IIS won't serve PDF

Hi David,

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, this problem affects all computers
trying to view PDF's from our server, not just a selected few. My local
computer will view any other PDF from any other website correctly; that's why
I believe it's with our server. The only thing that's been changed on the
server recently was a hotfix for SMTP message length errors; I can't see how
that would affect the PDF serving, but I'll uninstall it just to see what
happens. If you have any more ideas, please let me know.

thanks!!

"David Wang [Msft]" wrote:

 > Your description does not indicate the problem is with the web server.
 >
 > The web server behaves the same way to when you right click & save or left
 > click & view -- in both cases, the browser retrieves the resource from the
 > server with the same commands and gets a local copy of the resource. When
 > you click "save", the browser chooses to do nothing and move the local copy
 > to your indicated location. When you click "view" or "open", the browser
 > chooses to launch a PDF viewer on the local copy.
 >
 > In other words, IIS had to have served the PDF correctly if you were able to
 > save it to your local drive. There may be something else running on your
 > local machine preventing PDF from being used.
 >
 > --
 > //David
 > IIS
 > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 > //
 > "smorrissey" <smorrissey RemoveThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
 > news:AC4E6A83-2D67-4F09-B2E0-A8C3C0CF6F13@microsoft.com...
 > I'm running a website on SBS2003 that has many PDF files for downloading.
 > The
 > other day, PDF's stopped serving up correctly in users browsers. The first
 > time you try to view a PDF in IE, a blank window opens. If I click to
 > refresh
 > the window, the PDF loads fine. If I try to view the PDF in Firefox, it
 > won't
 > load at all. If I right click the link and save it to my local drive, then
 > open it from the browser, it works fine. So I believe something is wrong
 > with
 > the way my server is serving the PDF's. Where do I look to find out where
 > the
 > problem is ??
 >
 > Thanks,
 > Shawn Morrissey
 > Display Devices Inc.
 >
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: IIS won't serve PDF 

I don't have any more ideas.

As I've stated, being able to save the PDF from the webserver is equivalent
to viewing the PDF (as far as the web server is concerned -- it does the
exact same thing for both). Since you said that saving the PDF works from
this server, problems cannot be coming from the web server's ability to
"serve" a PDF -- you just proved that it could serve the PDF.

Thus, I have to think that the problem comes from viewing the PDF, which is
an independent action performed by the browser with no knowledge of the web
server.

Maybe this web server (by its name) is in a different internet "Zone" than
others. This can cause browsers to behave differently when it comes to
viewing a downloaded PDF. You need to look at this sort of possibility.

--
//David
IIS
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang" target="_blank">http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang</a>
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
//
"smorrissey" <smorrissey RemoveThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:45B158E1-27C4-49D7-8672-D07D11478D89@microsoft.com...
Hi David,

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, this problem affects all computers
trying to view PDF's from our server, not just a selected few. My local
computer will view any other PDF from any other website correctly; that's
why
I believe it's with our server. The only thing that's been changed on the
server recently was a hotfix for SMTP message length errors; I can't see how
that would affect the PDF serving, but I'll uninstall it just to see what
happens. If you have any more ideas, please let me know.

thanks!!

"David Wang [Msft]" wrote:

 > Your description does not indicate the problem is with the web server.
 >
 > The web server behaves the same way to when you right click & save or left
 > click & view -- in both cases, the browser retrieves the resource from the
 > server with the same commands and gets a local copy of the resource. When
 > you click "save", the browser chooses to do nothing and move the local
copy
 > to your indicated location. When you click "view" or "open", the browser
 > chooses to launch a PDF viewer on the local copy.
 >
 > In other words, IIS had to have served the PDF correctly if you were able
to
 > save it to your local drive. There may be something else running on your
 > local machine preventing PDF from being used.
 >
 > --
 > //David
 > IIS
 > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
 > //
 > "smorrissey" <smorrissey RemoveThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
 > news:AC4E6A83-2D67-4F09-B2E0-A8C3C0CF6F13@microsoft.com...
 > I'm running a website on SBS2003 that has many PDF files for downloading.
 > The
 > other day, PDF's stopped serving up correctly in users browsers. The first
 > time you try to view a PDF in IE, a blank window opens. If I click to
 > refresh
 > the window, the PDF loads fine. If I try to view the PDF in Firefox, it
 > won't
 > load at all. If I right click the link and save it to my local drive, then
 > open it from the browser, it works fine. So I believe something is wrong
 > with
 > the way my server is serving the PDF's. Where do I look to find out where
 > the
 > problem is ??
 >
 > Thanks,
 > Shawn Morrissey
 > Display Devices Inc.
 >
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: IIS won't serve PDF 

