Two web-related problems

beem0r · 2008-08-18 18:40:38

Alright, so school started today for me, and two of my classes are online. So I go to the online class site, dist-ed.waketech.edu, and everything seems fine. Page loads no problem. But as soon as I click user login, which is supposed to take me to the login page, I get an error. In firefox, I get "Connection interrupted - The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading."

Now I know what you all must be thinking. Surely this is just a problem with said website, right? Well, I figured the same thing at first. For this reason, I contacted one of my classmates and asked if she was able to login alright. She was. To further make sure it was something on my lin that was causing the problem, I went ahead and booted into windows, which I luckily have a copy of, just to see if it would work. It did, no fuss, using Opera [Opera for lin gave me a similar error to what FF said].

So I thought maybe the site was just ridiculous and didn't want linux users using it, so it checked the OS and didn't let the login page show for linux users.

To test this, I decided I'd use Wine, which conveniently comes with Internet Explorer. I haven't run IE since I installed arch on this computer, so it had to install the wine gecko support. Fine. After that, nothing. There was a titlebar for Internet Explorer, with "Wine Internet Explorer" written in it, but there was no content. No menus, just an abyss of white. Restarting it did not fix this.

Therefore, I decided to install Opera on Wine. I did so, and ran it. I navigated to the main page for online classes, dist-ed.waketech.edu, and it was fine, just like always. However, clicking the User Login button makes it stall seemingly forever. I waited a couple minutes [for reference, the linux native browsers gave me error pages after about 2 seconds]. It seemed like it was just going to be stuck there forever, so now I am resorting to asking for answers.

So there are many things I need to know.

1a. Can anyone get to the login page for this site in their arch? The URL is https://dist-ed.waketech.edu/webapps/login
1b. How can I get this page to load on my arch, or why is it loading fine in windows but not in arch [even using wine]?
2. Why is my Internet Explorer bundled with wine not working? It is working for other people?

I'd prefer not having to boot into windows every time I want to do anything for my online classes. Any solution or other helpful insight will be appreciated greatly.

And if you need me to post logs or command output, just tell me where the logs are or what command to run. I'll throw it on here, or pastebin if it's large.

cactus · 2008-08-18 18:49:41

on your linux box
'dig +trace dist-ed.waketech.edu'

also..you might try using livehttpheaders in firefox to see what url the login is being submitted to. maybe it is posting to a different site or something.

kett · 2008-08-18 19:10:33

For internet explorer, do a search on google for "ies4linux".

beem0r · 2008-08-18 19:48:35

cactus wrote:

on your linux box
'dig +trace dist-ed.waketech.edu'
also..you might try using livehttpheaders in firefox to see what url the login is being submitted to. maybe it is posting to a different site or something.

re: dig
Command was not found, and there is no package called dig.

re: livehttpheaders
The page that would be submitting data, the login page, is the one that's not loading. The URL that is failing to load is "https://dist-ed.waketech.edu/webapps/login"
If I got that addon, it wouldn't be able to show me where it wants to submit my login info to, since the page with this info is not loading.

I can also verify that in windows, where the site loads, it does indeed go to the same URL. The problem here is why https://dist-ed.waketech.edu/webapps/login isn't loading, I could care less where it wants to send my login information after that.

kett wrote:

For internet explorer, do a search on google for "ies4linux".

I installed ies4linux [it's in the community repo] and ran it, but the ie6 it installs has the same problem as the one that comes with wine. It has all the window decorations, but inside is a big white window. No menus, no buttons, just a titlebar and a border.

While running either version of ie [the one bundled with wine and the one ies4linux installed], it outputs the following to the console I ran it from.
http://pastebin.com/m24aa3a12

Can someone else test if going to http://dist-ed.waketech.edu/ and clicking 'user login' works for them? I can verify that it works for me under windows and it works for several classmates [who use windows] as well. What possible reason could there be for it not working on arch, but working on windows?

mrunion · 2008-08-18 19:51:52

I can get to the login page just fine using FF and Linux. Is there anything else you want me to test, or any other information I might can find out?

Square · 2008-08-18 20:00:46

Got to the login page fine with Opera and Arch.

Garns · 2008-08-18 20:02:05

beem0r wrote:

cactus wrote:
on your linux box
'dig +trace dist-ed.waketech.edu'
also..you might try using livehttpheaders in firefox to see what url the login is being submitted to. maybe it is posting to a different site or something.
re: dig
Command was not found, and there is no package called dig.

 pacman -Ss dig
.
.
.
core/dnsutils 9.5.0-4
    Various DNS utilities - dig host nslookup nsupdate
.
.
.

login page works in FF here.

beem0r · 2008-08-18 20:27:14

Well, thanks for the feedback, though I'm not sure why it's not working on MY system specifically, since it works on y'alls.

