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Motox795

Nov 8 2004, 04:46 PM

Hello

I have a user that views my web site and confirms that McAfee parental controls keeps my menus from showing on his computer. If he disables the parental controls the menus work fine. It appears that the iemenu.js (and probably the nsmenu.js) files are not loading into the browsers cache.
For those not familiar with McAfee parental controls click HERE.

McAfee technical support argued with me for over an hour with two different technicians that the end user must add my web site to the "allowed" domains. They don't understand if a user wanted to browse my web site they would never know the menus were there so why would they add my domain to the allowed list.

I have other JavaScript that runs fine on the users browser but those don't depend on an external .js file like the menus do. He has confirmed this problem on Internet Explorer 6 and FireFox.

Have any of you or your users experienced this problem?

People running McAfee parental controls wouldn't complain since they don't know the menus are there to start with.

I'm open to ideas. ???

xfx

Nov 8 2004, 10:04 PM

Motox795,

I have also had quite long conversations with the "support" team at McAfee and Symantec due to the intrusive techniques that they use to "protect" the users from malicious code.

Preventing a web page from loading an external .js file does not protect any user from anything. I honestly don't know how companies such as these can get away selling such tools.

My position is that it is our duty (by "we" I mean the webmasters/developers) to educate the end user.
I have NEVER used an antivirus, or any other tool that could try to protect me from any malicious program, activity or third party.
You just need to know what you're doing... I could go on and on about this infuriating topic; but I won't.

The only thing I can recommend you is that you try to provide an alternative (non .js-based) navigation.
If you’re using a toolbar provided by DHTML Menu Builder you could try creating a standard (HTML-based) menu bar and place it right below DMB’s toolbar.
The HTML toolbar will remain invisible (covered by DMB’s menus) as long as the browser can load the .js files. Then, when the browser cannot load the menus your HTML-based toolbar will become visible.
Here’re two working samples demonstrating this technique:
http://xfx.servehttp.com/dmb/DMBMenus-HTMLMenus/index.htm
http://xfx.servehttp.com/dmb/nojs/

Hywel

Nov 9 2004, 07:39 AM

Is McAfee blocking by file extension, or is it looking at the code? Does the web page have the reference to the iemenu.js or has McAfee removed it?

If the script element is still in the downloaded page, I'd try changing the iemenu.js to iemenu.php, and reference it as such in the script element.

I'm with Xavier on this. Companies such as Microsoft, McAfee, et al make it so difficult to maintain a Windows-based development environment. With XPSP2, if I disable the built-in firewall I get a constant warning triangle. Same for automatic updates. Where did my choice go?

Motox795

Nov 9 2004, 10:15 AM

Xavier
Thanks for the tips on hiding an HTML menu behind the DHTML version.

Hywel
I don't know if they are blocking the .js file or looking at the code. I don't have that program. I'm going by information from the end user. I'll have to do some more research with the end user.

Thanks for all your thoughts!

xfx

Nov 9 2004, 04:28 PM

QUOTE

With XPSP2, if I disable the built-in firewall I get a constant warning triangle. Same for automatic updates. Where did my choice go?

You can actually disable this annoying notification:

Go to "Control Panel"
Double click the "Security Center" icon
Click on the "Change the way Security Center alerts me" link on the left section
Uncheck the options for the items that you don't want to be notified for...

xfx

Nov 9 2004, 04:31 PM

QUOTE

Is McAfee blocking by file extension, or is it looking at the code? Does the web page have the reference to the iemenu.js or has McAfee removed it?

I don't know.
Some products remove the reference (but not because of the file extension but because of the tag that is loading the file).
Some disable the javascript engine in IE.
And some insert code of their own into the page to disable javascript functions.

All of them are intrusive and end doing as much harm as the viruses themselves!

Motox795

Nov 18 2004, 08:43 AM

Here is some more information for what it's worth....

The person that reported to me that my menus were not working because of the McAfee parental controls has found a menu system with external .js menu files that load properly with the parental controls turned on.
Here is a site running that menu system.
http://www.pbrr4x4.com/

I'm not a Java guru so I don't know why those menus with the external .js files load and ours do not.

Not a big deal.
Just thought I'd pass along some additional information.

Hywel

Nov 18 2004, 09:31 AM

Ask your visitor to try your site and to send you the source code their browser receives. Upload that code here for us to see. I'm interested in seeing what sort of butchering McAfee does to the code.

Motox795

Nov 20 2004, 06:06 PM

Here is a snipit of code when the menus load normally and where McAfee parental controls strips some of the code.

Normal HTML where the menus load:

CODE

<div id=DMBRI style="position:absolute;">
<img src="../images/dmb_i.gif" name=DMBImgFiles width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="">
<img src="dmb_m.gif" name=DMBJSCode width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="">
</div>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">

Code where McAfee strips some of the code:

CODE

<div id=DMBRI style="position:absolute;">

</div>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">

You can see that this part is missing from the HTML that McAfee parental Controls strips.

CODE

That's the only place where I see any changes to the HTML on the page.

Does this help?

xfx

Nov 23 2004, 01:19 PM

How weird... I wonder why McAfee is removing those images!
Perhaps it thinks is some hidden banner.

In any case, here's a solution:

1) Create a configuration of type remote
1.1) Click File->Project Properties->Configurations
1.2) Click Options->Add
1.3) Type a name for your new config (something like "fix for annoying issue with McAfee" or anything else you want)
1.4) Select "Remote" from the "Type" list
1.5) Click OK
1.6) Fill in the three paths: "Web Server Root" (that's your domain name), "Path to the compiled files" (that's the absolute path to your .js files... something like /menus/) and finally the "Path to the images" (that's the path to the images used by your menus... somethign like /menus/images/)
1.7) Click Options->Set As Default
1.8) Click OK
2) Click Tools->Compile
3) Click Tools->Install Menus and update the loader code on all the documents that require it

Please, let me know if this solves the problem.

Motox795

Dec 22 2004, 11:20 AM

I tried the suggestion above and lost all my menus.
Maybe I did something wrong.
When you say "Create a configuration of type remote" can I make those changes and view them on my local computer or do I have to upload them to the web site for proper operation? I'm not sure what "type remote" actually does.
I'll give it another try and post the results.

Mean time.... I had the person using the Mcafee Parental Controls go to the DHTML menu sample web page linked below to see what results he gets from that page.
http://software.xfx.net/utilities/dmbuilde...ples/index.html

He reported that he gets no menus and an error pop-up message. I'll attach his screen shot for you to look at.
Does this give you any more information about the behavior of McAfee Parental Controls?

Thanks for your help!

xfx

Dec 26 2004, 12:06 PM

John,

You're correct. When working with a configuration of type "remote" the menus will only work when viewed from a web server. Opening an HTML document directly off your hard disk with a browser will not work with the menus.

This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.