This computer problem was brought to my attention and I thought I would post it on Mustech.net to see if any of you SUPER TECH SAVVY people out there could shed some light on this problem…. and help all of us with a working solution within the context of how we are trying to get this resolved.
The problem:
If you have a Tablet PC, and XP (or Vista), and have tried to access NBC.com with IE7 (Internet Explorer -I’m not sure about version 6 or prior), you get the following typical, bland, message: Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
This is only interesting because it WILL open with Opera, Firefox, and other browsers on the tablet PC. To further compound the issue, it will open fine in any of the other XP or VISTA, non-tablet, PC editions/computers.
The problem seems to be materialized only with the tablet PC and IE combination when going to the site www.nbc.com. I have not find this anomaly anywhere else. Are any of you experiencing this phenomenon with any other sites?
Now, before anyone goes off rambling and posting here on a hundred reasons not to use IE7, Microsoft, tablet PCs, etc… I am looking SPECIFICALLY for solutions that take into consideration this scenario only. The definitive solution at this point, as far as I can tell, is to use a standards compliant browser… but this doesn’t resolve the curiosity as to why this doesn’t work at all in IE7 and the curious webpage not found issue without any clue as to THE WHY…
I have replicated this problem on multiple tablet PCs from different locations and can confirm this to be a problem.
Here is some troubleshooting information:
- The IP address of NBC.com is 64.210.192.67
- Entering the IP address into the browser also results in the same problem. I can successfully ping and tracert to the above IP Address.
- I have cleared all the cache information, flushed all the dns information, added the IP address to a hosts file, and disabled all add-ons and extensions from IE7 and still cannot access the site.
- The address WILL open in Firefox and Opera
- NBC.com has failed to respond to any inquiries about this as of yet
Very little information about this problem is found on the web without serious manipulations of keyword searches but I have found others having this same issue. This confirms that this exact problem is more widespread then just a local issue with me and my immediate computer environment(s) and will most likely will be coming to other peoples attention in the near future (You’re here right?.
The following are some sites talking about this issue, at this point with no resolution either:
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/139782-what-vista-ie7-can-t-pull-up-nbc-com-2.html
http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=921856
http://help.wugnet.com/vista/Vista-IE7-pull-nbcftopic-113307-days0-orderasc-8.html
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general&tid=89d7f3ed-a2f0-4298-9a41-87541d716a08&cat=en_US_9b42b613-dfee-4b99-9378-839a15bef262&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=&p=1
Please let me know if you have had/are having this experience and anything you’ve done to try and resolve the situation by commenting below.
Best regards,
I just (re-)ran into this problem on my wife’s tablet running XP. I thought to download the latest firefox and try it in there, and I get this message (www.nbci.com works fine in both browsers):
Problem Loading Page
The page isn’t redirecting properly
Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.
* This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept
cookies.
I am running into the exact same issue. I do not have a tablet PC, but there is a Wacom Intuos tablet being used with the machine.
It appears that it is not only the tablets that are being affected, but something in the tablet technology that is creating this issue. Interesting…
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE – if you know of any solution, post it here! Thanks!
I just found this solution for those that can’t log on to nbc.com. Go to nbci.com and this site works! It appears to be the same site, so I am assuming that this is the international site. I compared it to the NBC site on my husband’s computer and everything matches up perfectly!
OMG I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! Yes-it worked!! Finally! It was so infuriating not knowing what was wrong. I was about to go on a downloading binge of possible missing programs or updates. That is not good b/c I am far froma pro.LOL anyway, You rock Joseph! Thanks for putting the ? out there.
They’ve yet to fix this….
I did a TCP trace and found several redirections that ultimately result in “Page Not Found.” From what I can tell, it looks like their main site is not handling the User-Agent header generated by XP Tablet Ed. and Vista. I’m not sure what part of the header is the issue, but nbc.com thinks it’s a mobile device, and redirects to the mobile version of the site. However, the mobile site *does* handle the User-Agent properly and bounces back. This goes on for a little while until IE gives up.
My wife just ran into this as well.
I have been running into this problem for quite some time now. I am on an IBM tablet, running XP and have found that nbc.com will not load on either IE or firefox. nbci.com will load just fine on both as Keith said; however any attempt to navigate away from the homepage brings us back to the initial problem because all of their links revert back to nbc.
I’ve found that if you take the time to type out the url for the link and add the i after nbc, it will work. Kind of a pain, but until they take the time to actually fix it it’s an alternative
same problem here. nice to see I’m not alone. safari works fine but IE7 is no good on my tablet.
