Microsoft just issued a cumulative security patch to IE 6.0 via the Windows Update system yesterday. You may start to see some problems popping up on the Net due to their disabling of a method commonly used to bypass the ugly login/password box that pops up when you access a secure folder on a website.


This was disabled do to IE's inability to keep scammers from masking the URLs in HTML email messages. For example, you might see a URL link in an email saying that it's directing you to PayPal and when you put your mouse over the link, http://paypal.com also shows up on your address bar. However, scammers are using the login/password system to mask the real location. The only way you can see the real URL is to view the source HTML of the email. In Outlook Express, you can see the source tab by select Forward Email. You'll see a source tab appear at the bottom of your email message window.

The problem with Microsoft diabling this method is a matter of usability. To secure information on a webserver, there are two files that are placed in folders on a server: .htaccess and .htpassword. If these file exist, you'd normally see an ugly gray box popup that asks you for your username and password. This is GEEKY! To work around this, there's been a method in place for years where the URL could contain the username and password. For example: http://Jim:MyPassword@quikonnex.com/member would allow me to access the Quikonnex.com members area. Now this is not a security problem. Normally this username and password is submitted via a form (that looks a lot nicer than the ugly gray box) and is only revealed to the browse user (if at all) not to anyone else.

So if you're trying to access the member's area of a site that you belong to and it gives you an error message stating that you've got an "Invalid syntax error" and "The page you are looking for might have been removed or had its name changed", it's not the website. It's your browser.

I've taken out the links on the Quikonnex site that utilize this technique, so until I rework the scripts you'll see a few ugly boxes. They will go away. But the real solution to this problem is DUMP INTERNET EXPLORER! Download Mozilla Firebird as soon as possible! You'll save yourself a lot of headaches.