Thanks for your help David

Shawn



"David Wang [Msft]" wrote:

 > I don't have any more ideas.
 >
 > As I've stated, being able to save the PDF from the webserver is equivalent
 > to viewing the PDF (as far as the web server is concerned -- it does the
 > exact same thing for both). Since you said that saving the PDF works from
 > this server, problems cannot be coming from the web server's ability to
 > "serve" a PDF -- you just proved that it could serve the PDF.
 >
 > Thus, I have to think that the problem comes from viewing the PDF, which is
 > an independent action performed by the browser with no knowledge of the web
 > server.
 >
 > Maybe this web server (by its name) is in a different internet "Zone" than
 > others. This can cause browsers to behave differently when it comes to
 > viewing a downloaded PDF. You need to look at this sort of possibility.
 >
 > --
 > //David
 > IIS
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang</font" target="_blank">http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang</font</a>>
 > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 > //
 > "smorrissey" <smorrissey RemoveThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
 > news:45B158E1-27C4-49D7-8672-D07D11478D89@microsoft.com...
 > Hi David,
 >
 > Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, this problem affects all computers
 > trying to view PDF's from our server, not just a selected few. My local
 > computer will view any other PDF from any other website correctly; that's
 > why
 > I believe it's with our server. The only thing that's been changed on the
 > server recently was a hotfix for SMTP message length errors; I can't see how
 > that would affect the PDF serving, but I'll uninstall it just to see what
 > happens. If you have any more ideas, please let me know.
 >
 > thanks!!
 >
 > "David Wang [Msft]" wrote:
 >
  > > Your description does not indicate the problem is with the web server.
  > >
  > > The web server behaves the same way to when you right click & save or left
  > > click & view -- in both cases, the browser retrieves the resource from the
  > > server with the same commands and gets a local copy of the resource. When
  > > you click "save", the browser chooses to do nothing and move the local
 > copy
  > > to your indicated location. When you click "view" or "open", the browser
  > > chooses to launch a PDF viewer on the local copy.
  > >
  > > In other words, IIS had to have served the PDF correctly if you were able
 > to
  > > save it to your local drive. There may be something else running on your
  > > local machine preventing PDF from being used.
  > >
  > > --
  > > //David
  > > IIS
  > > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
 > rights.
  > > //
  > > "smorrissey" <smorrissey RemoveThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
  > > news:AC4E6A83-2D67-4F09-B2E0-A8C3C0CF6F13@microsoft.com...
  > > I'm running a website on SBS2003 that has many PDF files for downloading.
  > > The
  > > other day, PDF's stopped serving up correctly in users browsers. The first
  > > time you try to view a PDF in IE, a blank window opens. If I click to
  > > refresh
  > > the window, the PDF loads fine. If I try to view the PDF in Firefox, it
  > > won't
  > > load at all. If I right click the link and save it to my local drive, then
  > > open it from the browser, it works fine. So I believe something is wrong
  > > with
  > > the way my server is serving the PDF's. Where do I look to find out where
  > > the
  > > problem is ??
  > >
  > > Thanks,
  > > Shawn Morrissey
  > > Display Devices Inc.
  > >
  > >
  > >
 >
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: IIS won't serve PDF 

I think you should use Wfetch to diagnose this problem (it is part of a IIS
Resources Pack, just search for wfetch on the MS web site).

Check the answer from the server when you try to "GET" one of the PDFs.

Arnaud
 >> Stay informed about: IIS won't serve PDF 

"Arnaud Lesauvage" wrote:

 > I think you should use Wfetch to diagnose this problem (it is part of a IIS
 > Resources Pack, just search for wfetch on the MS web site).
 >
 > Check the answer from the server when you try to "GET" one of the PDFs.
 >
 > Arnaud
 > Thanks, Arnaud; I will try this out and see what results I get.

