kenberg Posted February 4, 2008 Report Share Posted February 4, 2008 Hi, I have been on BBO, trouble free, for quite a while but recently there is a problem. If I go to the "Review Hands Played on BBO" or the "Results of Recent Tournaments" I cannot get through directly. If I go to the tournaments, then to ACBL tournaments, then click on one of the tournaments under title, I find "Your current security settings do not allow this file to be downloaded". Similarly, if I go to Review Hands, a click brings up a message "One or more ActiveX controls could not be displayed because either 1. Your current security settings prohibit the running of ActiveX controls on this page or, 2. You have blocked a publisher of one of the controls. I have been able to work around this. BBO seems to send my request for hands through Explorer. My default browser is Firefox. If I copy the web address http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/hands...715-1202130000- from the tourney hands site and paste it into Firefox then I can get tourney hands. Similarly I somehow found http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/hands...time=1202101200 which, after pasting into firefox, gets me to my hands. So it seems to be that Explorer has taken it upon itself to provide me with security I haven't asked for. I have tried reading up on ActiveX controls but it's heavy going. I just want to use the software, not train for a second career in IT. Any help you can give would be appreciated. Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keylime Posted February 4, 2008 Report Share Posted February 4, 2008 Ken, Try adding the BBO Flash site as a trusted site in IE. That may help you get around the dawdling IE security issue. To do so, enter Internet Options, Security, Trusted Site. Paste the link of the site into the field, deselect https authentication, hit OK, and then hit apply/ok. I made some screenshots if you need them. Let me know how this works out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted February 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2008 Not so good so far. I am having a little trouble following what is happening. Explorer insists that I use https instead of http when I list a trusted site. It will not list an http site as trusted. So I now have both https://bridgebase.com and https://bbo.com as trusted sites. This doesn't work. I tried lowering the security settings from the default of medium to the lowest setting. Still doesn't work so I assume that isn't the way to go (so I set the security back to medium). Possibly it's the http versus https business? If I paste the https address into Firefox it just ignores the s and tales me to the http [OOPS, sorry, Firefox does not do that, it insists I delete the s]. So I gather that bbo does not incorporate the s, that Firefox doesn't mind, but perhaps Explorer decides that "no s, no download"? There is a more general security issue that I have beyond this, and maybe I need to learn something about all these issues. Basically I use McAfee but I added on Windows Live OneCare (quite a while back) and these two programs perhaps need a peace negotiator to help them coexist peacefully. I don't think their quarrels are part of the current problem however because this current problem is much more recent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helene_t Posted February 4, 2008 Report Share Posted February 4, 2008 https is different from http. It uses a different port (by default) and a different protocol. Some sites allow both protocols but in general you cannot talk https to an http server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted February 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2008 Is it possible to do the following: Could I tell BBO software, or my computer, that I wish to bypass Explorer and use Firefox? Firefox is my default browser and so if I open a site it opens there. But for some reason when I am on BBO and try to get the mentioned downloads (played hands and tournament hands) the stuff seems to bring up Explorer (and then refuse to work). I wish to have neutral status in the various browser wars, but I would like to be able to download the hands with a minimum of fuss. If Ff will do it and Explorer won't, well, maybe I can direct the site to Ff? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keylime Posted February 4, 2008 Report Share Posted February 4, 2008 Ken, Conceptually, in Program Access and Defaults if memory serves, you can force Firefox to be the default browser. That, and I'm trying to remember if there's a way to modify the bboover.ini file analogous to us Linux users to help you out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted February 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 Firefox already is the default browser. I don't want to get ideological but this has the earmarks of Microsoft pushiness. Most all clicks on sites lead me through Firefox, but on occasion it seems I get stuck with Explorer. Usually this is just annoying but in this case it prevents me from getting the download I want. Somehow I have to either get Explorer to accept a download from BBO or else get BBO to channel through Firefox. I'm surprised if I am the only one with this problem. As far as I know, I have done nothing unusual. If I figure it out (I don't have the time right now for a lot of attention to this), I'll post the solution. Thanks,Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finally17 Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 THIS POST ROCKS, because in helping solve your problem, keylime helped resolve an annoyance I have had for some time. I fairly often accidentally hit the "help" button, and while I can't disable it, I am constantly annoyed that it insists on using IE for this despite my global settings, but NO MORE! If you want to force BBO to use Firefox for this, navigate to the following file and open it in a text editor: c:\Bridge Base Online\bbover.ini You will find the following: [NETWORK]ServerHostName1=bbo.bridgebase.comServerIPAddress1=69.93.3.164ServerPort1=9999[sYSTEM]LINUX_WINE=NBROWSER_TYPE=C[uPGRADE]WIP=N In the line "BROWSER_TYPE=C", change the C to an E for "External." If you had BBO open, close it and restart it now. Now BBO will use your default browser (Firefox) for these features. Because BBO is made to interface with IE, it won't be able to use these windows inside BBO like it did before. Instead it will open Firefox (or a new tab in FF depending on your settings) and run from there. But it should work now, and in FF. It wasn't really Microsoft pushiness. It seems like it was due to the ability to integrate IE into the BBO software. It might be possible to do this for FF as well, but this would take a lot of extra effort when basically everyone already has IE even if they don't use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted February 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 I'll be damned, it works!!! Thank you finally17 Ken (aka finally69) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finally17 Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 np aaron (29, not 17, never shoulda chosen that) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted February 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 np aaron (29, not 17, never shoulda chosen that) I thought of it as a dramatic reaching across generations. Anyway, I appreciate it. I can guarantee you that it never would have occurred to me to go into that file and change E to O. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keylime Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 Clean living works everytime. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finally17 Posted February 6, 2008 Report Share Posted February 6, 2008 np aaron (29, not 17, never shoulda chosen that) I thought of it as a dramatic reaching across generations. Anyway, I appreciate it. I can guarantee you that it never would have occurred to me to go into that file and change E to O. Keylime's comment allowed me to discover the browser setting in the .ini (I'm not sure what ini stands for, but those files are generally for certain types of user defined settings), combined with a bit of googling to discover the appropriate setting... Like I said, it made me happy too. I had been too lazy to go looking before, but the comment was pointed enough...It really annoyed me every time IE started up because i accidentally clicked "help". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finally17 Posted March 6, 2008 Report Share Posted March 6, 2008 Ok, in case anyone reads this and tries to implement it, I just discovered an odd effect. Apparently BBO is also using your browser for its "Help me find a game" option, so if you make the change I mention it will open this window in Firefox as well. Once you make your choice you're still routed correctly in BBO, but just sos ya know... I rarely use this option, was going to do some breakfast kibitzing just now when I realized it...I imagine there are other odd effects too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HedyG Posted March 6, 2008 Report Share Posted March 6, 2008 this might be too simple, but why dont you just add http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/index.phpto you favorites in firefox and look for your boards from there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 Explorer insists that I use https instead of http when I list a trusted site. It will not list an http site as trusted. So I now have both https://bridgebase.com and https://bbo.com as trusted sites. This doesn't work. I tried lowering the security settings from the default of medium to the lowest setting. Still doesn't work so I assume that isn't the way to go (so I set the security back to medium). Is this Vista? Not sure of the security options there. Microsoft made their own mess and it's not clear whether they fixed it or made it worse (I stopped using Vista over a year ago, postponing to the day they literally forced me there). You can easily add http:// sites into your trusted list by unchecking the box in the screen you refer to. I am a firefox user but I don't disable IE for the purpose of logging onto BBO. Just make sure you don't add anything http:// (as opposed to https) to the trusted zone. Clear? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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