Windows XP / Norton Internet Security blocks long URL name

I hope someone can help me with this problem which I have been strugling with for some time and could not find a solution.

I have Windows XP operating system with SP2 and Internet Explorer 6 installed. I also have Norton Internet Security 2008 installed. I use an excel file which contains a Visual Basic code that passes a URL string that includes some parameters to IE6 in order to retrieve some data from a website. The length of the URL is approximately 1000 characters which is below the 2048 character limit for IE6, but apparently either windows xp or Norton Internet Security blocks this long URL from being passed to IE, if I shorten the string to about 200 characters it works. But I have tried using the code on several other computers that does not have Norton installed and it works fine. I am inclined to believe that Norton and not windows is causing this blocking but could not figure out any way to solve the problem. I sent a message to Norton technical support but they never responded although I am a Norton custormer for almost 8 years. Anyways I think Norton is causing the problem but not sure and I really appreciate assistance from other people here.

Thank you in advance.

 

I am still hoping one of the experienced people here can help.

Thanks.

 

Hi Christer,

Thank you for your reply. I tried turning Antiphishing off but it does not help.

As I said in my first message, I am not sure if IE 6 or Norton is blocking the long URL. But my understanding is that long URLs are sometimes used to hack a computer so it is considered a form of a security threat, also I tried using the code on several other computers which does not have Norton installed and it works fine, that is why I am assuming Norton is causing this.

It may also have to do with some services in IE6 that were disabled by the firewall, I am just guessing.

 

Ok I forgot to mention that I tried Firefox and Netscape earlier but still had the same problem.

Does anyone know which settings in IE6 (or any of these browsers), or in Widows firewall or Norton affects the length of allowed URLs? Or is there any service that needs to be enabled or disabled that affect this?

 

Thanks to all for your contributions.

- Yes the maximum URL length is 2048 in IE and even much longer in Firefox and others, but the problem is that it gets blocked by something else.
- I could not understand what is meant by 255 characters for a policy name, maybe someone can explain this as the referenced documents does not describe it any furhter.
- I tried disabling NIS and windows firewall, but it does not help. I think once they are installed they make changes to the settings, or disable some services so even if the firewalls are disabled the settings does not change.
- On shortening the URL length, this is what I am using right now but it is only temporarly. I use the code to retrieve stock quotes from Yahoo, it allows for retrieving data for 200 stocks at a time by including all their symbols in the URL string. I had to reduce the length of the string to include only 25 symbols to work which means I need to get the function to loop 8 times to do the same job, which becomes very annoying and slow.
- When I tried Firefox and other browsers a couple of months ago, I noticed that the code runs well 2 or 3 times then stops, which indicates that either IE or windows firewall or NIS identifies this as a suspicious activities and blocks it after it runs the first few times.

I am sorry for making it difficult but this problem has been some sort of a mystery for me for some months.

 

nhandal,

Have you emailed Symantec with your problem or searched through their knowledge base ?

Maybe some other user [remote chance as 2083 character is a very l-o-n-g url and not many people would bump into it] had had the same problem ?

Worth checking anyhow.

 

I sent an email to symantec and later a reminder, but they never responded. I was surprised they deal in such a manner with their loyal customers.

 

Hi nhandal,

This is Mike from the Norton Authorized Support Team responding to your posting about Norton Internet Security.


The first thing to try is to properly remove and then reinstall Norton Internet Security using the following steps.


1. Click on the following link to download the Norton Removal Tool:

Norton Removal Tool and Instructions

2. After you run the tool, please restart your computer. Then log in to Windows again and run the removal tool again. Restart your computer after it is finished running the second time as well.

3. Make sure that your internet connection is working properly, and then reinstall Norton Internet Security. Towards the end of the installation process, the LiveUpdate feature will automatically run and download and install updates to both the program files and definition files.

After you have completed the steps above, try to access the long URL using IE and Firefox. If you still experience problems in both browsers, please try making the following changes within Norton Internet Security.

1. Open Norton Internet Security and select the "Norton internet Security" tab at the top of the window.

2. Click on the "Settings" category, then click on "Transaction Security" and disable both the "Phishing Protection" and the "Crimeware Protection" features.

Please let me know if making these changes resolves the issue.

Thank you,
Mike

 

Hi Michael,

I followed your instructions, but I still have the same problem.

I tried to use the long URL directly in firefox and I got the message below:

"Connection Interrupted

The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

The network link was interrupted while negotiating a connection. Please try again. "

Does this help to come closer to the problem?

 

Does my last message help to identify the problem or we are stuck at this point?

One thing came to my mind, once I read somewhere on the internet that having multiple network cards on a computer might cause security problems with some software, but I could not verify to what extent this is true. I have 3 NICs on my computer. So I wonder if this has anything to do with the problem.

 

Have we reached a dead end on this thread? I hope not.

 

Hi nhandal,

Have you tried removing Norton as I described in my earlier post. If not please carefully follow the steps using the Norton Removal Tool method nto uninstall all traces of Norton from your computer. After Norton is completely removed, enable the Windows Firewall for minimal protection, reset the security in both browsers to their default settings and then test the URL's in both IE and Firefox.

Please let me know the outcome.

Also, if you could please send me,via PM, some examples of the long URL's that you mention, that would be helpful as well.

Thank you,
Mike