Captcha problems!!! HELP!

diplodocus · #1 24th May 2011, 23:04

Right, well I know there's some IT technical bods on here that might be able to help because I've not been able to find the solution myself yet after a lot of googling!

Here's my problem, I'm trying to download stuff from a file sharing utility which requires that I enter a 'Captcha' but the problem is it's not showing up at all. Nothing, totally blank. In fact you wouldn't even know there was a Captcha requirement. It's only because I've used the site in the past I knew there was one.

I use add ons in firefox so first thing I did was disable them one by one, no joy. So I thought it might be my browser so tried I.E., then Chrome, then Opera. Still nothing.

Got another PC also running XP and that works fine, Captchas show up. Even using my phone I can see Captchas!

So I'm pretty perplexed and looking for ideas

Please help, this is driving me nuts

Johnni · #2 24th May 2011, 23:36

Does'nt captcha have something to do with web scripting languages & Javascript? Maybe see what versions of that you have on your PC.

diplodocus · #3 25th May 2011, 08:12

^ Yeah I have Javascript enabled. But I've tried 4 different browsers now and by default they all have Javascript enabled so I think the problem lies with something external to browsers. Well I'm convinced if it happens on 4 different ones!

Wish I knew more about msconfig and which services to knock out

inSideOut · #4 25th May 2011, 08:26

hi
check you have the latest version of java and flash
add blocking plug ins may also be blocking
check you have 3rd party cookies enabled
some firewalls or AV's will block some Java clients, check those also

hope this helps

talisman · #5 25th May 2011, 18:57

The only things I can thing of are that your somehow blocking the captcha images from loading on that pc.

It could be your HOSTS file (google it) or your firewall, or an advert blocker. Perhaps even a virus scanner, since these days they do far more than block virii. As an experiment you could go on one pc, note down the url of the captcha image then try loading it on the other pc (though that may not prove anything if sessions are based on cookies instead of just ip addresses). Also try disabling your firewall and virus scanner etc (briefly!!!) if you can't find mention of the url in any of those programs' respective filters.

diplodocus · #6 25th May 2011, 19:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by inSideOut

hi
check you have the latest version of java and flash
add blocking plug ins may also be blocking
check you have 3rd party cookies enabled
some firewalls or AV's will block some Java clients, check those also

hope this helps

Yes to all of them and still no joy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by talisman

The only things I can thing of are that your somehow blocking the captcha images from loading on that pc.

It could be your HOSTS file (google it) or your firewall, or an advert blocker. Perhaps even a virus scanner, since these days they do far more than block virii. As an experiment you could go on one pc, note down the url of the captcha image then try loading it on the other pc (though that may not prove anything if sessions are based on cookies instead of just ip addresses). Also try disabling your firewall and virus scanner etc (briefly!!!) if you can't find mention of the url in any of those programs' respective filters.

Yeah done all of these except the HOSTS file and when I've just looked into it the etc folder in which it resides is invisible but hidden folders are viewable. I can see it in DOS. So I think there is something going on here.....

EDIT: did nothing

EDIT 2: HA HA! Sorted it at last! It was just pure luck but McAfee popped up out of the blue warning me I hadn't installed it's firewall. I thought eh? I've got Avast not McAfee as my AV! So I have no idea how McAfee came to be installed on my PC, but anyway I immediately deleted it and what do you know, Captcha's back! Damn anti viruses are becoming as bad as the viruses they are supposed to prevent!

talisman · #7 25th May 2011, 20:36

Very puzzling.

One other possible but highly unlikely problem could be DNS servers. Although both PCs may connect through the same router, you may have configured them to use different DNS servers at the ISP end in the interent options settings. Perhaps one of those servers is causing a problem with the CAPTCHA image. If your isp has more than one DNS server you could try swapping them as a last resort. I've never experienced a problem like that though so I doubt its the case.

I presume you've tried clearing out all your browers' cache, your windows temp files, done a disk cleanup on c drive, rebooted... (a quick google search suggests those worked for some people with captcha problems).

It may just be one of those PC problems that you can never figure out.