Project has trouble loading in Moodle when accessing across a VPN

[Guest]

Hello Everyone.

I have a real headscratcher here. I'm hoping somebody has seen something like this before.

I am working on a project for a government agency that is having problems seeing their product.They get right up to the page where they are supposed to launch the project, but then it does not load.

The package works fine in IE and firefox, but when I try to access it using their VPN in IE, I get the following errors

Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Timestamp: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 04:02:51 UTC

Message: 'SWFObject' is undefined
Line: 211
Char: 5
Code: 0
URI: http://ncfy-learn.jbsinternational.com/file.php/7/moddata/scorm/5/Cultural%20Competence%20Course.htm

Message: 'SWFObject' is undefined
Line: 251
Char: 4
Code: 0
URI: http://ncfy-learn.jbsinternational.com/file.php/7/moddata/scorm/5/Cultural%20Competence%20Course.htm

Message: 'document.getElementById(...)' is null or not an object
Line: 268
Char: 4
Code: 0
URI: http://ncfy-learn.jbsinternational.com/file.php/7/moddata/scorm/5/Cultural%20Competence%20Course.htm

Here is the low down on what we have built.

The project is posted on a Moodle site

It is built in Captivate 5

It works in multiple browsers ( except when accessing from their VPN)

Their systems use XP service pack 3 with IE 6

I hope somebody can help, or at least propose a few more questions I can ask to help get to the root of the problem.

Thanks for your time!

[Mr_TD]

Hi Bethesda Builder 11 and welcome to the forum,

here is some feedback, probably it helps you:

Message: 'SWFObject' is undefined
Line: 211
URI: http://ncfy-learn.jbsinternational.com/file.php/7/moddata/scorm/5/Cult ural%20Competence%20Course.ht...

Line 211 is where it calls for the SCORM swf file.

Message: 'SWFObject' is undefined
Line: 251
URI: http://ncfy-learn.jbsinternational.com/file.php/7/moddata/scorm/5/Cult ural%20Competence%20Course.ht...

Line 251 is were it calls the real Captivate file

Message: 'document.getElementById(...)' is null or not an object
Line: 268
URI: http://ncfy-learn.jbsinternational.com/file.php/7/moddata/scorm/5/Cult ural%20Competence%20Course.ht...

In this line it tries to focus on the captivate movie, which could not be set in 251, so this problem will be solved the moment you can load the main movie.

--> Looks like it cannot find the standard.js file.

Did you check that the correct version of standard.js is included with the zip file you upload to moodle?

Best TD

[Guest]

Thanks, Mr TD,

I will check this out and see if is the solution - either way, I will post the results

[Guest]

Bethesda,

Since the same content only fails during a VPN connection. Does it play from the clients network not on VPN?, if yes then does the VPN server set a different proxy? assuming the client's network requires a proxy for the browser?

i am thinking that since it plays when not on VPN then something is disabling the browsers javascript?  i have seen these errors before with one of our clients and i seem to recall it was their proxy/firewall or network login script that was stripping  javascript from the browser.  our client would get similar errors only when on the company network if they took the same laptop home to access the content (no company network or VPN) it worked.

we used fiddler or httpwatch to capture browser data and worked with their Network/Firewall Engineer, sorry don't recall exactly what they had to do, but all worked at the end.

[Guest]

Hi Jimmy

We tested other various websites this morning that use javascript, and they seem to be working fine.

According to the client, they are experiencing the same issue at their office.

We have confirmed that they are using a firewall. If it helps, this is the Health and Human Services (HHS) VPN that I am talking about.

My friend at work says he thinks it might be related to swf object - he tried adding an absolute reference to swf object at the top of the course's html file - but no luck

We also ruled out swf object as a cause since it worked fien on other sites.

This might be a red herring, but I wanted to share this

This morning, I logged into the VPN afterI had logged into the Moodle site's test account

Upon refreshing the page, I got this URL in the browser

http://158.74.2.82:15871/cgi-bin/blockpage.cgi?ws-session=2848991921

I corrected the problem by logging out of the VPN, logging out of the website, connecting to the VPN again and then logging in.

I was able to access everything up to the point of loading the file.

Thanks for the continued posts!

[Mr_TD]

Hi again,

you might want to check this post:

http://pipwerks.com/2010/08/18/adobe-captivate-what-the-heck-is-g_intapitype/

Best TD

[Guest]

Thanks TD

I tried it out and unfortunately it still doesn't work

Just for laughs I uploaded the package to a Drupal installation and made a page with a link to the HTML file in the package.

Same result - same error codes when accessing across their VPN.

At least I know for sure now that it is a Captivate/VPN issue and not a moodle issue.

Thank you for all your suggestions so far - at least I have been able to rule several things out...

[JaymesC]

Highly recommend using some http header tracing tool like fiddler or httpd watcher they will capture what part of the thread is failing.

[BennyRick]

Hi there.

Just my two cents worth...

Upgrade to a higher version of IE, and try it then on the VPN.

Is there any usual authentication that the user types to access resources on the VPN? is there a firewall inbetween that is blocking access?

Just some thoughts, hope they help.

cheers,

Ben

(isnt it using XML which is most likely supported with later browsers that understand XML and all the new html stuff? would think latest IE and service packs, if you can try this on one computer it may or may not help, just another though. sorry if this sounds stupid.)