Trying to download a mobileread e-book

[momtodogs]

I'm following the instructions, in an old 'sticky' thread, to download a book (.EPUB) from the MobileRead library; however, no matter what book I click on, or what format, I get the same pop-up:

Do you want to open or save attachment.php (538 KB) from mobileread.com?

and then nothing I have will open it.

...........show me the way, oh wise ones...........

I was going to reply to the 'sticky' thread, but it warned me it was a very old thread.

[eschwartz]

I believe this problem is sometimes seen when using Internet Explorer as your web browser. Possible solutions include:

• viewing MobileRead in compatibility mode (the icon of the broken page, next to the reload button)
• switching browsers to, well, any other browser. Firefox and Google Chrome are both great browsers.
• renaming attachment.php to anything.epub -- since it seems from the 538 KB filesize that the ebook was downloaded, but with the wrong name, renaming it should let you open it.

[HarryT]

Yes, it's a browser issue. Easiest way to download is to right click the download link, select "Save Target As..." (the actual wording depends on your browser) and enter the name of the file to save as.

Downloading the normal way is working fine in Firefox - just tried it.

[AnotherCat]

Just as Mr Shwartz advises ; also if you add MobileRead to your permanent compatability list in IE then the problem will go away without having to select that mode each time. Hopefully MobileRead will be fixed sometime to comply as other sites do.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Just as Mr Shwartz advises ; also if you add MobileRead to your permanent compatability list in IE then the problem will go away without having to select that mode each time. Hopefully MobileRead will be fixed sometime to comply as other sites do.

It was suggested to me (via google) that IE will automatically add a website to that list -- at least for IE8? -- when you click that icon. True/not true??

[momtodogs]

You people are awesome!

So many times (on other forums) I see snarky comments, even to the point of telling the inquirer they had asked a stupid question (and not giving an answer), or telling them they should have searched the site, first. OK, I understand the search thing (but, after exhausting every possible wording, it is easy to understand why one would give up on that.)

I always get intelligent and comprehensive answers from the people on this forum. You have all been kind and patient, and...... I always get my man....er, answer.

You were all correct. It must be a browser problem. I AM running Internet Explorer, which recently upgraded itself to IE 11 (and I have been having issues with other sites, as well.)

1. Renaming the file I had already downloaded, to an .epub, worked like a charm.
   
2. Adding MobileRead to my compatibility list also worked, for subsequent downloads.

Apparently, the latest version of IE does not have the compatibility icon, but I took your advice and went into tools and added this site to the list. It worked, and I can now download books to my heart's content.

Not only that, I added another site to that list and you have saved me a wait until Monday's business hours to call and find out if it was a problem on their end....... you saved me the embarrassment of finding out it was ME.

[crich70]

I don't think there is such a thing as a stupid question, unless it's the question that isn't asked. How else can someone learn something new. I also never knew about the compatibility problem in IE as I use Firefox. So your question also served to teach me something new as well.

[eschwartz]

To be honest, I was strongly tempted to make a snarky comment about Internet Explorer, but I have recently become overdrawn at the Bank of Snark and I am trying to cut down on my spending...

I feel rather undeserving of that compliment as I fell prey to the temptation to snark about it mere hours before your question. You can thank AnotherCat for putting me back on the path of righteousness.

(But even though you were right in reprimanding me, I still think Internet Explorer stinks! )

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

It was suggested to me (via google) that IE will automatically add a website to that list -- at least for IE8? -- when you click that icon. True/not true??

As I recall, for Windows 7 if you click the compatibility icon it will automatically add it to the list but a Win 7 user may need to confirm that (every machine here has been Win 8 for over a year now and I would have to set up a machine with Win 7 to test, but am pretty sure it was automatic).

As momtodogs says, Win 8.x no longer has the compatibility icon and one adds any sites needed manually (it offers the currently viewed site for adding with one click if one selects Tools>Compatibility view settings). That said, although I visit many sites, including security sensitive ones, the only presence in my compatibility list is MobileRead (for the library issue).

As an aside: Tracking Protection (introduced IE9 if I recall correctly, Firefox has a simplified version, Google's Chrome, unsurprisingly has none), if enabled, may block content from some websites collecting what some may consider private information and cause similar puzzlement. Again the list (downloadable lists are available) is user controlled and is latched On or Off by an icon. For IE10 onwards Tracking Protection is enabled by default and poses some problems for those who do not realise that.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

As I recall, for Windows 7 if you click the compatibility icon it will automatically add it to the list but a Win 7 user may need to confirm that (every machine here has been Win 8 for over a year now and I would have to set up a machine with Win 7 to test, but am pretty sure it was automatic).

As momtodogs says, Win 8.x no longer has the compatibility icon and one adds any sites needed manually (it offers the currently viewed site for adding with one click if one selects Tools>Compatibility view settings). That said, although I visit many sites, including security sensitive ones, the only presence in my compatibility list is MobileRead (for the library issue).