Shawn<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: IIS won't serve PDF 

Arnaud,

I ran Wfetch, and it appeared to run OK. I got several hundred lines of
gobbledegook, which I assume is the binary of the PDF file, but the beginning
of the wfetch output looks like this:

started....Reusing existing connection (source port 4338)\nREQUEST:
**************\nGET
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.displaydevices.com/install_instructions/at-pcm_install_inst.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.displaydevices.com/install_instructions/at-pcm_install_inst.pdf</a>
HTTP/1.1\r\n
Host: <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.displaydevices.com" target="_blank">www.displaydevices.com</a>\r\n
Accept: */*\r\n
\r\n
RESPONSE: **************\nHTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n
Content-Length: 408062\r\n
Content-Type: application/pdf\r\n
Last-Modified: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 17:41:14 GMT\r\n
Accept-Ranges: bytes\r\n
ETag: "099488d345c41:31aa"\r\n
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0\r\n
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET\r\n
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 22:05:15 GMT\r\n
\r\n
%PDF-1.4\r%Γπ╧╙\r\n

Do you know how to interpret any of this output??

Thanks,
Shawn Morrissey



"Arnaud Lesauvage" wrote:

 > I think you should use Wfetch to diagnose this problem (it is part of a IIS
 > Resources Pack, just search for wfetch on the MS web site).
 >
 > Check the answer from the server when you try to "GET" one of the PDFs.
 >
 > Arnaud
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: IIS won't serve PDF 

Maybe I missed something, but what is the problem?

The indications from this are that IIS served the PDF file just fine.

Paul

"smorrissey" <smorrissey.TakeThisOut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:18AA31B9-31A2-44ED-A32E-DF74E841A2B7@microsoft.com...
 > Arnaud,
 >
 > I ran Wfetch, and it appeared to run OK. I got several hundred lines of
 > gobbledegook, which I assume is the binary of the PDF file, but the
beginning
 > of the wfetch output looks like this:
 >
 > started....Reusing existing connection (source port 4338)\nREQUEST:
 > **************\nGET
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.displaydevices.com/install_instructions/at-pcm_install_inst.pdf</font" target="_blank">http://www.displaydevices.com/install_instructions/at-pcm_install_inst...f</f</a>>
 > HTTP/1.1\r\n
 > Host: <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.displaydevices.com" target="_blank">www.displaydevices.com</a>\r\n
 > Accept: */*\r\n
 > \r\n
 > RESPONSE: **************\nHTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n
 > Content-Length: 408062\r\n
 > Content-Type: application/pdf\r\n
 > Last-Modified: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 17:41:14 GMT\r\n
 > Accept-Ranges: bytes\r\n
 > ETag: "099488d345c41:31aa"\r\n
 > Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0\r\n
 > X-Powered-By: ASP.NET\r\n
 > Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 22:05:15 GMT\r\n
 > \r\n
 > %PDF-1.4\r%????\r\n
 >
 > Do you know how to interpret any of this output??
 >
 > Thanks,
 > Shawn Morrissey
 >
 >
 >
 > "Arnaud Lesauvage" wrote:
 >
  > > I think you should use Wfetch to diagnose this problem (it is part of a
IIS
  > > Resources Pack, just search for wfetch on the MS web site).
  > >
  > > Check the answer from the server when you try to "GET" one of the PDFs.
  > >
  > > Arnaud
  > >
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: IIS won't serve PDF 

On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 11:19:30 -0800, "smorrissey"
<smorrissey.RemoveThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

 >I'm running a website on SBS2003 that has many PDF files for downloading. The
 >other day, PDF's stopped serving up correctly in users browsers. The first
 >time you try to view a PDF in IE, a blank window opens. If I click to refresh
 >the window, the PDF loads fine. If I try to view the PDF in Firefox, it won't
 >load at all. If I right click the link and save it to my local drive, then
 >open it from the browser, it works fine. So I believe something is wrong with
 >the way my server is serving the PDF's. Where do I look to find out where the
 >problem is ??

Dumb question, but is it possible Acrobat has found an update
available and popped up that annoying "Update Available, would you
like to install it now?" box, only behind your window? Happens to my
users way too often. Answetr the question and the PDF displays.

Jeff<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: IIS won't serve PDF