[imp] The page cannot be displayed - problem

[Andrew Morgan]

On Sat, 9 Jun 2007, Son Truong wrote:

>
> Are these default settings in Apache or Apache2? I built httpd-2.2.4
> straight from the download. So when installed it puts its default
> httpd.conf to which I edited...
>
> Eric Jon Rostetter wrote:
>> Quoting Son Truong <svt at st-andrews.ac.uk>:
>>
>>
>>> I did a search of the mailing list and came up with a post date 2005!
>>>
>>
>> The reason you didn't find it in the FAQ anymore, and had to go back to
>> 2005 (I'm surprised it is that recent) is that the settings you reference
>> are the default settings in Apache, and have been for years.  So if you
>> had to add those settings, then it is because you, someone at your location,
>> or your Apache packager broke it by removing them.
>>
>> This did indeed used to be a FAQ, but since it is now the default in Apache,
>> it is now rare...

I fought this exact same problem (I think) here when I started adding some 
new Debian Etch servers to our pool of Webmail servers.  Users started 
reported random "page cannot be displayed" errors when composing an email 
using IE.  Luckily I saw the posts here at the same time and made the 
connection.  Comparing my old Debian Sarge (apache v1.3) configs with the 
new Debian Etch (apache v2.2) configs, showed that the following line was 
*not* present in Etch's apache v2.2 default install:

   SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown

Adding that line seems to have fixed the problem.

A tcpdump of the problem occurring shows the apache server sending a RST 
packet in response to the HTTP POST request.  With "nokeepalive" set, HTTP 
keepalive is not used and IE negotiates a new SSL connection with each 
click.  I suppose this adds some overhead, but at least it works!

Screw IE anyways.  :(

 	Andy