Yes, you can access http://www.nbci.com, but if you go to actually watch video or access anything that resides on the nbc.com site, you end up with the same error message. Very frustrating.
yup, Vista ultimate same problem.
The tablet version of xp and vista install a custom user-agent for IE that makes nbc.com think it’s a mobile device. http://www.nbc.com is forwarding tablets to nbc.starcut.us, which is a wap compatible version of http://www.nbc.com for mobile devices.
This is a band-aid but remove the following registry key, delete the IE cache, and close all browsers and http://www.nbc.com starts working again.
HKLM>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>Internet Settings>5.0>User Agent>Post Platform>Tablet PC 2.0
What an annoying problem, thought I was going crazy but confirmed the trend with several tablets in our office so confirmed it was a tablet issue but wasn’t sure what was causing the problem. It didn’t help that there have been other mouse jumping issues with the tablets so was beginning to question the system.
I did as Dave (post 11) suggested and deleted the registry key and I can now open nbc.com no problem! Hopefully no new problems arise.
Hey guys, great work! I can confirm that Dave Post Solution works!
J. Pisano
i dont understand dave’s post at all. can someone futher explain it?
I have the problem with the Wacom tablet installed on my system, but I don’t find the registry key as referenced above. Anyone know of the registry key to remove if you no longer need to run the Wacom tablet. I previously uninstalled the Wacom application but apparently the registry key remained.
Thank you!!! I have been having this problem for a few weeks and when I switched to Firefox; it didn’t work at first then I went to Tools – Clear Private Data it worked.
The NBC problem happenend after I added Vista SP1.
This sucks. The tablet was so awesome until nbc.com decided not to work on it. Guess I have to watch more abc, cbs, and fox. Those seem to work just fine and have plenty of entertaining shows. I love How I Met Your Mother now!
Tried Dave’s registry removal sugestion in Post #11. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in my case. Also, after a reboot, the previously removed registry entry reappears. Even if I don’t reboot and confirm the entry is gone, remove cache setting from IE, close browsers and restart IE, I still can’t get to the site. FireFox can get to NBC.Com (after Tools->Clear Private Data – thanks Marie in Post #16). So, looks like I’ll keep FireFox installed just for NBC.Com but I’m sure some others would suggest it’s the better browser anyway.
Cheers,
Wired
HKEY>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>Internet Settings>5.0>User Agent>Post Platform>Tablet PC 2.0
Deleting this worked after an IE restart.
Very cool.
I wrote on 8/14 (Post 18):
Tried Dave’s registry removal sugestion in Post #11. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in my case
===============
Well, I got it to work with Dave’s suggestion and this gets stranger all the time. Here’s the order I did things: 1)Cleared file cache in IE. 2)Closed IE. 3)With IE closed, went to regedit and deleted the entry. 4)Invoked IE and NBC.com WORKS! 4)Rebooted – the previously deleted entry is back BUT… IE is still able to get to NBC.com. WEIRD! Thanks again for the registry deletion help as this solved the problem even if I don’t fully understand it.
Found a similiar situation with the website for Philadelphia’s two major newspapers – http://www.philly.com.
The URL directs me to the mobile version unless I remove the “Tablet PC 2.0” entry. Remove the entry, clear the IE cache, retart it and try the URL again and now the normal site appears.
No such problem using Firefox so I’ll be keeping Firefox around to handle sites that behave this way on my Tablet.
BTW, after a re-boot of my Tablet, the problem re-appears so the removal is only good until the next reboot.
I’m having this problem on my desktop pc running XP sp2 and IE 7.0….its super annoying…every other URL resolves. FF 3 doesn”t even work.
what is the registration key, and where do i find it to delete it?!
thanks guys
Thanks a lot. I was having the same problem on my Lenovo X61 Tablet with Vista Ultimate SP1 and it was very bizarre because google chrome could resolve it without any issues.
If you copy the following text below the line into a file called “RemoveUserAgent.reg” and save it, you can then double-click on the file and it will remove the key as described above. Don’t forget to clear the cache and restart IE like everyone else says.
———————————————–
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform]
“Tablet PC 2.0″=-
I’ve been having the same issue on my vista ultimate desktop pc. I’ve tried the above steps, but it doesn’t resolve the issue. I assume be deleting the file cache you mean delete the temporary internet files. Deleted Tablet PC 2.0 from the registry location above and rebooted my pc. The registry entry has not returned, but I’m still unable to get to NBC.com on this pc. Any more ideas?
I also have a Wacom Tablet for use on my Desktop PC. When installed, the tablet pc functionality is enabled within vista.
