Weird issue with blank pages in IE

Not sure if right group, so thought I'd start here.

IE 6.0/Win XP SP2

Clicking on a link or button within an application on our intranet
sporadically results in a blank page.

We ended up troubleshooting this problem by using a network tracing tool and
have discovered a success pattern and a failure pattern in the network trace.
It seems to be related to Windows attempting to use a network
socket/connection while that socket has been requested to close by the
keepalive expiration from the server.

Here's an overview of the trace. client port = 1124, server port = 80
1. Client requests page. Frame 1243.
2. Server responds with page. Keepalive clock starts (15 mins). Frames
1244-1245
3. After 15 mins, server sends a FIN/ACK to the client. Frame 1250.
4. Client responds with ACK. I would assume at this point, the socket is in
TIME_WAIT state. Frame 1251.
5. 1.8 secs after #4, user clicks on a link and Windows attempts to reuse
that connection (port 1124). Frame 1254.
6. User sees blank page described above.

Why does IE/Windows attempt to use a connection that is closing down? That
appears to be the cause of this, as we have plenty of traces from successful
interactions without this happening.

I can provide a pcap file if that helps....

Mike

[ddhanis]

Hi All,
i have just run on the same problem here.
Has this issue resolved ?
Please anyone help me ?

Thx in advance
best regards,Dyan

Originally Posted by Mike Finn

Not sure if right group, so thought I'd start here.

IE 6.0/Win XP SP2

Clicking on a link or button within an application on our intranet
sporadically results in a blank page.

We ended up troubleshooting this problem by using a network tracing tool and
have discovered a success pattern and a failure pattern in the network trace.
It seems to be related to Windows attempting to use a network
socket/connection while that socket has been requested to close by the
keepalive expiration from the server.

Here's an overview of the trace. client port = 1124, server port = 80
1. Client requests page. Frame 1243.
2. Server responds with page. Keepalive clock starts (15 mins). Frames
1244-1245
3. After 15 mins, server sends a FIN/ACK to the client. Frame 1250.
4. Client responds with ACK. I would assume at this point, the socket is in
TIME_WAIT state. Frame 1251.
5. 1.8 secs after #4, user clicks on a link and Windows attempts to reuse
that connection (port 1124). Frame 1254.
6. User sees blank page described above.

Why does IE/Windows attempt to use a connection that is closing down? That
appears to be the cause of this, as we have plenty of traces from successful
interactions without this happening.

I can provide a pcap file if that helps....

Mike