Really annoying: Unspecified link error [still not resolved]

[Behemoth]

when I post in any forum from work, it usually gives me the "unspecified link" error, causing me to copy the contents of my post to the clipboards, close my browser, open another copy, browse to the relevant reply page, paste my post in from the clipboard and submit it. And occaisionally that doesn't work either.

My question then is: why?

[Behemoth]

this one:

No thread specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the webmaster

[Behemoth]

Is this query being ignore because I haven't "contacted the webmaster?"

1) I'm not reporting a single, specific link, but a problem with my browsing the site.

2) My company's email policy is very strict and would prevent me from doing so anyway.

[thinktank]

Originally posted by Behemoth
Is this query being ignore because I haven't "contacted the webmaster?"

.. My company's email policy is very strict and would prevent me from doing so anyway. ..

There is always hotmail,yahoo etc...

[Behemoth]

nope. Blocked

the company internet / email policy sucks. It's designed for computer users that pay £1,000 for a computer "to do my word processing on"...

[Skitchen8]

lol... you usually get that when your following a link to a thread that has been deleted or moved... i don't know why you get it all the time though....

[filburt1]

It almost sounds like no arguments are getting passed to the PHP page (i.e., nothing beyond the "?" in the URL).

[Behemoth]

test

[zmerlinz]

i used to have the same problem when i was at school and i wanted to post, the best solution that i got was to always type something in the subject box and this ussually worked, another thing was to type what you wanted to type in notepad or something and then paste the contents into the window and then submit, this worked also

hope that helped

[Behemoth]

It's a shame I have to try to find a workround. oh well. Thanks Dean.

No word from mods / admins on what might be causing it?

[Arbiter]

Ian,

I've been getting this recently on my machine. Irritating, but I simply go back and click submit again. It may take 2-3 goes on a bad day but it normally works - quicker than restarting Explorer anyway.

[Behemoth]

In the past, i've attempted it 6-7 times before giving up!

in the past 10 minutes or so, I've been able to post 3 times consecutively (in the comms forum, sorry Ben), so it seems to be fixed.

Has somebody done something about this, or have I just been lucky?

[attempt 2]
ok, that didn't work, so im gonna try re-submitting...

[attempt 3]
no, no joy then, 3rd time lucky?

[attempt 4]
still nothing. damn. and it was working lovely in the Sentience thread

[attempt 5]
RRROOOOAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!

[attempt 6]
I'm all ready to give up now...

[attempt 7]
ok. final try. I'm gonna try putting a title on this post...

[attempt 8]
nope. back to the old method.

[Behemoth]

testing...

[Behemoth]

can anyone help me?

[Behemoth]

*bump*

[John]

What browser are you using?

I have come across this problem a few times before, and usually I end up clicking the back button and submitting the form again. Also, is this still happening? Regularly?

Thanks,
John

[Behemoth]

Thanks for responding, John.

The browser at work is a generation 4 version of IE. I can't remember offhand, but I think its 4.5 (I'll check it out tomorrow and let you know). Backtracking and resubmitting rarely cures the problem, but closing/reopening the browser and reposting usually works. I can't establish a pattern as to what helps and what doesn't though.

PS. Whilst trying to reply tonight, I was asked to resubmit my username and password following the submit screen. I assumed that I had deleted my cookies and submitted it as normal, but recieved the same error message (this was from my home machine tonight (well, this morning ) ). I'm running IE5.00.

[Behemoth]

OK, I've narrowed it down a little. I suspect it might be due to my internet security settings (I inadvertently set them too high on my home machine, which caused me all sorts of problems.)

I attempted to email you, which failed until I realised that I had set them too high.

Please respond if you know of anything related to this which might be causing me trouble...

[Matt_T_hat]

I was about to ask a similer question as I have no probs with posting (sept the return takes 8 years) but I have encountered this problem type al over the web from college.

And trust me I've been places that the college administrators would kill me for.

It is a browser / operating system / PROXY server thing.

the POXY PROXY is guilty 9 times outa 10!

Think of a good reason why the tech bods need to do some maintenence and have a good hack while thierbacks are turned and the systems is inactive!

[John]

Does this happen on any particular threads, or only certain ones? Are these ones long ones?

Thanks,
John

[Behemoth]

It does seem to be the case with all threads. The only idea I had at the time was that it was related to the length of time the submit page was open - if I took the time to compose a long reply, I would certainly encounter the problem, but if I rushed off a quick reply or pasted a reply I had composed earlier, there was a higher chance of me posting successfully.

If I managed to post successfully, I would be unable to do so again, without closing all open browser windows and reloading IE.

By the way, we're running IE4.0 at work.

PS first time I tried to post this it failed. Could it also be related to how many copies of IE I'm currently running?

[Behemoth]

to the best of my knowledge, I've not duplicated a post through this problem. I'm not at work at the moment, so I can't tell, but I'll test it for you Sunday/Monday when I'm in.

[Behemoth]

Still having trouble here John.

It seemed to be a bit better last week. I was able to click the back button and resubmit the post, but it seems to have stopped again.

FYI, I don't duplicate posts through this, as I suspected. The posts are not getting through at all...

[John]

I have still been unable to come up with any useful suggestions. I will keep on trying, but I've not thought of anything yet

John

[Behemoth]

thanks for trying anyway...

[InvisibleDuncan]

I get this problem intermittently when I sign on from work, and that's using IE5 through a proxy (I'm going through the same proxy from here, but I've never had the problem from this PC).

It tends to happen fairly late in the day - about 4:30 onwards - and once it starts happening I can't post anything. I've always had to wait 'til the following day before I can post again, by which time my stunning witticism is a bit out of date.

It's quite rare, though; maybe once every couple of months or so.