I’ve had this same problem too – I downloaded Google’s Chrome – the nbc site works like a charm – no problems whatsoever! I was finally able to catch up with all the episodes from hero. go google chrome!
I designed a website for my friends ( http://trip1610am.com/ ) using Joomla with mootools and encountered this very same problem. I temporarily resolved the issue by sacrificing the videos and rotating images plugin but I would like to know if there’s a solution that do not involve disabling the plugins that we need. Is NBC running on joomla?
I was having the same problem. I thought that it was the NBC site until I finally did a search and found this. I have a Dell PC with Vista SP 1 and Wacom Bamboo Tablet. I never in a million years would have imagined that the tablet was causing the problem. I did as suggested and removed the registry entry and voila! I have nbc.com again!! Thanks for posting this info, it was so helpful! Now I can watch my shows I have missed over the last two days because of my satellite being out. =0)
I also have the same problem with NBC… but i also haven’t been able to access the pier1.com site for the store pier 1 imports. Does anyone else have the same problem with that site?
I’m going to try the google chrome thing. I have the hp tx 1000 tablet and windows vista.
So this is clearly a problem with NBC and all those sites that do not correctly implement and test for the “Tablet PC 2.0” user agent.
I am experiencing the nbc.com issue with I.E. 7/VISTA on an HP tx2000 Tablet PC. Is anyone aware of a “reasonable” solution?
Thanks
I am experiencing this with a Vista Home Premium desktop that does not have the Tablet PC 2.0 entry in the registry location from post #11.
Anyone have this issue and perhaps a fix?
Thx.
Thanks so much to #3 Delilah!! I have been going insane trying to get online to see my shows while at work. (i actually thought my boss blocked it, HAHA) the http://www.nbci.com works PERFECTLY. Hooray!
[…] "cannot display the webpage" opening a vaid webpage The solution…. https://mustech.net/2008/04/10/an-int…and-tablet-pcs Cheers, Doug "Robert Aldwinckle" wrote: > "Pete" <Pete> wrote in […]
I’ve been having this same issue, but this is not a tablet PC, nor are there any tablets installed. I also do not have the “Tablet PC” entry in the registry key thats been discussed here. I’ve searched through my registry looking for anything of this nature, and no luck.
I thought I’d post my user agent string to see if anyone had any ideas…
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; GTB5; SLCC1; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Creative AutoUpdate v1.10.10)
Thoughts?
nbci.com works until I click on any of the links on the home page and then it sends me to nbci.com again!
does anyone know if changing the registry affects any other site. I do not go into the registry unless there is NO OTHER POSSIBLE solution.
I am running a tablet pc but I have another tablet running the same software and there is no problem. I have deleted all history, cookies, etc but am still being sent to m.nbc.com. Run virus checking and windows defender still going to m.nbc.com
BTW, this does not appear to be an NBC specific problem. I’ve seen reports of this happening with pier1 (not a problem for me) and ebay (not a problem for me) So there seems to be a setting or cookie or something causing the problem.
It is driving me crazy. Does anyone have any other ideas, besides fooling around in the registry?
UGH! This has been driving me nuts… so glad there are technologically astute folks out there who are coming up with solutions until NBCs folks can get it fixed. The registry thing seemed a bit too complicated for me. Downloaded Google Chrome and I’m in like Flynn!
This problem is now happening in Firefox now. i have windows xp installed and it used to work with Firefox. Now it doesn’t, neither does internet explorer. this is very frustrating and annoying that it has not been fixed yet.
ok i cleared all the cookies and stuff in firefox and now it works.
Hey. I don’t even have the registry thingie on my computer still when I try to visit ebay.com or bink.nu I get to their mobile sites. Any other suggestions on what I can try cause I really don’t want to use FF =(
Solution to “can’t view http://www.nbc.com” shows using IE7
Do the following:
Go to Tools -> Internet Options -> General Tab -> Browsing History-> Delete-> Delete All
Next, Go To -> Content Tab -> Clear SSL State
Next, Go To-> Connections and verify that it is all clear if you are using high speed internet (not dial up), the check the LAN Settings and make sure that is clear as well.
Next, Go To-> Advanced Tab-> Select Restore Advance settings -> then select Reset. When this is complete “uncheck Enable third party browser extensions”. Ok and restart IE7
This whole process bring IE7 back to its orginal state. When opening up IE7 you will need to do “runonce” and should be all set. This DOES NOT Delete you Favorites, but does delete everything else.
Now you can watch http://WWW.NBC.COM and access other web sites that were directing you to mobile.
I advise Not to go into the registry if you are not a Computer Tech person.
Good Luck