[X4U] OT - Secure Web Page Validation Problem

[Nick Scalise]

On Dec 17, 2005, at 10:17 PM, Milton van der Veen wrote:

> I look after a web site for Sleeping Children Around the World. We  
> use PayPal for credit card donations and had to set up a sequence  
> of secure pages on our web site to handle that. We use our ISPs  
> secure server to save money.
>
> But I keep getting people using Firefox browser who tell me they're  
> getting the HTML code in their browser instead of the rendered page.
> <https://host.zerowebhosting.com/scaw/secure/index.shtml>
>
> I've tried to validate the page with the W3C Validation service and  
> I get:
> "Sorry, I am unable to validate this document because its content  
> type is text/plain, which is not currently supported by this  
> service. The Content-Type field is sent by your web server (or web  
> browser if you use the file upload interface) and depends on its  
> configuration. Commonly, web servers will have a mapping of  
> filename extensions (such as ".html") to MIME Content-Type values  
> (such as text/html). That you received this message can mean that  
> your server is not configured correctly, that your file does not  
> have the correct filename extension, or that you are attempting to  
> validate a file type that we do not support yet. In the latter case  
> you should let us know that you need us to support that content  
> type (please include all relevant details, including the URL to the  
> standards document defining the content type) using the  
> instructions on the Feedback Page."
>
> I've checked with my ISP and they assure me that their server is  
> set up correctly. They also tell me that the page is coded  
> correctly. But I still get regular complaints ... especially now as  
> the giving season is here.
>
> Is there someone with HTML and XHTML knowledge who would be kind  
> enough to check the source of my page to see if there is some  
> anomaly that neither I nor my ISP is aware of. It's frustrating to  
> tell people "Use the Internet Explorer browser. It will render the  
> page correctly."

I went to the page in Firefox and got code. So I saved the file to my  
harddrive and opened it in Firefox and it looked mostly as expected  
(probably missing the style sheet).

That would tell me that something is amiss on the server.

If they say the page is coded correctly, ask them why code is being  
displayed from the server. Correct code looks proper only if it is  
served correctly.

I placed the file on my cox space (hope that's OK, I will delete it  
right away) and it works fine there...

http://members.cox.net/nickscalise/scaw.html

--
Nick Scalise
nickscalise at cox.net