Microsoft KB Archive/821814

= You Receive a &quot;Page Cannot Be Displayed&quot; Error Message When You Post to a Site That Requires Authentication =

Article ID: 821814

Article Last Modified on 11/15/2007

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APPLIES TO

 Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1, when used with:  Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition

 Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

 Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

 Microsoft Windows NT 4.0</li></ul>

 Microsoft Windows 2000 Standard Edition</li></ul>

 Microsoft Windows XP Professional</li></ul>

 Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86)</li></ul> </li></ul>

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<div class="symptoms_section">

SYMPTOMS
Internet Explorer may not post data from a POST request and you may receive a &quot;Page cannot be displayed&quot; error message. This problem may occur if the following conditions exist:
 * You perform the POST request on a new connection with a target page that requires authentication.
 * The server immediately replies to the POST request with a &quot;401 Access Denied&quot; response and closes the connection.

<div class="cause_section">

CAUSE
The server closes the connection without reading the whole request body, and the server resets the connection when it receives frames that involve the entity body for the POST request. Because the connection is reset, Internet Explorer (Wininet.dll) cannot read the &quot;401 Access Denied&quot; response and process it.

<div class="resolution_section">

RESOLUTION
A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem, submit a request to Microsoft Online Customer Services to obtain the hotfix. To submit an online request to obtain the hotfix, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6294451

Note If additional issues occur or any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. To create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel. <pre class="fixed_text">  Date         Time   Version        Size     File name ---  27-May-2003  14:57  6.0.2800.1204  586,752  Wininet.dll

<div class="workaround_section">

WORKAROUND
You might be able to work around this problem by making sure to use the POST request on an already authenticated connection. You can do this, for example, by sending a GET request before you send the POST request.

<div class="status_section">

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

<div class="moreinformation_section">

MORE INFORMATION
The hotfix that this article describes implements a code change in Wininet.dll to:
 * Detect the RESET condition on a POST request.
 * Save the data that is to be posted.
 * Retry the POST request with the content length set to 0. This prevents the reset from occurring and permits the authentication process to complete.
 * Retry the original POST request.

Keywords: kbhotfixserver kbqfe kbhotfixserver kbqfe kbie600presp2fix kbfix kbbug KB821814

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