LYNX-DEV Re: [SysReq #3509] [Staff #68091] Some pages lynx can't load

[Klaus Weide]

On Fri, 26 Sep 1997, Carl Buxbaum wrote:

> Anyone know what's going on here?
> 
> This is failing with a 
> 
> 406 None Acceptable
 .....
>  >  > Name -> John Kirby comment -> The following domains give the
>  >  > correct IP using nslookup on your system.  However, using lynx to
>  >  > get to the addresses fails. I have reports from some of your POP
>  >  > customers that they are unable to reach these domains.  Telnet-ing
>  >  > to port 80 to these servers from your system works.

Try it with typing an "Accept:" header line with many (different) entries.

>  > I noticed these all run on oracle servers, and took a guess, sure
>  > enough, lynx fails in the same way at www.oracle.com.
>  > 
>  > The error message lynx shows is "406 None Acceptable"; I'm not sure,
>  > though, if it's lynx or oracle's server generating the message, and if
>  > the problem is inherent to lynx or can be solved by a configuration
>  > file under our control.

Definitely the server is generating the message.

Suspicion:

  The oracle server software cannot deal with requests with an "Accept:"
  header (or headers) with a large number of items (MIME types).

To test, and workaround:

  Try running Lynx without personal or global mailcap files that have many
  entries.  Change in lynx.cfg.

  (Lynx generates "Accept:" request headers from, among other things,
  mailcap files and VIEWER entries in lynx.cfg.  If there are many
  applicable entries in those files, the header gets long.)

If this is confirmed, it should be reported as a bug to Oracle.
If the server has to impose a fixed limit here, it would be more reasonable
to treat a request with too may items as if it had no "Accept:" header at
all, rather than failing with a 406 status.

     Klaus

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