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Bug 1069 - validator redirected to http://localhost
Summary: validator redirected to http://localhost
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Validator
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Parser (show other bugs)
Version: 0.7.0
Hardware: PC Windows XP
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Olivier Thereaux
QA Contact: qa-dev tracking
URL: http://actionhour.net/test2.html
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
: 1070 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2005-01-31 20:11 UTC by Tom Gatodelnegro
Modified: 2015-02-16 00:16 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description Tom Gatodelnegro 2005-01-31 20:11:33 UTC
Hey there, noticed this on an implemention of a validator, and went to w3c to
check there. Seems that when you have in an img tag,
src="http://domain.com///path_to_file/file.jpg" the validator returns a 302
localhost error. 

Try this test page
http://actionhour.net/test2.html
Comment 1 Olivier Thereaux 2005-02-01 03:29:53 UTC
(In reply to comment #0)
> Seems that when you have in an img tag,
> src="http://domain.com///path_to_file/file.jpg" the validator returns a 302
> localhost error. 

Do you have any conclusive sign that this behaviour only happens when the page contains an image?

Here is the transcript of an HTTP session:
% telnet actionhour.net 80
Trying 66.235.203.171...
Connected to host219.ipowerweb.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD /test2.html HTTP/1.1
Host: actionhour.net
User-Agent: W3C_Validator/1.305.2.148 libwww-perl/5.803

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2005 03:08:50 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.31 (Unix) mod_log_bytes/0.3 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 PHP/4.3.10 mod_ssl/2.8.19 
OpenSSL/0.9.7d
Location: http://localhost/
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1

As you can see, it's the server that redirects, in a strangely broken manner, the page requested to http:/
/localhost.

This is not the first time we get this "redirection to localhost" problem:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/2005Jan/0100.html
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/2005Jan/0098.html



% host actionhour.net
actionhour.net has address 66.235.203.171
% host www.ezyworkathome.com 
www.ezyworkathome.com has address 66.235.203.80

These two are using the same ISP (iPowerWeb)

% host www.falconberry.com 
www.falconberry.com has address 66.235.193.159

The third one was using a different ISP (Startlogic.com), contacted their tech support and apparently the 
issue is gone.

All three are using the same server software:
Server: Apache/1.3.31 (Unix) mod_log_bytes/0.3 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 PHP/4.3.10 mod_ssl/2.8.19 
OpenSSL/0.9.7d

Either there is a version of apache with frontpage extensions being distributed that is broken (or comes 
with broken configuration defaults), or this is a new trend among Web Hosting companies.

We'll have to contact these WebHosts to figure it out...
Comment 2 Olivier Thereaux 2005-02-02 05:06:00 UTC
Yet another report received from  www.stuff4beauty.com 
(same network class as the others - 66.235.221.42). 
Cf. http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=1070
Comment 3 Olivier Thereaux 2005-02-02 05:06:15 UTC
*** Bug 1070 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Olivier Thereaux 2005-02-02 05:09:14 UTC
Assigning bug to myself. 

Goal is to figure out what the origin of this broken redirect is:
- zealous web hosting admin trying to fend off robots?
- broken apache bundle? broken apache module?
Comment 5 Sara 2005-02-02 05:20:52 UTC
I did contact my web hosting company, but the issue is not resolved. I still get
a redirect on the validator
Comment 6 Sara 2005-02-02 05:32:51 UTC
(In reply to comment #5)
> I did contact my web hosting company, startlogic.com -  but the issue is not
resolved. The report ticket I filed was disregarded as nothing wrong. I still get
> a redirect on the validator
Comment 7 Sara 2005-02-02 17:41:40 UTC
Here is what I received from my hosting Co.

Thank you for contacting StartLogic technical support. 

It looks like when you validate your URL the validator is redirecting it to
localhost and checking the html validators page, which is why it reports XHTML.
I can't imagine why it would be doing this but I can say with a fair amount of
certainty that it is on the validators part as we dont redirect your website at all.
Comment 8 Sara 2005-02-02 17:42:37 UTC
Here is the response I received from my web hosting company:


Thank you for contacting StartLogic technical support. 

It looks like when you validate your URL the validator is redirecting it to
localhost and checking the html validators page, which is why it reports XHTML.
I can't imagine why it would be doing this but I can say with a fair amount of
certainty that it is on the validators part as we dont redirect your website at all.
Comment 9 Olivier Thereaux 2005-02-02 21:30:53 UTC
Your web host's tech support is, unfortunately, wrong. 

Compare the following two HTTP sessions.

First session, with no particular user agent declaration...

% telnet www.stuff4beauty.com 80
Trying 66.235.221.42...
Connected to st01.startlogic.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.stuff4beauty.com

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 21:24:28 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.31 (Unix) mod_log_bytes/0.3 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 PHP/4.3.10 mod_ssl/2.8.19 
OpenSSL/0.9.7c
Last-Modified: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 00:39:37 GMT
Content-Type: text/html


Second session with the validator's user agent string declared:

% telnet www.stuff4beauty.com 80
Trying 66.235.221.42...
Connected to st01.startlogic.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.stuff4beauty.com
User-Agent: W3C_Validator/1.305.2.148 libwww-perl/5.803

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 21:26:31 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.31 (Unix) mod_log_bytes/0.3 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 PHP/4.3.10 mod_ssl/2.8.19 
OpenSSL/0.9.7c
Location: http://localhost/
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
 
302 Found status code and a Location: header. 
That's a redirect.

You should probably explain to your tech support that their server *does* a redirect, only based on 
some user agent string. And point them to http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=1069#c9 
(this comment) for more details.
 
Comment 10 Sara 2005-02-03 16:21:17 UTC
Yes, now they state they are at fault and here is the comment:

Dear Client

Thank you for contacting StartLogic technical support. 

Apparently the user agent for the w3 validator matches libwww-perl which is
currently blocked as an emergency fix for the internet worms that were attacking
websites which also reported as libwww-perl. Once out admins develop a more
elegant solution to the problem the user-agent block will be removed but for now
it will have to remain.
Comment 11 Terje Bless 2005-02-03 23:03:35 UTC
We've changed the code in the development version so it no longer identifies
itself with the "libwww-perl" identifer (it now says only "W3C_Validator").

Could you all retest the pages you were having trouble with using the
development version at <http://qa-dev.w3.org/wmvs/HEAD/>, and let us know
whether this change fixes the problem?
Comment 12 Sara 2005-02-04 00:00:17 UTC
Yes, it works fine now. Thank-you
Comment 13 Olivier Thereaux 2005-03-18 06:35:11 UTC
Closing this bug, assuming that the issue has been fixed by the Web hosting services, and knowing that 
the issue is not present in dev version...