MS FrontPage not resolving images

[RichieRich]

@Greenreader9

Just to make sure I understand the issue correctly:

• The website is working fine, and always has been. The problem is with MS front page (Or other local WYSIWYG editors)

First part of your statement is correct. The target website is working properly, regardless of what is happening with the HTML editors. Regarding your second statement, I doubt that the problem is with the HTML editors since changing the scr= value (in either editor) to the previous web hosting service results in the images being displayed. Using the Infinity hosting address results in no display, using either an old or “new and never used before” HTML editor. The HTML editor doesn’t show new or old images when using Infinity, but the FrontPage editor did in November '23.

• In the WYSIWYG editor, you enter the URL of the image you want displayed that is uploaded to a web host.
  • If you link to an image hosted NOT on IF, it works
  • If you link to an image hosted on IF, it does not work

Both statements are correct. I opened an existing web page in FrontPage (FP). The images/pictures did not resolve. I created that page last year in FP on IF. I made no changes to it, just opened it, and it was as I said earlier, no images/photos. I temporarily changed the code back to the old hosting site and the pictures appeared. Back to IF and the pictures didn’t display.

Editing the web page using FP (or Notepad++).
src=“https://knightsofni.epizy.com/photos/kon_202108_allofus.jpg” - no photo
src=“http://home.insightbb.com/~knightsofni/photosx/kon_202108_allofus.jpg” -photo
(On the website, both work)

Assuming the above, when the editor calls the server to request the image, the security system is triggered and the image is not returned. It works if you link to an image on a different web host as other providers may not have the same systems.

The image is requested the same way in a web browser, isn’t it? The image exists on only one server. Whether I request the image in an HTML editor, paste the image’s URL in the search bar or use a web browser to get to the page, it’s a published/open to the public image. It’s the same server hosting the file. The security would be the same.

[RichieRich]

@Greenreader9

As for working in the past, this system has been in place for as long as I can remember, so perhaps you were using local image copies or those hosted elsewhere?

I failed to say thank you for replying to my question. I appreciate everyone’s help. Many thanks )

No, I moved to IF in December 2022. I copied the web pages images and photos from the old site to IF. I created new pages, images and photos on the new IF site.

The images/photos on the IF website display, so the HTML is correct. New photos were created for the IF site, they don’t exist on the old site, so there’s only one place they can be accessed. I can edit anything, including images/photos, ftp upload to the IF site, put the src= URL in the code and publish the web page to the IF server. Everything works. I just can’t see the images/photos in the HTML editors.

If it was security, wouldn’t it be a problem
for both editors?
for HTML text, tables, etc?
Why just images?

I keep a backup of the entire website locally, yes. If I was to reference the local copies then the web site wouldn’t work. The page(s) would be full of unresolved links, but that’s not what’s happening.

[Greenreader9]

When you edit the page in FrontPage, the HTML is coming from your local computer, right? Or is it editing it live over FTP?

If you are adding in an SRC attribute to an IMG tag, and front page is trying to request that image from IF, it will fail as FrontPage is not a browser (nor does it need to be).

[RichieRich]

FP is WYSIWYG. There are tabs to see Design, split screen (code & WYSIWYG), code and preview. Notepad++ has code and preview windows.

When developing in FP you can specify pictures from your local drive or from the Internet. When FP was connecting to an FP server you could publish the entire site; images, photos, HTML, everything. Now you have to use FTP software to publish the individual parts. If you are editing in FP and haven’t sent the images/photos by FTP to the hosting server you will get the ‘not found’ red X on your edited webpage. That’s what I’m seeing on mine, FP or Notepad++. It appears to me that there is no connection between the HTML software and the hosting website. The requested image isn’t returned. But if you publish the HTML, it works. Images are resolved and the page is properly displayed. It’s just difficult to edit in HTML software.

In the attachments with code you can see the IF “<base” points to the IF server.

[RichieRich]

Here is the split page with the “<base” pointing to the old hosting site. The images/photos display.

Here is the IF hosted site with the source code displaying the images/photos
https://knightsofni.epizy.com/

[Greenreader9]

Yeah, this is your problem:

Ensuring only web browsers can access your website

InfinityFree is a website hosting service. That means that the hosting accounts we provided are intended for hosting websites. Websites contain pages that are accessed through web browsers. InfinityFree is not intended to be used for file sharing, API hosting, database hosting or background tasks/tools. To help enforce this, free hosting enforces a security system that makes sure that anyone trying to access your website is using a normal web browser. This is done by checking whether the web br…

FP can’t request the images from IF, it gets blocked.

[RichieRich]

I’m thinking there is something wrong with my account. I don’t use my site for file sharing (although you’d just need to provide a link to a file on your hosted site without putting a link on the page), API hosting, DB hosting or any background processes. I have a pretty simple site of HTML, images and photos.

I have a few questions:

1. It worked for me all of 2023 and I developed/modified several pages. Was this policy implemented in 2024?

2. Not allowing development software to access images already uploaded to the server will make it nearly impossible to develop a page, IMO. If I develop a page of images and HTML on my PC and upload the images to the IF site I then have to modify the HTML to point to the IF images before uploading the page to IF. If there is a modification I have to change my HTML back to the local sources, modify, change it again to the IF links and publish. Is this the recommended IF process?

3. Am I the only one reporting this issue? If so, what is everyone else using as an HTML development tool? (FP is old, but Notepad++ is current and has the same issue.)

4. How do I escalate this issue to developers?

Thanks

[Greenreader9]

@RichieRich

It worked for me all of 2023 and I developed/modified several pages. Was this policy implemented in 2024?

