vBulletin prefetching error

[Optegris]

Just went to UKBF which is in my favourites, natch, and got this error:

Prefetching is not allowed due to the various privacy issues that arise.

Now after googling the error I had to do a CTRL and F5 to get into the forum.

Completely apart from the fact that this is the ONLY forum, and I belong to a lot, I have ever come across that forces users to do this some users will simply not know what to do and leave.

Why on Gods earth has this been implemented???? The net effect will be to drive users away!!

 

[Optegris]

http://www.nuhit.com/forums/vbwiki-...to-the-various-privacy-issues-that-arise.html

It looks like someone altered something in vBulletin to prevent pre-caching. Stupid idea really but hey ho

 

[estwig]

I doubt it is intentional mate, i ain't had a problem.

I reckon this has happened because Darren has run out of Tea and mouldy Kit Kats!!!

 

[Optegris]

Nah I'm sure it's not, just ranting away as per

Just blimming frustrating and when coupled with the subscriptions working when they feel like it it gets up my nose...

 

[Gillie]

I got this message to and wondered if it was something to do with my laptop but glad to see it aint!! Phew!

I get in by going a very roundabout route and yes it is annoying me ....

 

[Darren Falkingham]

Hi there Phil,

Yep, this is nothing to do with us.

Actually, just thinking about the title of this thread, and how good UKBF is at getting indexed, do you mind if I delete it?!

Cheers,
Darren

 

[Optegris]

Feel free to edit but it is something that has been changed either on your servers or in Vbulletin as nothing has changed on my machine in the last 24 hours.

I'm getting this in all browsers by the way

 

I'm not having any problems or receiving such errors.

 

[Darren Falkingham]

Hi Phil,

It does look like it's a vBulletin security measure. I'll see if there's something we can do to prevent this, but if you do get it, pressing CTRL+F5 will clear it.

PS - you know I mentioned Google is good at indexing UKBF - type in "Prefetching is not allowed due to the various privacy issues that arise" - this thread is number 1 in the UK already...!

 

[Optegris]

I'm not having any problems or receiving such errors.

I'm sure not everyone is but the fact remains that it's happening...

 

[Optegris]

Hi Phil,

It does look like it's a vBulletin security measure. I'll see if there's something we can do to prevent this, but if you do get it, pressing CTRL+F5 will clear it.

PS - you know I mentioned Google is good at indexing UKBF - type in "Prefetching is not allowed due to the various privacy issues that arise" - this thread is number 1 in the UK already...!

This is the offending part:
http://www.nuhit.com/forums/3106-post11.html

 

[Darren Falkingham]

Great, thanks for that Phil.

I've just found a page on Mozilla's site about this too - it's a browser function that 'fetches' your favourite sites when your browser is inactive, to speed things up. But it looks as though vBulletin doesn't like it.

Absolutely no idea why it's happened, and on vBulletin's own board there's no real advice. I'll keep you updated.

Cheers for now,
Darren

 

[Optegris]

Yeh I found that, it looks like a plug in called Fasterfox. Thing is I don't have that installed although I do have Google toolbar. De-installing Google toolbar didn't help in this instance however...

 

[fridayteam]

I had this problem earlier too. I just came back later and all was ok.

 

[ken_uk]

Just rebooted and the problem came up for me

Prefetching is not allowed due to the various privacy issues that arise.

Didnt happen before, and is working ok now.

 

[Darren Falkingham]

If you've had this problem, can you let me know what browsers (with version number) you are using, what operating system, and whether you're on public broadband or a business network?

Cheers,
Darren

 

[Optegris]

Occurred in IE7.0 and FireFox 2.0.0.7. Using Windows XP Pro on BT broadband through a Windows 2003 network.

Hasn't happened again since yesterday...

OT: Darren, did you get my email about the media pack?

 

[Darren Falkingham]

Hi Phil, thanks for the info.

Yep, got your email - I've passed it on to our Ad Sales team.

Cheers,
Darren

 

[ken_uk]

Im on standard BT broadband, it happened on firefox 2.0.0.7, OS is XP pro, service pack 2
Working fine now, will shout up if it re-occurs.

 

[Ravenfire]

Not something I have come across yet and I use Firefox, BT etc. but at least should it happen now I know what to do. Is it something set in the vBulletin options as its not something I have encountered on my vBulletin forum either!

 

[Gillie]

BT, firefox 2.0.0.7, IE7 and am on vista ...

 

[HC-Martin]

BT, firefox 2.0.0.7, IE7 and am on vista ...

Show off...

 

[Optegris]

Show off...

Or just brave to use Vista

 

[Gillie]

I am enjoying it so far ....

 

[Darren Falkingham]

Hi all,

We found it - there's a piece of PHP code in vBulletin that does this:

1 - checks if you're logged in
2 - checks if you're using a Mozilla browser
3 - checks if prefetching is active
4 - then writes that very unuseful error message to the screen.

Hopefully other vBulletin users might pick this up and find it helpful. The original code is as follows:

if ($vbulletin->userinfo['userid'] > 0 AND strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_X_MOZ'], 'prefetch') !== false)
{
if (SAPI_NAME == 'cgi' OR SAPI_NAME == 'cgi-fcgi')
{
header('Status: 403 Forbidden');
}
else
{
header('HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden');
}
die('Prefetching is not allowed due to the various privacy issues that arise.');
}

We've commented the whole thing out. The prefetching error shouldn't happen any more.

Cheers,
Darren

PS - I've edited the thread name as it could be taken very much out of context!

 

[Optegris]

Nice one but why did it fo it in IE7?

**runs off to check his own forums**

 

[Darren Falkingham]

Hi Phil,

I think Google Toolbar has a similar ability to prefetch pages, so I'm guessing that IE7 would be affected if you have Google Toolbar installed.

I'll look into it further though...

Did you find the prefetching code on your forums?

Cheers,
Darren

 

[JamieM]

I've had the prefetching error a few times but I guess the bad news is I just had it 5 minutes ago.

ADSL24
Firefox 2.0.0.7
OS X 10.4.10

 

[Optegris]

Yep happened to me again a few hours ago...

 

[ken_uk]

Just happened to me a couple of minutes ago.. Cleared cache, ctrl f5 and its ok now, firefox as before, didnt check i.e

 

[Darren Falkingham]

Grrrrrr! I saw this in our offices today too, and hoped it was just a cached error, not a live one.

OK, back to the code - sorry, there must be something in there that's causing this.

 

[Gillie]

Yep I have had this code again for the last two days, so it was the back door I managed to get on through, and then this evening, when I did, it said this place had no new posts today ..... that has to be a first surely??

 

[Darren Falkingham]

Hi Gill,

I double-checked the prefetching code yesterday, and it's definitely commented out. I can only think that, for some reason, cacheing has got in the way.

The 'New Posts' thing is a different animal in vBulletin - it can do it in three different ways, each more server intensive. I hope that we can use the best (most server intensive) approach to new posts, but I need my tech guys to OK this!

Cheers for now,
Darren