Blogs-About Hosting Black Boxes

by La Shawn on May 7, 2005

in General

Most excellent news: Bonnie at Reading, Writing and Ranting was having trouble viewing my site. She was seeing an unformatted page and my host’s hotlinking message in place of images. Reader DoubleU provided a fix. Click “more” to find out what it is. Congratulations, Bonnie!
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Are you seeing black boxes in place of images? I contacted my host, who’s looking into the problem. Hotlinking is disabled, and you’re only supposed to see the boxes on a different site if someone links directly to the image from my site. Images on my own site should be visible. I’m seeing the images OK, and so are many others.

If clearing your cache and refreshing the browser doesn’t work, I’m stumped. My hosts says: “My first response is that it is something on the users side. I have a few ideas that have to do with users blocking the http referrer from being sent from their browsers (security against site tracking etc) which will cause them to see the black images.”

Developing…

Update (5/8): A commenter wrote: “Because Blogger doesn’t host images, and because new bloggers may not yet know how to get that easily accomplished…and given the general spirit of growth re the internet is info (maybe even picture) sharing, might you consider a magnanimous gesture of again opening up your pics for inclusion into smaller blog pages…”

If you want to post pictures on your site from another site, all you need to do is right click on the image and “Save image as.” Save it to your hard drive. You can upload the image from your hard drive to your site. I was on Blogger for about six months, and I uploaded pictures this way all the time. Then again, things may have changed since the last time I used Blogger.

About the black boxes, a commenter has a suggestion: “If you are running a firewall your firewall could be the cause of the problem. I knew this was NOT a cache problem. I tried FireFox, Internet Explorer and Opera browser all with the same problem….If you are using ZoneAlarm, go to the site setting for lashawnbarber.com and turn off “Remove Private Headers Information” under third party cookies. (in the cookies section) For some reason this website is tied to another website for its information. You need to pass your browsing information to a third website for Lashawn’s website to work.”

{ 1 trackback }

Don Singleton
05.08.05 at 12:56 pm

{ 21 comments }

Bonnie 05.08.05 at 1:11 am

I’m not only seeing the black boxes (there’s a huge one at the top of the comment box, for example) but your entire page formatting is gone. Only the black boxes, plain type, and links remain.

Bonnie 05.08.05 at 1:12 am

Addendum: I saw your site perfectly well until two days ago, and I hadn’t changed anything before then.

DoubleU 05.08.05 at 5:03 am

If you are running a firewall your firewall could be the cause of the problem. I knew this was NOT a cache problem. I tried FireFox, Internet Explorer and Opera browser all with the same problem.

If you are using ZoneAlarm, goto the site setting for lashawnbarber.com and turn off “Remove Private Headers Information” under third party cookies. (in the cookies section) For some reason this website is tied to another website for its information. You need to pass your browsing information to a third website for Lashawn’s website to work.

DoubleU 05.08.05 at 6:26 am

You also might want to check out:
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A//lashawnbarber.com/
to validate your site.

IndyChristian 05.08.05 at 7:38 am

La Shawn… Because Blogger doesn’t host images, and because new bloggers may not yet know how to get that easily accomplished… and given the general spirit of growth re the internet is info (maybe even picture) sharing, might you consider a magnanimous gesture of again opening up your pics for inclusion into smaller blog pages (which probably don’t have heavy traffic anyway)?

Mustang 23 05.08.05 at 9:15 am

it IS a firewall problem. I see only text and black squares when my fire wall is on. when the anti hotlinker runs into the fire wall it thinks I am hotlinking when I am not.

DoubleU 05.08.05 at 9:51 am

Depending on your browser or firewall you need to adjust your “reference logging”, or your “Private Header” information.

When the site’s blocking of images (hotlinking of images) is turned on and the visitor’s browser/firewall doesn’t pass your information to the site, the site assumes you are viewing the pictures on another site and not the site they are hosted on, so it doesn’t allow you to see the images.

DoubleU 05.08.05 at 9:59 am

..Lashawn, I read your “update” I am not just a commenter, I am “DoubleU” :)

Ian 05.08.05 at 10:14 am

What La Shawn is talking about – is called “hotlinking”. Hotlinking is when you are too lazy to save the image, upload it to your server, and display the image. Whilst doing this you are taking away La Shawn’s bandwidth. Not cool.

Kim 05.08.05 at 10:21 am

LaShawn, Blogger still works that way. I use Blogger, and I always right-click and save as, then upload the image to my server. :-)

You could just disable right-clicking on your site – some of the blogs on my blogroll do that – if people insist on stealing your bandwidth.

DoubleU 05.08.05 at 11:02 am

Kim, there is a very easy work around for disabling right clicking. The code small code to stop right clicking takes up more space and time then the work around does.

Dave in AZ 05.08.05 at 11:14 am

LaShawn,
I’m just a regular reader and occasional commenter with minimal computer knowledge (ie; turn it on – click the mouse). I now see exactly what Bonnie (comment #1) sees (black boxes, none of your page format/colors, or your pretty smiling face). Help!

Dave in AZ 05.08.05 at 11:28 am

I forgot to add one more possible clue; all other blogs I go to are ok so I’ve assumed the problem is not my computer.

Don Singleton 05.08.05 at 12:46 pm

It is a firewall problem, specifically a firewall (like ZoneAlarmPro) that blocks private headers.

See http://bushsupporter.org/zap/zap.htm for how to fix the problem

Sepialove 05.08.05 at 6:05 pm

Thank you Double U!

My ZA was indeed causing the problem. Now I can see the page like it should look.

Merci Beaucoup!

Sepia ;-)

Bonnie 05.08.05 at 6:40 pm

All this is informative, but I’m not running ZoneAlarm Pro. I have Windows Firewall and Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Virus AutoProtect. Any ideas on how to fiddle with them?

La Shawn 05.08.05 at 6:52 pm

I’m sorry about that, Bonnie. My host is aware of the problem, so hopefully a solution will be found soon.

DoubleU 05.08.05 at 9:35 pm

Norton Personal Firewall:
- Go to “Privacy Control”
- Go to “Custom”
- Uncheck “enable browser privacy”
- Click OK

Zone Alarm Pro:
- Go to “Privacy” tab
- Go to “site list”
- Go to “ehowa.com”
- Go to “options”
- Go to “3rd Party cookies”
- Uncheck “remove private header information”
- Click OK

Then refresh the page!
I don’t know about Windows firewall

DoubleU 05.08.05 at 9:39 pm

I know the Opera Browser has an option for removing private header information, if you use Opera you might want to look in the options.

Bonnie 05.08.05 at 11:27 pm

Double U, thankyou thankyou thankyou! IT WORKED!
Now I can see La Shawn’s site again.

Dave in AZ 05.09.05 at 9:21 am

As a construction contractor with “miniscule” computer skills and “zero” patience with computer problems I must have what DoubleU referred to as Windows firewall (ie; no solution). So I’ve resolved myself to one of three options: 1).Hire a “Nerd” service. 2).View LaShawn’s blog “as is” and get used to it. 3).Apply my handy 16 lb. sledge hammer at “G” force to this box with the Dell name on it and happily go back to building houses and leave computers to those who love them!
(LaShawn, if you don’t hear from me again you’ll know which option I selected).

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