Bug 14900 – repeated "bad server response” (NSURLErrorDomain:-1011) errors accessing ebay.com.au

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: INVALID
• Component: Page Loading

[Paul Jacobson]

Problem has been occurring many for months, where pages - primarily on ebay.com.au - randomly return “bad server response” (NSURLErrorDomain:-1011). The problem also afflicts windows safari beta 3.0.3.
The problem is also mentioned on the www.mactalk.com.au forum with users resorting to using firefox to access ebay.com.au due to this issue.

Searching the bugzilla I note there was a very similar problem which was declared invalid. Following advice given in that bug report I have attached output of  tcpdump, while attempting to reload the browser after encountering the problem

[Paul Jacobson]

Created attachment 15865 [details]
tcpdump output of safari failing to load page with "bad server response"

two attempts to reload page on www.ebay.com.au that resulted in a "bad server response" error. Error is Safari specific.

[Alexey Proskuryakov]

Thank you for reporting this issue!

I think this bug to be moved to Radar (by an Apple employee), as this is unlikely to be a WebKit issue.

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

(In reply to comment #0)
> Searching the bugzilla I note there was a very similar problem which was
> declared invalid. Following advice given in that bug report I have attached
> output of  tcpdump, while attempting to reload the browser after encountering
> the problem

Which bug was that?

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

Paul, could you provide a binary packet dump as well?  Here's how (assuming your ethernet port is en0):

sudo tcpdump -s 0 -w packets.tcpdump -i en0

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

<rdar://problem/5401039>

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

Paul, it would also be helpful to know version/build of Mac OS X you're using.  Open the "About This Mac" item from the Apple menu.  After noting the version (e.g., 10.4.10), click on it to get the build number (e.g., 8R218).  Thanks!

[Paul Jacobson]

I'm running 10.4.10 - 8R218 on G4 powerbook. I'll get a binary dump posted as soon as I get an error that is repeatable again. I've been getting same error but I can't recreate after I get terminal & tcpdump setup and attempt to reload the page.

(In reply to comment #6)
> Paul, it would also be helpful to know version/build of Mac OS X you're using. 
> Open the "About This Mac" item from the Apple menu.  After noting the version
> (e.g., 10.4.10), click on it to get the build number (e.g., 8R218).  Thanks!
> 

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

(In reply to comment #7)
> I'm running 10.4.10 - 8R218 on G4 powerbook. I'll get a binary dump posted as
> soon as I get an error that is repeatable again. I've been getting same error
> but I can't recreate after I get terminal & tcpdump setup and attempt to reload
> the page.

Thanks!  When this reproduces again, could you try running a command in a Terminal window to see if you get similar behavior?  Basically, if you're trying to hit http://ebay.com.au/ and getting these NSURLErrorDomain messages in Safari, open Terminal and run:

host ebay.com.au

Just paste the output of the command into this bug.  (Doing this will tell if it's a general DNS issue or whether it's just Safari/Foundation.)

[Paul Jacobson]

(In reply to comment #8)

> Thanks!  When this reproduces again, could you try running a command in a
> Terminal window to see if you get similar behavior?  Basically, if you're
> trying to hit http://ebay.com.au/ and getting these NSURLErrorDomain messages
> in Safari, open Terminal and run:
> 
> host ebay.com.au

Didn't have to wait too long....

host ebay.com.au
ebay.com.au has address 66.135.192.72
ebay.com.au mail is handled by 10 data.ebay.com.
ebay.com.au mail is handled by 10 gort.ebay.com.
ebay.com.au mail is handled by 10 lore.ebay.com.

also attached is binary tcpdump of trying to reload the page as requested.

cheers
Paul

[Paul Jacobson]

Created attachment 15973 [details]
binary dump of safari failing to (re)load ebay.com.au page

output of sudo tcpdump -s 0 -w packets.tcpdump -i en1 as requested.

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

(In reply to comment #10)
> Created an attachment (id=15973) [edit]
> binary dump of safari failing to (re)load ebay.com.au page
> 
> output of sudo tcpdump -s 0 -w packets.tcpdump -i en1 as requested.

Very strange.  In the packet dump, there is a DNS request for cgi.ebay.com.au, and a response is returned in less than a second.

Even stranger is that a web page is asked for about 1.5 seconds later and then is returned in about 0.5 seconds after that.  Did the page end up loading, or did you get the error message?

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

(In reply to comment #11)
> Even stranger is that a web page is asked for about 1.5 seconds later and then
> is returned in about 0.5 seconds after that.  Did the page end up loading, or
> did you get the error message?

I'm sure that sounds like a dumb question, but looking at the packet trace briefly, I wouldn't have expected Safari to return an error for this request!

[Paul Jacobson]

(In reply to comment #12)
> (In reply to comment #11)
> > Even stranger is that a web page is asked for about 1.5 seconds later and then
> > is returned in about 0.5 seconds after that.  Did the page end up loading, or
> > did you get the error message?
> 
> I'm sure that sounds like a dumb question, but looking at the packet trace
> briefly, I wouldn't have expected Safari to return an error for this request!
> 


Just got the error messaqe when I tried reloading the page. I'll see if I can capture another instance of the error. The errors occur intermittently so unfortunately I can't really run tcpdump to catch the initial occurrence.

Paul

[Paul Jacobson]

Created attachment 15994 [details]
binary dump

dump of safari failing to load ebay.com.au home page.

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

(In reply to comment #14)
> Created an attachment (id=15994) [edit]
> binary dump
> 
> dump of safari failing to load ebay.com.au home page.

Interesting.  This packet dump contains a DNS query for www.ebay.com.au followed by an HTTP GET request (for http://www.ebay.com.au/), then another DNS query and HTTP GET request for the same thing.

The first DNS query looks up www.ebay.com.au using server 211.29.132.12 and returns:

CNAME au.ebay.com.edgesuite.net
CNAME a1465.g.akamai.net
A 198.142.23.103
A 198.142.23.102

The second DNS query also looks up www.ebay.com.au using server 211.29.132.12 but returns different A records:

CNAME au.ebay.com.edgesuite.net
CNAME a1465.g.akamai.net
A 198.142.23.78
A 198.142.23.80

I'm not sure why this would cause an error, though.  I wonder if it happens every time Akamai updates their servers (due to load balancing or perhaps eBay updating their home page)?

Paul, thanks for creating the tcpdumps!  I'm going to close this Bugzilla bug as RESOLVED/INVALID since it's not a WebKit issue, but we'll track the issue internally through the Radar.

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

Oddly enough, I got this same error message when trying to click on this link in Bug 15293 for the first time:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Titan-Missile-Base-Central-Washington_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ1607QQihZ009QQitemZ190132455924QQrdZ1

I was using Safari 3 Public Beta v. 3.0.3 (522.12.1) with a local debug build of WebKit r25754 on Mac OS X 10.4.10 (8R218).

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

Paul, have you upgraded to Leopard, and if so, have you seen this issue there?  If so, please make a note in this bug.  Thanks!

See also:  <rdar://problem/5532291> and <rdar://problem/5691844>