Hello Everyone
For the past three days I have been, and still am, unable to connect to CastleCops using FireFox (v2006). I get error code "406 Not Acceptable". Also, "An appropriate representation of the requested resource /forums.html could not be found on this server". What the heck does that mean??? Can someone explain it to me in plain English that an old person might understand? Can this be fixed? If so, how?
I am using IE7 right now and having no problems with the CastleCops website.
Thank you,
Tom

Hi Tom,

I had exactly the same problem a few weeks back. It seemed to coincide with an update to Firefox, but I can't be sure on that one.

What does it mean? I haven't a clue - Google seemed to be reluctant to find anything that actually made sense.

I actually fixed the problem by reinstalling Firefox in the following manner (but please see my note "Try a quick fix first" at the end of this post):

1. First backup your bookmarks. Open Firefox and go to Bookmarks, Organise Bookmarks. In the Bookmarks Manager window, go to File, Export, choose a location for the backup where you can find it again and click Save. The backup is actually a HTML file - in other words, a simple web page held on your own computer.

2. In Firefox, go to Tools, Addons and make a list of the extensions and addons listed there.

3. Download a fresh copy of Firefox.

4. Go to Start, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. Highlight Mozilla Firefox and choose to Remove it. It is possible you have more than one entry for Mozilla Firefox - occasionally older versions get left behind. If this is the case then highlight each entry and select Remove.

5. Reboot your system.

6. Install Firefox from the file you downloaded in Step 3 above.

7. Open Firefox and go to Bookmarks, Organise Bookmarks. In the Bookmark Manager window go to File, Import. Click against 'From File' and click next. Find the backup you made earlier (it will be named 'bookmarks.html' unless you changed the name before you saved it) and click Open. That will restore your bookmarks.

8. Go to Tools, Addons, Get Extensions and download any extensions you want from the list you made.

You should now find Firefox behaves itself for this (and any other) site.

Try a quick fix first
Here is something which, while not guaranteed to work, is well worth a try before reinstalling.

Go through Steps 1 and 2 above to save your bookmarks and to identify any addons you have. Then go to Start, Run, type the following command

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ProfileManager

and click OK (you can copy that command and paste it into the Run box to make life easier).

Click Create a New Profile in the Profile Manager window, type a name for your new profile and click Finish. Click on your new profile name, check 'Don't ask at startup' and finally click Exit.

Open Firefox and try accessing CastleCops. If it works then import your bookmarks and reinstall your addons as in Steps 7 & 8 above.

And if it doesn't work then you've lost 15 minutes of your time but you have your backups made ready to start at Step 3.

The only thing that changed the past couple of days is we started throttling the number of connections due to the ddos -- now in its third day I believe.

Another one? That explains the slowness. Really slow. Timeouts and everything.

Sorry to hear this Paul.

Hi again
I did steps 1-8 and tried the quick fix and everything is still the same. It's odd though, after uninstalling FF2005 and FF2006, rebooting then reinstalling FF2006, I still had all the old extensions, themes and bookmarks.
Thanks,
Tom

Hey Mister2
I asked the same question at MozillaZine Forum Index -> Firefox Support. dickvl suggested that I clear my cookies and the cache. So I did and that's all it took. I am using Firefox as I type. Cool huh?
Thanks everyone,
Tom

Hi Again
Thought you might want to take a look here.
Tom

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=581158e.

Hi Tom,

Thanks for that link - sorry to put you through all that when the solution was so simple.

But I'm glad you got fixed up, and it's useful info for me to remember next time.

Happy surfing!

Hello Everyone
I am still getting the error "406 Not Acceptable" about once a week. So I have to go into my cookies and delete just the CastleCops cookie. Then I can get to the website on the first try but have to re-login when I do. A slight pain. Anyone know why it keeps happening.
Thanks,
Tom

Is it for all pages, or for a particular URL?

Hi Paul
The bookmark is for the forums page. It's the one that I go to and I guess the cookie is to sign me in. If I get the error I don't try to go to another page so I don't know right now. I'll try to go to another page the next time it happens.
Tom

Hi Paul
I am having this problem with a couple of other sites that I use. As with this site I have to delete the cookies for that particular site and then everything works well. I think it is a FireFox problem and I have posted over there again also. Will keep you informed when I learn more.
Thank you,
Tom

Hello Paul
I think this is what you wanted to know. I got the error so I did a Google search for CastleCops and tried to get through to forums, downloads, Hijack This and CLSID List. Nothing worked, same error for each. CastleCops cookie was removed and I got through to all of them.
Tom