.com FTP server (Version DG-3.1.27 Wed Dec 2 01:29:08 PST 1998) ready. Name (ftp.cdrom.com:gneff): anonymous 331 Guest login ok, send your email address as password. Password: 230-Welcome to wcarchive - home FTP site for Walnut Creek CDROM. 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. Remote system type is UNIX. Using binary mode to transfer files. ftp> ls 200 PORT command successful. 425 Can't build data connection: Connection refused. ftp> passive Passive mode on. ftp> ls 227 Entering Passive Mode (209,155,82,18,32,226) 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for 'file list'. total 91760 -rw-rw-r-- 1 root wheel 696 Nov 19 1997 README drwxrwxr-x 2 root wheel 2048 May 6 21:26 pub 226 Transfer complete. ftp> Can anyone else collaborate the problems with IE5 I've outlined here? Glen R. J. Neff NT Administrator Cable & Wireless Internet Operations Center "There is no spoon." -----Original Message----- >From: Windows NT BugTraq Mailing List [mailto:NTBUGTRAQ@LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM] On Behalf Of Mark Sent: Thursday, May 06, 1999 14:15 To: NTBUGTRAQ@LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM Subject: Odd Behavior in IE5 Has anyone noticed this? After putting a sniffer to work to catch this network activity, it appears that IE5 will actually make a connection to every FTP site listed in the Address drop down list *before* displaying the Address list -- this is what causes the delay in displaying the list of TypedURLs in the Address drop down list. I wish I'd stuck with IE 4.x - doh. Mark