"Search Category" issue...

[Waterskier1]

Ok, thanks to someone who PMed me a different thread, I have found the problem. It appears that it is NOT browser dependent, rather, in my and many other's case, Norton's is blocking anandTech from obtaining information about sites we have visited. If you enable (permit) anandtech to obtain information about which sites you have visited, then the search function works. Apperantly, the error is caused by not being able to obtain the info on visited sites. This requirement started this past weekend. I'm not sure if Jason implemented it in his updated search function on purpose, or by accident, or if some other software changed about the same time, but now to search, you must enable anandtech to get info from your browser on visited sites. I think this is an invasion of privacy. There is no reason they should require it, and I haven't checked their privacy statement, to see how they are using it.

Jason, was this done by you or by Anandtech? Was it accidental or intentional??

 

[zeroidea]

I narrowed my Firefox problem down to whether or not the browser reports Referer information - which I suspect is the "information about visited sites" that Norton blocks access to.

When visiting a webpage, the referer (sic) or referring page is the URL of the previous webpage from which a link was followed... Some proxy and firewall software will also block referers, to avoid leaking the location of non-public websites. This can in turn cause problems: some servers block parts of their site to browsers that don't send the right referer information, in an attempt to prevent deep linking or unauthorised use of images.

The REFERER only 'reveals' a single site, and because the AT forums are generally accessed via bookmark, the AT mainpage, or from within the forums themselves, the REFERER information will likely be AT itself, not an external site, much less a whole history of visited sites.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: Waterskier1
Ok, thanks to someone who PMed me a different thread, I have found the problem. It appears that it is NOT browser dependent, rather, in my and many other's case, Norton's is blocking anandTech from obtaining information about sites we have visited. If you enable (permit) anandtech to obtain information about which sites you have visited, then the search function works. Apperantly, the error is caused by not being able to obtain the info on visited sites. This requirement started this past weekend. I'm not sure if Jason implemented it in his updated search function on purpose, or by accident, or if some other software changed about the same time, but now to search, you must enable anandtech to get info from your browser on visited sites. I think this is an invasion of privacy. There is no reason they should require it, and I haven't checked their privacy statement, to see how they are using it.

Jason, was this done by you or by Anandtech? Was it accidental or intentional??

Where is that setting Waterskier1?

 

[Waterskier1]

Open Symantec Client Firewall, then click on Privacy Control. On the right pane, click on Configure. In the window that pops up, Click on Advanced near the bottom right. Another pop up is displayed. Click Add Site at the bottom left, and and "anandtech.com" to the list. Then, navigate to the anandtech.com entry, and change the Global Setting to Permit under the "Information about visited sites". The click Save/OK to get exit all the popups, and you should then be able to send Anandtech the list of sites (I don't know how big/many sites) and then they will in return perform the requested search. Hope this helps.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: Waterskier1
Open Symantec Client Firewall, then click on Privacy Control. On the right pane, click on Configure. In the window that pops up, Click on Advanced near the bottom right. Another pop up is displayed. Click Add Site at the bottom left, and and "anandtech.com" to the list. Then, navigate to the anandtech.com entry, and change the Global Setting to Permit under the "Information about visited sites". The click Save/OK to get exit all the popups, and you should then be able to send Anandtech the list of sites (I don't know how big/many sites) and then they will in return perform the requested search. Hope this helps.

I :heart: you!

Cheers & thanks Waterskier1 :beer:

 

[Jason Clark]

These firewalls are getting more and more ridiculous every day. What's happening is its nulling out the cgi request vars, nice symantec real nice.

 

[Waterskier1]

Let me make this clear. This is nothing new from Symantec, but a change that occured at this Forum, last weekend. Please don't blame Symantec for a change you implemented, which they won't pass.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: Waterskier1
Let me make this clear. This is nothing new from Symantec, but a change that occured at this Forum, last weekend. Please don't blame Symantec for a change you implemented, which they won't pass.

The Symantec software cancels the transmission of certain variables Sometimes you need to send variables to get things done. That's the way the interactive intarweb works. It needs to be able to get data out of the client systems - PERIOD. There's no getting around that.

 

[Waterskier1]

While what EyeMWing says may be true, my comment was directed at the fact that the requirement for transfer of variables seems to have occured only after that Saturday's Search Update, since I've been running this same software on 8 computers, all of which the Search function worked fine, until the Search Update. Therefore Anandtech, knowingly or unknowningly, had changed something.