And for dig +trace, here's the output I get for dig +trace dist-ed.waketech.edu [the main page, which works for me]
http://pastebin.com/m783be71d

And here's the output of dig +trace dist-ed.waketech.edu/webapps/login [the login page, which is not working for me]
http://pastebin.com/m66441954

Anyone got ideas as to why it's not working for me in arch, but it works on windows on the same system, even though others have it working on arch with no problems?

beem0r · 2008-08-18 21:32:27

Okay, so I decided to test if it was a problem with any stuff I was running that does not come with arch default. The only such things I'm running right now are X, openbox, and firefox, none of which are probably at fault here.

What I did was disable all the daemons in rc.conf except syslog-ng, network, and crond.
I also cleared my entire .xinitrc, except for "exec openbox".

Oh, I guess I am still using the nvidia drivers, and I'm using the X config file it automatically set up for me. But I'm pretty sure the nvidia drivers aren't at fault either.

I also, just for kicks, tried to go to the page in lynx. "Unable to establish secure connection with the host", once I navigated to the login page.

I login via console and use startx.

Running basically nothing, as I've specified above, I'm still not able to get to the login page for dist-ed.waketech.edu [via the button on the main page and also directly to /webapps/login].

I'm running out of things to blame this on. It works on the same computer with the same internet [once I boot into windows], so it can't be my router, ISP, or anything of that nature. I've tried it on pretty much a barebones arch, as I stated above, so it can't be the fault of any weird programs I'm running. It works for other people on their arch, so it can't be some overall problem with arch. It has to be something about my setup specifically, but I've pretty much restored that to near-default. What else is there to try, besides reinstalling?

Last edited by beem0r (2008-08-18 21:33:35)

Garns · 2008-08-18 22:03:41

beem0r wrote:

I also, just for kicks, tried to go to the page in lynx. "Unable to establish secure connection with the host", once I navigated to the login page.

Just a random guess, does https work with other websites?

lldmer · 2008-08-18 22:43:14

Another random guess: change firefox' useragent into something used by windows.

beem0r · 2008-08-19 00:30:38

Garns wrote:

beem0r wrote:
I also, just for kicks, tried to go to the page in lynx. "Unable to establish secure connection with the host", once I navigated to the login page.
Just a random guess, does https work with other websites?

Yeah, I thought of that and tried it on cia.gov earlier [first relevant result I got searching for 'https' on goog], it works fine.

lldmer wrote:

Another random guess: change firefox' useragent into something used by windows.

How do I go about doing that? Also, considering that windows Opera under wine didn't work, I doubt this will work, though I'm willing to try anything at this point.

beem0r · 2008-08-19 00:46:44

Ok, I tried changing the useragent [used an addon called User Agent Switcher], still doesn't work for me. No idea what the problem is, it's not https, it's not arch, it's not my connection, it's not my useragent, what could it be?

EDIT

I also tried https://dist-ed.waketech.edu/, it works for others, but not for me. And since the site works for me with http instead of https, the problem must be in the secure connection. But only for that site. https://www.cia.gov works for me, and it apparently uses the same encryption in their certificate, and both are verisign. This is quite a mystery.

Last edited by beem0r (2008-08-19 00:59:56)

cjpembo · 2008-08-19 01:50:08

I just loged in using 64-bit arch so it shouldn't be an issue of 64-bit vs 32-bit browsers or java. Wish I could be more helpful...

In addition, if your machine has the horsepower, condider installing Windows via VirualBox and keep a lean copy of IE and Office installed: you're just going to need it sometimes and rebooting is a waste of time. If you're satisfied with the performance, wipe the actual copy of Windows off your system so you'll never be tempted to play games: thus saving your GPA.

Chris

cactus · 2008-08-19 02:28:03

weird.
I would install tcpdump (or wireshark if you are gui inclined), and capture traffic while you try browsing to the https site.
You won't be able to see the contents (encrypted), but you may see some network anomolies that may provide a hint as to what the problem is.

beem0r · 2008-08-19 02:51:19

cjpembo wrote:

I just loged in using 64-bit arch so it shouldn't be an issue of 64-bit vs 32-bit browsers or java. Wish I could be more helpful...
In addition, if your machine has the horsepower, condider installing Windows via VirualBox and keep a lean copy of IE and Office installed: you're just going to need it sometimes and rebooting is a waste of time. If you're satisfied with the performance, wipe the actual copy of Windows off your system so you'll never be tempted to play games: thus saving your GPA.
Chris

Yeah, my bro advised that I use a similar emulator [qemu is what he suggested], I'll try one of em if I don't figure this out sometime soon.

