Attempt to access www.joomla.org with IE7 returns 406 - Not Acceptable error

MikeDiggins--Perhaps of help
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/InternetExplorer/thread/08319f73-da16-4942-9af7-13c488ba3201

jcimarron, many thanks, I've seen something similar but wasn't sure it applied to this issue. I've checked the system 32 and Program Files/IE folders and do not have a copy of inetmgr.exe there. I'm not running IIS (don't really intend to) and this was just a normal visit to a homepage. I'm not sure I understand the kb article (942050) - it implies I'll be modifying the visited site and I'm not sure joomla.org would like that. The effect only seems to happen when I visit the joomla site using the desktop I'm developing a joomla-based website on. Given I'm not intending to run IIS, should I try downloading inetmgr.exe and following those steps, or is there another way to do this, please? I guess I'm just a bit nervous that I'm developing a hosted Joomla site and suddenly joomla.org becomes "unacceptable"; I'd like to eliminate the idea of something sinister going on. Many thanks.

MikeDiggins--Does this help
http://www.eukhost.com/forums/f38/joomla-installation-406-errors-4418/   ?
If not, I cannot answer your questions.  
Good luck.

Thanks, I'd seen this one and believe it relates to returning data from a site you've built in Joomla, not someone trying to open joomla.org itself. This could be related to the release of Joomla 1.6, so I'll try the forum; in the meantime any help received very gratefully.

Most of the other people who have had this problem have traced it to mod_security.  Have you checked on that?

Hi Jason
Yes I've seen the posts around that and can understand why it can be a problem when you're running through a Joomla! site. This, however, is just me trying to point IE at xxx.joomla.org (www, docs, forum, anything) using a particular desktop. I don't even have Joomla installed on the machine in question - and it only seems to have become a problem since joomla-org went to 1.6. Therefore I'm struggling to understand both why mod_security should suddenly be a problem, and what I need to do to correct it. I'm only too happy to check out mod_security, but I'm at a loss to find the starting point. I accept it's something on this box as I don't have the problem on any others - any idea of where I might start to find out what's blocking the return, please?

Apologies, it was late and I was skimming, not reading.

Have you run stuff like Malwarebytes or HitManPro to rule out infection?

Does it work on a different machine ON THE SAME CONNECTION (in other words, is the laptop connecting to the internet in the same way as the "bad" machine).

Fair enough, and good questions. I'm running Norton 360 which has been a pretty good defence, but I'll give MalWareBytes a crack just to be sure.
The laptop is a wireless connection but runs through the same modem as the desktop, and that's fine (apart from having to run Vista).
I'll post again when I've had  go with MWB

Additional to my last post - a full scan with MalWareBytes turned up nothing, so as far as I know, the machine is clean.

I was hoping to avoid the browser wars, but yes, Chrome does the trick. I'm beginning to have a suspicion that Joomla 1.6 wasn't tested too well on IE7 - though why it should only be one machine affected still escapes me. I'm going to treat this as an excuse to go to IE8 next time I have a spare couple of hours and use Chrome to get at Joomla in the meantime.
Happy to award the points and thanks for hanging in there on this one.

While this didn't actually provide a cause for this problem, it did lead me through the various possibilities and to the conclsusion that I need an upgrade rather than an answer. Thank you.

I still have a hard time believing that merely working on or accessing a Joomla site would kill the browser.  I was actually leaning towards corruption on your local machine which affected IE and a repair would have probably fixed it.  If there was a global configuration problem (like the hosts file) it would have affected all browsers and would have indicated a different troubleshooting path.

Glad you got it working, though.  Thanks.

To add to this post, I have encountered the 406 error problem with a particular website, www.piaad2.org, but on every machine in the shop, running all different browsers - IE (7, 8, 9), Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and they are all pulling the error.  Take any one of those machines and hook it up to a different modem (there are multiple, discrete Internet connections in the shop) with a different Internet connetion, and it works - the website can be accessed without any problem.  BOTH Internet connections are Comcast, but the one that does not work is behind a Cisco 1841 and an ASA 5505.

Thanks - good to know I'm not the only one to have seen this and yes, the problem has followed me to IE8. I'v edecided to just accept the situation and use Chrome to get through to the Joomla sites.