Windows Firewall preventing access to particular website.
I recently subscribed to this website:http://www.sainsburysdiets.co.uk/Most of the pages were loading extremely slowly, so I contacted the support page for the website and was advised that the only problem they were aware of was one caused by windows firewall, which, for those members using it, caused the site to run very slowly. They told me to try the site with windows firewall turned off to find out if this was my problem, which it was. When windows firewall is turned off the site runs fine.They say there is nothing they can do at their end to help solve the problem, and obviously I can't turn off my firewall everytime I want to use the site, which will be several times a day, so I would like to know if there is a setting I can change in my firewall which will solve the problem. I know that you can open ports to allow certain programmes to run, or you can place programmes in the 'exeptions' category, but I havent a clue what to do about a website which won't load!Any help appreciated, thank you.1 person needs an answerI do too
June 29th, 2010 9:01pm

I recently subscribed to this website:http://www.sainsburysdiets.co.uk/Most of the pages were loading extremely slowly, so I contacted the support page for the website and was advised that the only problem they were aware of was one caused by windows firewall, which, for those members using it, caused the site to run very slowly. They told me to try the site with windows firewall turned off to find out if this was my problem, which it was. When windows firewall is turned off the site runs fine.They say there is nothing they can do at their end to help solve the problem, and obviously I can't turn off my firewall everytime I want to use the site, which will be several times a day, so I would like to know if there is a setting I can change in my firewall which will solve the problem. I know that you can open ports to allow certain programmes to run, or you can place programmes in the 'exeptions' category, but I havent a clue what to do about a website which won't load!Any help appreciated, thank you.Visiting the page I can understand why the Firewall is trying to prevent the page from loading!Try another Browser like Firefox and see if that will help?Did they say why the Firewall blocking the site?Does the Firewall or the browser which Blocking/loading the site slow? Download Firefox:http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/nass -- http://www.nasstec.co.uk
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June 29th, 2010 11:00pm

On 6/29/2010 2:01 PM, Dawnf1 wrote:> I recently subscribed to this website:>> http://www.sainsburysdiets.co.uk/>> Most of the pages were loading extremely slowly, so I contacted the> support page for the website and was advised that the only problem they> were aware of was one caused by windows firewall, which, for those> members using it, caused the site to run very slowly. They told me to> try the site with windows firewall turned off to find out if this was my> problem, which it was. When windows firewall is turned off the site runs> fine.>> They say there is nothing they can do at their end to help solve the> problem, and obviously I can't turn off my firewall everytime I want to> use the site, which will be several times a day, so I would like to know> if there is a setting I can change in my firewall which will solve the> problem. I know that you can open ports to allow certain programmes to> run, or you can place programmes in the 'exeptions' category, but I> havent a clue what to do about a website which won't load!>> Any help appreciated, thank you.> Loads "extremely slowly" is an understatement. I tried and just aboutgave up using both Firefox 3.6 and IE 6. I really doubt it's the Windows firewall (although I admit that it'ssuspicious that the page loads quickly with the firewall disabled).Given that there are millions of web pages that load quickly with theWindows Firewall enabled, the odds are that there IS something wrongwith this website. You might point the support staff at sainsburysdiets to the followingresults from the W3C web document validator (The World Wide WebConsortium (W3C) is an international community that develops standardsto ensure the long-term growth of the Web), which indicates many codingerrors in the web page you're trying to load: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sainsburysdiets.co.uk%2FHome&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0 Why (or whether) those coding errors seem not to matter with the WindowsFirewall turned off is beyond my expertise. You might try posting inthe XP/Internet Explorer forum where someone with HTML/XHTML expertisemight have the answer:http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/InternetExplorer/threadsor try the Internet Explorer Web Development forum .--Lem
June 29th, 2010 11:13pm

Looking further into the issue it seems that the supporting files (style + javascript) are gzip encoded. The windows firewall running on a Windows XP Service pack 2 machine was dropping packets (windows firewall running on vista did not) - so the browser was waiting for the whole file to be delivered and not getting it. Hence the delay. Turning off gzip compression has stopped windows firewall from dropping the packets. This however does not answer the question why windows firewall + packet filtering is dropping packets. This fault does seem to have been addressed in subsequent releases of the firewall / os.We are currently looking at the log files of windows firewall to determine the exact cause.After examining the log files we have come to the conclusion that we have no solution so unfortunatley gzip encoding will have to remain off. If anyone on here can shed light onto the packet filtering of windows firewall running on XP then I would appreciate it.2010-07-01 11:02:17 DROP TCP 89.248.62.5 10.0.1.109 80 1339 316 AP 955122920 3825951583 30463 - - - RECEIVE2010-07-01 11:02:17 DROP TCP 89.248.62.5 10.0.1.109 80 1338 315 AP 280505276 2565240991 32985 - - - RECEIVE2010-07-01 11:02:18 DROP TCP 89.248.62.5 10.0.1.109 80 1343 156 ARP 841936777 768311239 8760 - - - RECEIVE2010-07-01 11:03:11 DROP TCP 89.248.62.5 10.0.1.109 80 1348 140 ARP 309986832 783383268 8760 - - - RECEIVEregards PaulTechnical Support for the Service
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July 1st, 2010 3:50pm

Very interesting. Please post back with any updates. On 7/1/2010 8:50 AM, paul_ wrote:> Looking further into the issue it seems that the supporting files (style> + javascript) are gzip encoded. The windows firewall running on a> Windows XP Service pack 2 machine was dropping packets (windows firewall> running on vista did not) - so the browser was waiting for the whole> file to be delivered and not getting it. Hence the delay. Turning off> gzip compression has stopped windows firewall from dropping the packets.> This however does not answer the question why windows firewall + packet> filtering is dropping packets. This fault does seem to have been> addressed in subsequent releases of the firewall / os.>> We are currently looking at the log files of windows firewall to> determine the exact cause.>> After examining the log files we have come to the conclusion that we> have no solution so unfortunatley gzip encoding will have to remain off.> If anyone on here can shed light onto the packet filtering of windows> firewall running on XP then I would appreciate it.>> 2010-07-01 11:02:17 DROP TCP 89.248.62.5 10.0.1.109 80 1339 316 AP> 955122920 3825951583 30463 - - - RECEIVE> 2010-07-01 11:02:17 DROP TCP 89.248.62.5 10.0.1.109 80 1338 315 AP> 280505276 2565240991 32985 - - - RECEIVE> 2010-07-01 11:02:18 DROP TCP 89.248.62.5 10.0.1.109 80 1343 156 ARP> 841936777 768311239 8760 - - - RECEIVE> 2010-07-01 11:03:11 DROP TCP 89.248.62.5 10.0.1.109 80 1348 140 ARP> 309986832 783383268 8760 - - - RECEIVE>> regards Paul>> Technical Support for the Service> -- Lem
July 1st, 2010 9:05pm

Thanks for the replies. I'm glad to know its not just me and there is actually a problem!I will send the support person I have been in contact with at Sainsburys a link to this page, if you don't mind, maybe she can pass it on to the technical people.So, since I can't do anything about it for now, I have another question. If I have Norton AV, Spybot and Ad-aware running, do I really need to have my windows firewall running at the same time. Does it do something the others don't? Or is it safe enough for me to turn it off? Or is there something else I can do?
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July 5th, 2010 1:35pm

It's working fine now, I guess they sorted it out.Thanks again for the help.
July 18th, 2010 6:11pm

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