Lady Omega

Yesterday, when i couldn’t take it any more, i finally had a wonderful encounter with the my ISP’s tech support, and got to find out what sits on the other end of the phone (i hate phones in general, and talking on the phone is a big pain for me, so that was a pretty heroic effort on my side) . The problem is that, apparently, i have a “not very good provider” (translation : shite) – it blocks everything which is not HTTP, even http://ftp. It also blocks the access to javascript files. It’s very nice to be designing a site and not being able to have access to javascript files online – meaning, half of the site would just not work for you, you won’t be able to modify anything directly from admin panel and so on. Even my yahoo mail doesn’t want to function. The reason is – javascript blocking.

ISA Server can block cross site scripting by inspecting the HTTP requests and identifying commands and tags that are common in server responses but are not common in client requests. For example, you can expect a server to run a command in response to a client request. However, that same command in a client request may be suspect, and could be the result of the client unintentionally running code that is hidden in a Web page. By blocking requests containing those commands and tags, the attack can be stopped.Continuing the example of using in a posting, would be a valid tag for a server response, but not for client requests. By adding a signature to detect in the requests passing through ISA Server, the attack will be blocked. Read more here

Well, i called my ISP and shortly after 30 min being on hold i got to talk to a worker. The conversation went as follows:(O-me, TS-TechSup)

O:: Hello, i want to let you know that you are blocking my javascript. I am a web designer and i cannot work properly, since you are blocking it. When i access my .js files, there’s nothing but a blank page and even my yahoo mail isn’t functioning.

TS:: Uhm….what’s the number of the error?

O:: You see, there are different errors on different pages, when i check the error console, it gives many various errors.

TS:: Ah, ok, please open your Internet Explorer….

O:: I don’t use IE i use Firefox

TS:: Ohhh…hold on a second then…..

(waiting on the phone for 10 min)

TS:: Hey, are you there?

O:: Yep

TS:: Ok, the problem is solved, you just have to install JAVA tm!!!

O:: WTF??? …i was talking about Javascript, not Java Sun Microsystems, besides that, i have it installed.

TS:: Can you give me a link to see the number of the error you are getting?

O:: Nope, i can’t give you the link of the sites i’m currently working on….

TS:: Ahhh, you’re a web designer

O:: That’s right (duhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!)

TS:: Well, i think it’s a problem with your computer, you should check it.

O:: Nope, there’s no problem with my computer, since i have other computers in the house and when i connect via other computers i get same problems. There’s no way that each pc i have is configured in a wrong way.

TS:: Well, i can give you a phone # of the local hardware company so that they can check it.

O:: ????? I don’t need a hardware company, my problem is not hardware.

TS:: Uhm….hold on a sec

(another 10 min go by)

TS:: You there?

O:: Yep

TS:: You see, you’re the only person that contacted us about this problem, so we can’t really help you

O:: Ok, can you check Yahoo for example and see if it will work ok on your computer at least?

TS:: We don’t have that kind of thing.

O:: ????????????? What kind of thing – Yahoo?

TS:: Yes madam.

O:: Do you know what Yahoo is?

TS:: Yes but we don’t get any popups with errors from it.

O:: Popups?

TS:: I can give you the number so that you can check your hardware.

O:: No, thanks i guess we’re done here……good bye.

I guess if i redirected them to the link about .js blocking mentioned above, it would be too challenging….