IE / Firefox using SSL

[kevan]

All,
This is more of a technical question, but I am sure there are those who can help out. We have a search engine of publications at our UNI, which is now usig SSL for the login. When people find a publication that they would like to view, a link to a pdf, postcript or gzipped file appears in the listings.
Problem if using IE, it refuses to allow access to this file [something along the lines of write access failure to the temporary cached area]; whereas if you use firefox (for example), the file opens as normal. This is not a problem for me, but what about all those other poor people who know nothing about alternative (and better web browsers).
I have searched google to no avail, and have to say that MS is losing touch slowly, and firefox will continue to gain ground. Excellent. Scoring:
Firefox ten; MS IE zero.

But seriously, this is a pain. This is a public broadcast message about MS IE being useless, but does anyone have a clue as to a workaround?
This is the latest Internet Explorer 6, with all updates, by the way,
Thanks
kevan