Re: [Lynx-dev] Problem?

[David Woolley]

Aidan C A Hopkins (Server Admin) wrote:

> On further enquiry, it appears that Apache's mod_security rules think 
> that Lynx users are trying to inject commands (Error 406).

Error 406 is a content negotiation failure.  Used correctly, it means 
that there was no format of the resource, on the server, that was usable 
according to the browser's Allow header.

Did you mean 405, which refers to the use of an unsupported method.

In any case, other replies suggest that this is discrimination against 
Lynx, not something based on the actual request.  Possible reasons for 
such a policy migh that Lynx is often integrated into automatic tools. 
Advertising funded sites, in particular, object to such tools, and some 
spammers may be using Lynx as part of address collecting machines, 
without changing the User-Agent.

<http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2616.html>:
10.4.7 406 Not Acceptable

   The resource identified by the request is only capable of generating
   response entities which have content characteristics not acceptable
   according to the accept headers sent in the request.



10.4.6 405 Method Not Allowed

   The method specified in the Request-Line is not allowed for the
   resource identified by the Request-URI. The response MUST include an
   Allow header containing a list of valid methods for the requested
   resource.



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David Woolley
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