As an aside: Tracking Protection (introduced IE9 if I recall correctly, Firefox has a simplified version, Google's Chrome, unsurprisingly has none), if enabled, may block content from some websites collecting what some may consider private information and cause similar puzzlement. Again the list (downloadable lists are available) is user controlled and is latched On or Off by an icon. For IE10 onwards Tracking Protection is enabled by default and poses some problems for those who do not realise that.

As in, "Tell sites that I do not want to be tracked"? Chrome has this too, and unfortunately, it means nothing other than your browser sends a plea in the header, which the website is welcome to ignore.

There is also the third-party extension Adblock Plus which can stop a lot of scripts and cookies and ads and stuff from being displayed in your browser at all, hence "they" can't track your every move, etc. but it too is available for Chrome (and not IE. Or rather, there is a version, but it's somewhat crippled).

...

And it seems Microsoft has based Tracking Protection (i googled it) off of Adblock Plus, as the Adblock Plus lists are being used directly. I wonder how well Tracking Protection compares against Adblock Plus for IE? Perhaps better, since Microsoft has access to the integration that otherwise relies on open-sourced browsers?

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

As in, "Tell sites that I do not want to be tracked"? Chrome has this too, and unfortunately, it means nothing other than your browser sends a plea in the header, which the website is welcome to ignore.

It must be a very recent addition then as while I was aware Google had said they were going to implement tracking protection in Chrome, they had not done so by a few months back as far as I am aware. Where is the setting to enable it though? I cannot see it in my copy of Chrome (which I think is current), but perhaps one has to sign into the Empire to do so rather than it being a preference within Chrome itself?

Yes I have been familiar with Adblock but haven't used it for a number of years now. Its source code is not secret.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

It must be a very recent addition then as while I was aware Google had said they were going to implement tracking protection in Chrome, they had not done so by a few months back as far as I am aware. Where is the setting to enable it though? I cannot see it in my copy of Chrome (which I think is current), but perhaps one has to sign into the Empire to do so rather than it being a preference within Chrome itself?

It's been around for ages. It does not require signing into Google sync -- that only allows you to sync settings. There is no conspiracy (maybe just in this case ).
go to chrome://settings, click Show Advanced Settings on the bottom; it should look like this:

Yes I have been familiar with Adblock but haven't used it for a number of years now. Its source code is not secret.

It isn't, but Internet Explorer is. I don't know how much of a difference that makes, but the Adblock Plus team has not been having an easy time porting to IE. Things keep crashing, the rules work differently, and stuff. I can only imagine the maintainers of IE would find it easier to merge the actual codebase together.


P.S. Chrome was the first non-mozilla browser to get Adblock, December 15, 2010 (https://adblockplus.org/blog/adblock...-released-soon) although they really took over from a pre-existing project that wasn't quite there.

[AnotherCat]

Ah, I see it; I had looked there but not noticed it hidden amongst the "small print" .

It was introduced in the November 2011 release. But, I believe, that it relies on the presence of the Do Not Track Header at the site (I think Firefox is the same), if it exists and for which there is no standard. Consequently Google's weasel words about its (non)effectiveness.

I believe that IE also now recognises the DNT header (since IE10??), if it exists, but it certainly continues to use its original user downloadable and controlled lists of sites, to which tracking information is actually blocked, as well.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Ah, I see it; I had looked there but not noticed it hidden amongst the "small print" .

It was introduced in the November 2011 release. But, I believe, that it relies on the presence of the Do Not Track Header at the site (I think Firefox is the same), if it exists and for which there is no standard. Consequently Google's weasel words about its (non)effectiveness.

I believe that IE also now recognises the DNT header (since IE10??), if it exists, but it certainly continues to use its original user downloadable and controlled lists of sites, to which tracking information is actually blocked, as well.

Yes, the problem with Do Not Track is that all it is is a special request where the browser goes "Please, pretty please, O kind and wonderful website, respect this user's desires and delete your logs of his/her travels on you."

There is NO WAY to force a website to delete it's record of your presence, short of hacking their servers. You can refuse to ping them for data files (which is what Adblock Plus and the Microsoft clone Tracking Protection do with known tracking scripts/cookies/images/etc.) but once you download that file, the website has logged your IP address and potentially a list of your unique plugins set and probably associated a cookie with it.

To truly understand the need for paranoia, look here: https://panopticlick.eff.org/

[momtodogs]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I feel rather undeserving of that compliment as I fell prey to the temptation to snark about it mere hours before your question. You can thank AnotherCat for putting me back on the path of righteousness.

(But even though you were right in reprimanding me, I still think Internet Explorer stinks! )

I hope you didn't think I was reprimanding you, because I certainly wasn't.

Lately, I would have to agree with you about Internet Explorer, but it is all I have known. I've been thinking of trying Firefox. Is it very much different to use? Do my Favorites transfer over? Now that I am retired, I have no patience with high learning curves. You know, "Just get me what I want, when I want, where I want, and make it easy."

BTW, I loved the TV show DRESDEN FILES, and was sorry to see it cancelled. I presume it originated as a book series? Who is the author?