webbrowser control [UNRESOLVED]

[kleinma]

I have been looking for an answer to this for a long time, but I still have yet to come up with any solution.

My application has a webbrowser control in it. This control is used to get information from our website to give to the end user. The end user never actually sees the data in the webbrowser control because it is on a hidden form. For example, this program needs to be activated on our server for them to use it. When they put the cd key in, it sends it as a parameter on a url to our website which validates it and returns a good or bad response. the response is read in and if good they continue, if not it haults the application.

so my problem is that people with firewalls seem to be having trouble getting this to work. I would think since this is the webbrowser control, that if they can get out to the internet with internet explorer, then my app should be able to do the same, but for whatever reason, this is not the case. I tried installing zonealarm to replicate the problem, and when i get the popup authorizing access, it tells me the destination IP is 127.0.0.1 with a different port number each time. Why it is using this IP is odd to me, and why its not working is a bigger mystery.

Is there a better method I can use to navigate to webpages? Why wont this work in my app?

[Jmacp]

Not sure whats causing that but you could try running an ASP script on the server and connect directly to a database on your server using ADO.

[kleinma]

I don't know what you mean?

The problem is that the internet explorer webbrowser control can't connect to our website on some of the users systems. What does this have to do with ADO, or ASP script?

[Jmacp]

Was just a suggestion, you asked for a different way to connect to your server.

Say you build a db of cd keys well you can connect to that db using ADO and ASP and validate the keys as required.

[kleinma]

thats exactly what it does. My app that is on the clients computer simply reads the text that is output by the asp code in plain HTML

the problem is that the webbrowser control isn't even able to connect to the web page at all... its like its being blocked from internet access

[Jmacp]

Yup i know what your saying and i cant see how this would make a difference but you never know, for example you could,

Dim rs As New ADODB.Recordset
    Dim url As String
    url = "http://www.yoursite.com/"
    rs.Open url & "get.asp?ID=" & Val(txtID) & ""

and communicate to the server like that.

[VIP3R]

HOW ABOUT A BETTER SOLUTION THAT I KNOW WORKS!
BTW, the webbrowser control has problems with the firewall. Try the following code.

'REFERENCE MICROSOFT INTERNET CONTROLS
 
'Declarations:
'----------------
Public Declare Function GetTickCount Lib "kernel32" () As Long
 
Public IE As InternetExplorer
 
 
 
'Form Code:
'--------------
  Dim StartTime As Long
  Dim RetryCount As Long
 
  Set IE = New InternetExplorer 'Start a new IE session
  IE.Visible = False 'Make the browser invisible to the user
 
 
Retry:
  RetryCount = RetryCount + 1   'The number of times we tried to access the page
 
  If RetryCount > 3 Then  'If we retried more than 3 times, exit the sub
    IE.Quit   'Close the browser
    Set IE = Nothing
    
    Exit Sub
  End If
 
  IE.Navigate "http://yahoo.com" 'Navigate to the given URL
 
  StartTime = GetTickCount()  'Store the current time
 
  While IE.ReadyState <> 4  'Wait while the browser is busy
    If (StartTime + 3000) < GetTickCount Then GoTo Retry  'Give it 3 seconds before retrying
    DoEvents
  Wend
 
  Msgbox IE.Document.documentElement.OuterHTML
 
  IE.QUit
  Set IE = nothing

[VIP3R]

Just to tell you, that code has passed many fire alarms. I know that it bypasses mine (Crappy WinXP firewall) and my friend's firewall (Norton "i think"). However, I haven't heard of any problems from anyone with a firewall but I can't say I've tested it with all firewalls.

I hope my post didn't go to waste and that I have solved your problem.

[kleinma]

ill check it out tomorrow when i am at work.

I will impliement that code and upload it to the client having troubles. Then I will let you know the result.

Thanks for the post

[EJ12N]

It works bypassed ZoneAlarm Pro i have
Good code there

[kleinma]

Originally posted by EJ12N
It works bypassed ZoneAlarm Pro i have
Good code there

well i guess its not bypassing, its using permissions already given to internet explorer

[ice_531]

i use inet...to download a page n search the data to see if program is enabled or not. Havent had any problems so far and people with firewalls havent complained ( other than when i disable the program )

but my method is farely simple .. as i have a page say test.html on my server and i have the program check it to see if it contains a word " disable " or sumthin...then go from there


ice

[kleinma]

is there anyway to use the IE object instead of the webbrowser object but still have it inside an application instead of being a seperate window?

[kleinma]

Originally posted by kleinma
is there anyway to use the IE object instead of the webbrowser object but still have it inside an application instead of being a seperate window?

I used a combination of SetWindowLong, SetWindowPos, and SetParent APIs to achieve this

[VIP3R]

lol Just pointing out some of my typing mistakes:

Just to tell you, that code has passed many fire alarms.

I didn't notice it until now :P. It's good to know that my code doesn't set off the fire alarm!

[kleinma]

Originally posted by VIP3R
lol Just pointing out some of my typing mistakes:



I didn't notice it until now :P. It's good to know that my code doesn't set off the fire alarm!

lol i guess i didnt really notice because i knew what you meant