Can't access Forums on Firefox

[Xalthon]

For some reason, I cannot access the Forums on Firefox. When I try, I get this message:

Method Not Implemented

GET to / not supported.
Apache Server at forums.ddo.com Port 80


(I have no idea what any of this means...)
Additionally, I get the same message when trying to access a DDO Compendium page. Any ideas?

[AZgreentea]

This was interesting, but did not help me solve your problem.

http://getnetgoing.com/HTTP-501.html

What plugins are you using in FF? Maybe there is a conflict (or virus).

[stainer]

All I use is Firefox (6.0 right now), and I have never had a problem. So I would think an add in could be causing a problem for you.

[Xalthon]

Well, this also just cropped up within the last several days (maybe a week at most), so it is something new. It says I have Firefox 3.6.24.

Add-ins are:
Adobe Acrobat 9.4.5.236
Google Update 1.3.21.79
iTunes Application Detector 1.0.1.1
Java Deployment Toolkit 6.0.290.11
Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U29 6.0.290.11
Move Streaming Media Player 717.6.0.1
Mozilla Default Plug-in 1.0.0.15
Pando Web Plug-in 1.0.0.1
Quick Time Plug-in 7.6.9.0
Shockwave Flash 11.1.102.55
Silverlight Plug-In 4.0.60831.0

In maybe a related issue, I think the last time I tried to update Java, I got some kind of error message.

Thanks for your help!

[My2Cents]

Are you really using Firefix V3.XX? (HELP / ABOUT tells the version of your firefox browser) That's way out of date by "accepted standards". I am no expert at plugins but those look very old and they look like what I used to see for Internet Explorer.

Have you ever been able to access the forums on this browser? If not, it's likely just a very old version that doesn't support some newfangled java stuff. What error did you get trying to install/update java?

I have the sneaking suspicion that if I looked them up, many of those would be very old versions or very old plugins. I'm not even sure "mozilla default plugin" exists anymore.

Wish I knew more about plugins - one more thing for me to bone up on.

(I'm not making a moral judgement, these technologies advance way too fast and are often updated just to allow for better online money grabs, in my opinion, but it is what it is.)

[Xalthon]

As you may be able to tell, I am no expert on these matters...

Yes, under About Mozilla Firefox, it says I am using version 3.6.24. But that the bottom, it says Mozilla/5.0 & Firefox/3.6.24. So I don't know what version this all means.

When I say "check for updates," it says I can get Mozilla 8.0. But I have heard a few posters say they are staying away from 8.0, so I am totally confused...

[gerardIII]

That's a HTTP error (GET).

[pal_sch]

3.6 is pretty old but not dangerously out of date (the 3.6.xx stream still gets security updates). You are missing out on lots of new features and goodness available in 8.0 but shouldn't be exposing yourself to much in the way of risk.

As for this particular problem, it's most likely this old one that seems to be a mix of how the browser identifies itself to the site and how Apache webservers enforce security. What localisation are you using? It seems the problem usually comes from certain terms in the browser identity header, most notably rm or id.

You might want to try running 8.0. Localisation works differently now and doesn't cause the same problems.

Alternatively (if you can't or really don't want to update) you could try changing your headers. You will need to install this extension then use it to change the user-agent to something else.

To do that, install the extension and restart FF. Open the option for modify headers from web developer option in the main menu or directly from the tools menu (may live elsewhere in 3.6). Choose to add a new header called "User-Agent". For the value just use a modified version of your current user-agent. You can check that here. Just change the two letter string that is causing the problem to that of another localisation you don't mind being mistaken for every once in a while.



I was able to test this by doing the same thing in reverse (changing my apparent localisation from the UK to Indonesian or Romansh) and got the same errors. Turbine might want to look into patching their Apache to cover those cases. Some discussion of that there.

FakeEdit: And I nearly lost this post by not changing my headers back before submitting...

[Xalthon]

Thank you for the tips.

However, when I upgraded to Firefox 8, I still get the exact same error message.

[pal_sch]

Hmm. Can you post the user-agent given by that link I posted above? It shouldn't be sending the string that gives the errors anymore, but if that isn't the problem then it sounds like it's far harder to solve.

[Xalthon]

This is all Greek to me, but it says my User Agent is:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0

[pal_sch]

OK, so it's something else causing the problem. That's... worrying.

Try clearing the cookies and cache from the options -> privacy menu. Might just be something left over from the update.

[Xalthon]

Wow.... clearing all that stuff seemed to do the trick! I am able to access forums from Firefox now!

Thank you so much for your patience and help!