HELP! I'm getting a "406 Not Acceptable" message

As a matter of fact, that is exactly what caused my error.  I was working with banner images with internal and external links and, if I remember correctly, I could link to an internal page but if I tried to link to an external page with http:// it would give the error.  I guess I got lucky and reached a persistent tech person.  It took almost an hour on the phone to get it resolved. 

I have used Go Daddy as a registrar for many years, but every time I have tried to use their hosting, I seem to have server config problems of one type or another. 

Hum - since they got your issue resolved, which is the same as my remaining issue, then possibly they're still working on their other servers to resolve the issue throughout the remaining servers - but I doubt it. I just submitted another ticket to them about this remaining issue. But I will say this - if the issue persist every time I set up a new hosting account with Godaddy - well I'll be seeking out a new hosting provider. I simply do not have the time to hold their hand to get a server configured in a manner that you can actually use it to build a website... and these are the simplest of task that every web developer and website owner needs in order to utilize their websites.

I'll keep my figures cross and thanks for the feedback.

Zick

Hey Dave,

There still remains an issue - whereas if you create an upload field and add a link among the info fields. The "link" on the uploaded image triggers the "Not Allowed" 404 message. I've spoken to Godaddy repeatedly about this issue and they're telling me it's a CMS issue and not their problem - which I do not believe them, as I have many CMS Builder powered sites (same version 2.61) installed on other servers that are not their new cPanel based servers and CMS Builder works perfectly.

The ability to add a link to an uploaded image in an "Upload" field still remains an issue as seen in the attached snap shots.

The site in reference to the issue is on their shared hosting plan

Hi Zicky, 

It doesn't look like they fixed the original issue at all.   Try this, replace "example.com" with the url of your clients website and see what result you get:

http://example.com/?a=http%3A%2F%2F

> I've spoken to Godaddy repeatedly about this issue and they're telling me it's a CMS issue and not their problem

Most web host support techs will tell you this unless you clearly demonstrate it's a problem with their server, which is what the email I previously wrote and posted does.  So you'll want to send them that again if the issue is not resolved (and I just checked and it's not).  

Also, if you're on their cheap cheap plan (under $10) you should consider upgrading to their Virtual Private Server ($25-$50/mo) if you're not already on those.  They will still have issues but you do get better service and you don't have to save many hours of your time to make it worth your while.

Hope that helps, let me know what happens.

Yea - I tried entering the client's domain name with http:// in the URL and it produced the "Not Acceptable" 404 message and when I dropped the http:// form the URL it saved just fine without issue. I also sent them a link to this thread so they can read through and see that I'm not the only one having this issue, but I'm going to send them your demonstration to back this up.

Thanks for the reply.

Zick

Hi Zicky, 

Ok, sounds good.  Here's the outstanding issue and previous message re-posted again so it's clear.  Don't talk about the CMS, that will confuse them, just point out that adding ?address=http:// to ANY url returns a 406 error.  Meaning you can't submit URLs in ANY email form or CMS at all.   Here's my message again:

The issue is that the web host has some security mechanisms in place that attempt to block malicious urls.  The problem is that these security mechanisms are generating "false positives", just like when you get a valid email in your spam filter.  

So many URLs that contains "http://" get rejected.  This is a problem because it prevents you from entering the URL of some of your social media sites into your CMS because when those forms get submitted to the CMS via either GET or POST submissions they get blocked for containing a "http://" value that matches a securityfilter even though they are perfectly normal urls.

Adding ?address=http%3A%2F%2F to ANY url on the site demonstrates the problem, here's an example:http://example.com/?address=http%3A%2F%2F

The server returns this response to the above url: 

Not Acceptable
An appropriate representation of the requested resource / could not be found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

But you'll note that changing http:// to abcd:// allows the site to function as normal:http://example.com/?address=abcd%3A%2F%2F

Can you forward this email to your web host, ask them what security filters they have in place and if they can disable or update them so they don't get triggered when we submit a form that contains "http://" in the value?

Let me know what they say, thanks!

Thanks Dave!

I sent your message to them to clarify the issue. Hopefully they will get on top of this and get it resolved. I really appreciate your help with this.

I just figured out that it was the embed code for a YouTube video that triggered my 406 error a while back.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwoXmXA8BvY

I am going to contact them now and see if they can look at the support log for that site and tell me how they corrected it.