CGIs and firewalls...

[kissels]

I'm using WebAdverts, which is actually a banner exchange tracking program, to provide the advertisers on my site with some basic exposure and click-through stats. Every now and then, one of my advertisers or visitors will complain that they are unable to click on any of the links that are connected to this cgi script; in many cases, these users do not even see these links on their screens! I thought the issue had something to do with these users' firewalls, as telling the user to adjust their firewall settings has always "fixed" the problem (is that really a fix though?) and they were then able to see and click on these links/buttons that are connected to this cgi, that is, until today. I've been working with one advertiser for 2 days now who claims that neither she nor her husband, on two different computers, can access their website link. And for the life of me, I can not figure out why. I am not experiencing this problem and I've asked several others to check my site and click on these links and none of them have had this problem either. The only difference I know of is that I and those that I've asked to check these links are on PCs; this advertiser is using a Mac.

This advertiser's listing is on this page: http://chicagolandwedding.com/chicago-banquet-halls.htm It is the "Lifescapes at Montefiori" listing just above the "fold." Both she and her husband are telling me that neither of them are able to click through to their website via the "Visit Website" link, which is set up to run through the WebAdverts cgi.

Does anyone know if cgi scripts do, in fact, cause problems for some people's firewalls? ...Mac people's firewalls? And, if so, any idea what to do to make sure that visitors are able to access links that are set up to run cgis?

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

Kim

[meddlingwithfire]

Don't know much in particular about WebAdverts, but any CGI script you have on your server is running server-side, not client-side. Having users "adjust their firewall" shouldn't be having any effect at all on CGI scripts on your website.

What exactly did you have them change?

FYI -- I see the advert just fine (Firefox 1.5.0.7), and had no problems on the clickthrough. I didn't see anything in the advertisement that looked like user settings would block it (the image & ad content isn't in a frame, nor is it being loaded from an external URL).