I've been asked by a friend fix her PC. I set it up myself in the first place, and installed firefox as the main web browser.

The problem is that every time she goes to www.yahoo.com and tries to log into her email account, On pressing submit, firefox prompts to download a file called "login" the filetype being application/octet-stream.

A quick browse of the mozilla site tells me "application/octet-stream is generic binary data, so can not be handled by any specific program". This doesn't really help me fix it. Does anybody here know what to be doing about it?

I've tried both deleting the application data folder and uninstalling/re-installing firefox, but niether has solved the problem

good to see you being cautious, however if you think about what's going on or
needs to soon occur, she will need to LOGIN to the email server. Using a browser
as the interface, the download is likely to be an ActiveX component or a Java Applet.

Make sure you have a Firewall, AV setup, allow the download, disconnect from
the internet, and immediately Scan using your AV program. It is likely to be
just fine.

sorry - I thought your pm was about the post in the suggestions forum. However, this is well considered too.

you see, the problem is, Firefox is loaded up with all the common plugins. Firefox is allowed access to the web no problem at all, and the antivirus (AVG) isn't interfering. Internet Explorer on the same computer can happily log into the yahoo website, but firefox can't. What it looks like to me is either Firefox is mishandling the MIME type fore some reason (It probably doesn't know what the "login" file is and so assigns it as an octet-stream - so the theory goes anyway), or Yahoo has coded their email login process in such a way that it doesn't work with the latest version of firefox. I've downloaded the file already just before posting (I was fairly certain it wasn't malicious), but there's nothing it belongs to on the computer. Internet explorer certainly doesn't understand it, leading me to believe that it's probably some kind of server-side language script that I'm not supposed to be seeing.

Me, I just want to get firefox to log into yahoo. any ideas?

I use Firefox 1.06 and can login to yahoo mail w/o any problems.
So does my IE.

As to the /octet-stream, I haven't seen it so I can't verify your results.
I also use Spybot S&D and Spywareblaster and thus avoid many ActiveX
issues :0

Maybe someone else will have some insight.

I also have this same problem of not being able to log into Yahoo mail on firefox. There is no problem with Opera browser or IE browser. It is only with firefox browser. I have been looking for answers for a week..this started with the "upgrade" of firefox 1.0.7 (I think this is really no upgrade at all). Any possible fixes would be appreciated.

Similar issue here and it only started very recently. In the past I could log-in after I'd cleared my cache and cookies, but for the past three days, that hasn't helped, even after a reboot. I can log-in to mail.yahoo.com and browse through Yahoo sites. Heck, I'm connected to Yahoo Messenger right now. But any attempt to click on "INBOX" after I've logged in results in a timeout. This is the same result I get in Firefox 1.0.7, Opera 8.0.2 and IE 6.0.2800.

My wife who also uses IE6 and Firefox 1.0.7 has no problem logging in to Yahoo Mail. We are also both running the latest copy of Spybot S&D with TeaTimer and that doesn't seem to be what's causing this. Will update if I manage to find a solution.

Little update. My wife's able to enter my account's INBOX from her PC and I can enter her account's INBOX from my PC, but I can't go into my own INBOX on this PC. This has to be one of the weirdest bugs I've seen in a while.

I can enter my e-mail account on this machine through Mozilla 1.5 (not Firefox) while using a proxy that puts me in the Philippines (I'm in Sweden). I doubt Yahoo's done something to limit connections to Yahoo Mail to one userid per IP, but then why does changing my IP address (through the use of a proxy) make connecting to the site possible?

Solution found. Replaced all the DNS settings on my router with IPs from OpenNIC.

That's great. However, because your problem was nothing to do with this thread, the problem this thread describes remains unsolved.

Sorry, my posts were more in response to zbd21's post. With regards your issue, there's no reason a default install of Firefox would cause that behaviour when logging onto Yahoo! Mail. I'm assuming you've already tried a clean reinstall of Firefox and have tried clearing cookies, cache and even the contents of the "Temp" folder underneath the user's "Documents and Settings\Local Settings" folder?

Indeed. I've tried the obvious with no success. It's puzzled the hell outta me I can tell you. lmao

On the mozilla forums there are one or two others with the same complaint (literally one or two), and on bugzsilla, there are any number of octet-stream problems of various kinds listed.

It's truly bizarre, and I sincerely hope that some day someone can work out what's going on> I just know that it won't be me that does it.

No need to be sorry. I was jus making sure that the solution to the problem you helped with wasn't a solution to the problem mentioned in this thread for anybody who would stumble oon this via google or something.

There's nothing bizarre about it AFAIK.
You need to ENable popups in Firefox (Tools/Options/Web Features) before you log in.
Check email, then DISable popups again.

OK. Thanks RBS. When I'm next down there I'll give it a try. I hope it's that simple!

Solution which worked for me!

I had the same problem as you and found a solution which worked for me. Hopefully for you too.

You need to open a file named "all.js" under the directory "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\greprefs" in windows and comment out the lines:

pref("network.http.version", "1.1");
pref("network.http.proxy.version", "1.1");

and then uncomment the lines

pref("network.http.version", "1.0");
pref("network.http.proxy.version", "1.0");

Completely obscure problem which solution I was put on track through a similar netscape problem. Only there is no UI to change the http version in Firefox so the config file must be modified manually.

Now my firefox opens yahoo mail without a complaint. Only if I can get ie to do the same. Actually I'm not too bothered about ie so problem solved

Hi

I'm having similar yahoo mail problems and as i'm a complete newbie to this, I need to as a very stupid question!!

I've found the file you refer to above, but what do you mean when you say

'comment out the lines'?

Sorry you are going to have to explain this (v e r y s l o w l y) for me!!

Thanks in advance

Just wanted to say many thanks for this, and yep, i'm officially stupid!

Hi, how did you exactly fix the yahoo login issue? I been having same issue since last one month and I can login Yahoo WAP mail on my PC. If I try another PC, I can login yahoo mail but, on my PC I can't login Yahoo Mail. I also can login Yahoo Messanger and other sites. Also, my husband can login his account using my PC ---- I am very frustated with yahoo service and tried to contact customer service but no response. Tried clearing cache, cookies and stuff ........ Also I can't login Yahoo at my home network and also using my corporate network so, think this is network independent issue. Could you Pl share stepwise how to resolve this issue, would be very helpful.

This message is in response to #11 - 10-18-2005, 08:00 PM,
Edward Sandstig thread.