Accessing Toronto Public Library's Website with Linux

[Giles Orr]

2008/12/20 D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>:
> Wow, the routers at these sites haven't implemented RFC 1323 from
> 1992.
>
> Worse: these implementations are actively broken, not just ignorant.
> They take an option (Window Scale Option) and change its value when
> passing it through.  The RFC says that the presence of this option
> does two things: it announces the value of the Window Scale factor and
> it announces that the sender understands a Window Scale Option.  The
> only sensible things for a router to do, even before this RFC were:
> - drop the option, or
> - pass it unchanged.
> I cannot imagine any logic for passing it with a changed value.
>
> Is there a list of the router brands, models, and firmware versions
> that are broken?
>
> I just tried to read the TPL page on Linux, while tcpdumping.  I
> observed the problem.
>
> A comment in the LWN article suggests MS Windows Vista might suffer
> too.  It points to
>  http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1744/vista_tcp_cannot_communicate_primary_dns_server/
> Since this only refers to DNS problems, I'm not sure what the extent
> of the problem is for Vista.

We've had reports of problems with Vista, and have a note on the
website sending people to this page:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934430/en-us

Although Microsoft's web page claims "This issue does not occur when
you try to make an HTTP connection," we've had reports of the listed
fix helping people out.  The page also lists a bunch of firewalls that
are known to cause problems.

Does anyone know how to determine (from where we stand) what device -
make and model - is causing the problem?  I believe we've let the
network people know there is a problem, but it hasn't been fixed yet:
perhaps if I can tell them precisely what device and how to fix it
they would move on it.

P.S. I'm not at Lillian H. Smith anymore.

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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