Oh, and I play games on Lin anyway, [most of em through wine, though].

CPU's only a Core Duo 1.83GHz though.

cactus wrote:

weird.
I would install tcpdump (or wireshark if you are gui inclined), and capture traffic while you try browsing to the https site.
You won't be able to see the contents (encrypted), but you may see some network anomolies that may provide a hint as to what the problem is.

Installed tcpdump, got the message "no suitable device found," didn't have anything in --help that could clear that up for me.
Installed wireshark, went to edit->preferences->capture, there are no interfaces for me to select, and 'edit' doesn't seem to let me add one. Just selecting "start a new capture" tells me to go to that screen to set an interface.

rooloo · 2008-08-19 03:11:07

login webiste page works for me as well.

You have something that is causing a conflict. I'd almost bet for some dumb reason wine is cause. Just got that feeling As I do not use wine. But I have everything else installed that you have. I am also on arch 64.

beem0r · 2008-08-19 03:18:58

Alright, so I got wireshark working, I had to sudo it for it to see the interfaces.

So I found out that there are some differences between the https on cia.gov and my school's login. My school's using SSL, cia's using TSL. And where both client and server are using TSLv1 for www.cia.gov, my machine's using SSLv2 and the server's using SSLv3 for dist-ed.waketech.edu.
There are 10 "Server Hello"s, all using SSLv3, and 10 "Client Hello"s, all using SSLv2. Nothing else was using SSL at all.

Is that normal, and is more information needed [if so, what do you need me to provide?]

EDIT [didn't want a whole nother post for it]:

rooloo wrote:

login webiste page works for me as well.
You have something that is causing a conflict. I'd almost bet for some dumb reason wine is cause. Just got that feeling As I do not use wine. But I have everything else installed that you have. I am also on arch 64.

I tried it first without wine. I only used wine to test if using windows browsers would work, seeing as it works for me in real windows on this same computer.
There are no wine-related processes running when I tested it on native browsers, so it cannot be the cause.

Last edited by beem0r (2008-08-19 03:23:31)

beem0r · 2008-08-19 03:55:18

On opera, the page uses TLS [I guess Opera has a preference for asking for TLS], and it still doesn't work. Screws my theory of SSL being the problem.

derelict · 2008-11-18 19:25:05

My apologies for resurrecting an old post, but I've just run into the same issue. In fact I can duplicate the error for all secure web connections. I've tested the url listed in the original post and I've tested more:

https://www.usbank.com
https://powerlink.emc.com
https://www3.securesync.com

All of my tests were done through a squid proxy.

Browsers tested:
Internet Explorer --> passed
Opera (on Windows and Arch) --> passed
Safari --> passed
Firefox 2 (on Windows) -> passed
Firefox 3 (on Windows and Red Hat Enterprise 5.2) --> passed
Firefox 3 (on Arch) --> FAILED "Connection Interrupted"

What's so different about the Arch build of Firefox (aka Gran Paradiso) that prevents it from working with squid?

derelict · 2008-11-18 19:48:07

Rather than edit my previous post I thought it might be better to add an update. I have resolved my particular issue, though I fail to understand why. On my Arch box I configured Firefox to use a SOCKS proxy. It was set to localhost on port 7070. (I had been testing dynamic port forwarding with ssh). I'd left this configuration in place for 2 reasons: squid was only set to intercept port 80 traffic and all of my secure connections worked when not using squid, even when the ssh tunnel for SOCKS wasn't up. As soon as I removed the entry for the SOCKS proxy, all my secure connections through squid started working.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-08-18 18:40:38

Two web-related problems

#2 2008-08-18 18:49:41

Re: Two web-related problems

#3 2008-08-18 19:10:33

Re: Two web-related problems

#4 2008-08-18 19:48:35

Re: Two web-related problems

#5 2008-08-18 19:51:52

Re: Two web-related problems

#6 2008-08-18 20:00:46

Re: Two web-related problems

#7 2008-08-18 20:02:05

Re: Two web-related problems

#8 2008-08-18 20:27:14

Re: Two web-related problems

#9 2008-08-18 21:32:27

Re: Two web-related problems

#10 2008-08-18 22:03:41

Re: Two web-related problems

#11 2008-08-18 22:43:14

Re: Two web-related problems

#12 2008-08-19 00:30:38

Re: Two web-related problems

#13 2008-08-19 00:46:44

Re: Two web-related problems

#14 2008-08-19 01:50:08

Re: Two web-related problems

#15 2008-08-19 02:28:03

Re: Two web-related problems

#16 2008-08-19 02:51:19

Re: Two web-related problems

#17 2008-08-19 03:11:07

Re: Two web-related problems

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Re: Two web-related problems

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