Question

I am using IE7 as my browser and everything works fine if I navigate within TWiki. However, if I try to navigate to an external link (e.g file:Z:\R&D\Trial\Budget_Expenses.xls) NOTHING happens. It is as iff I didn't even click on the link.

Has anyone seen, or better yet, found a cause/solution for this yet?

Environment

-- DavidChristie - 23 Oct 2008

Answer

If you answer a question - or have a question you asked answered by someone - please remember to edit the page and set the status to answered. The status is in a drop-down list below the edit box.

This is a limitation of the browser. There is a file:// protocol handler, but afaik it is only defined for local usage. Looking at your example I think you want to link to a smb/cifs network share. This is not possible with normal web browsers. There may be plugins and addons for IE or FF.

-- OliverKrueger - 23 Oct 2008

At least with Firefox, this works fine. You might have to adjust some settings first. See MozillaBrowserIssues#file_links_don_t_work and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Links_to_local_pages_don%27t_work

I don't have IE7 myself, but we tested it internally and it works as well. AFAIK, we didn't have to adjust anything to get it working.

-- MartinKaufmann - 24 Oct 2008

BTW, as of TWiki 4.2.2, you need three slashes, file:///... TWikibug:Item5981

But that works in both IE6 and IE7, but with IE7, the web server has to be in the trusted zone.

-- SeanCMorgan - 24 Oct 2008