No, it’s been around for several years. Are you sure that you used links to images hosted on IF before?

@RichieRich

If I develop a page of images and HTML on my PC and upload the images to the IF site I then have to modify the HTML to point to the IF images before uploading the page to IF.

Normally, editors automatically generate relative links when you export, and most modern WYSIWYG editors allow you to upload the images directly into the software, which then exports the relative image links and the images themselves.

The recommended process is to code locally with relative links, then upload the working directory via FTP when you are ready to push to production.

@RichieRich

what is everyone else using as an HTML development tool? (FP is old, but Notepad++ is current and has the same issue.)

Again, use relative links. Or create environment variables if using a programming language or framework. Hardcoding in a URL is not a good idea as URLs can change

@RichieRich

How do I escalate this issue to developer

It’s not an issue, it’s a feature. It’s not going to be changed, especially since there are workarounds, and removing it will cause more issues than it will solve.

You can always upgrade to premium which does not have the restriction.

[RichieRich]

[quote=“Greenreader9, post:13, topic:92604”]
No, it’s been around for several years. Are you sure that you used links to images hosted on IF before?[/quote]

I used FP all of 2023, from the move from the old site to my last modified page in 11/23. It always worked… always.

Normally, editors automatically generate relative links when you export, and most modern WYSIWYG editors allow you to upload the images directly into the software, which then exports the relative image links and the images themselves.

The recommended process is to code locally with relative links, then upload the working directory via FTP when you are ready to push to production.

FP used to do that but it required a FP supported host server. I have used Notepad++ in the past and it didn’t offer that ability. I don’t think it does now but I will explore.

@RichieRich

How do I escalate this issue to developer

It’s not an issue, it’s a feature.

I’ve heard that before

Okay, thanks for your time. I’ll drop back 10 yards and punt

[Admin]

@RichieRich

It worked for me all of 2023 and I developed/modified several pages. Was this policy implemented in 2024?

No, this system has been in place since before InfinityFree was launched in 2016. I don’t know why it worked for you before, I cannot think of any way it would.

@RichieRich

Not allowing development software to access images already uploaded to the server will make it nearly impossible to develop a page, IMO. If I develop a page of images and HTML on my PC and upload the images to the IF site I then have to modify the HTML to point to the IF images before uploading the page to IF. If there is a modification I have to change my HTML back to the local sources, modify, change it again to the IF links and publish. Is this the recommended IF process?

Developing a local website with remote resources is very unusual in my opinion. Usually, if you develop your website locally, you have your entire website locally. That way, you can easily make changes to images along with your website code, making sure everything works, and then upload everything to your live site. Building a local website with remote resources makes that much more difficult.

Usually, the way to do this is to use relative URLs. So instead of having URLs like http://example.com/images/photo.jpg hard-coded on all pages, you can use relative URLs like /images/photo.jpg instead. Some people choose to use a few sprinkles of PHP to generate the URLs dynamically.

I have never used FrontPage and don’t know what would work well with it. But as a software engineer, I can tell you that developing against production systems is something that you should never do.

@RichieRich

Am I the only one reporting this issue? If so, what is everyone else using as an HTML development tool? (FP is old, but Notepad++ is current and has the same issue.)

I think you’re the only one, yes. I have even seen other people use FrontPage who didn’t talk about any issues like this.

As for alternatives, I don’t really know of any. Desktop based WYSIWYG editors are a dying breed. Web based website building platforms are much more popular: you can have advanced, dynamic functionality on your website, edit your site from all your devices, and never have to deal with moving files across.

@RichieRich

How do I escalate this issue to developers?

I have contacts at iFastNet to get issues resolved. But only for things which are beneficial to the hosting platform in general. And changing major components of our hosting just because it’s inconvenient for the development workflow of a few people is not something they will do.

It seems to me that your particular workflow just doesn’t work well with our hosting. If you like our hosting otherwise, please consider changing your URLs so you can use local images during development instead. If that’s not an option for you, then you may want to consider an alternative solution to host your website, or at least the images.

[RichieRich]

I found the problem. Apparently the SSL certificate isn’t working or wasn’t applied, although the previous one wasn’t expired. Maybe I failed to do something to make it work.

In my HTML I have target=“_self” HREF=“httpS://knightsofni.epizy.com/”>
That’s not resolving because it’s not currently a secure site because of the SSL certificate. I remove the “s”, making it http and everything pops into place.

[RichieRich]

It won’t resolve in FP as https:// only as http://
Firefox will accept either, probably forces https://

That’s a workable solution for me. I just need to make the link secure before publishing. At least I can see the images now.

[RichieRich]

My account has been suspended for too many hits. It’s probably because of our investigation into the issue, or additional readers to this thread, going to the site. Can I get it activated again or do I have to wait for the 24 hour time out?

[Thewebuser22]

You’ll just have to wait 24 hours. It will come back online though, you just gotta hang tight

[RichieRich]

It says I’m allowed 50,000 hits per day. There’s only 11 guys in our fishing group and only 1 says he’s getting the suspended page. It’s a very small group of people (as far as I know) that ever goes there. It would be nice if there was a hit count and source info that was posted. Is that on a control panel?

I think our analysis of my problem accounts for some of it but there may be people viewing the thread that account for the rest. It’s just over the top for my normal page activity I’m sure.

I don’t mind waiting but I don’t want to be considered a problem account because of this.

[Frank419]

When FrontPage is trying to load an image from your site it creates a hit. So if you are actively developing with FrontPage it can create a lot of hits so the limit is triggered.

That’s also be added to why using FrontPage with remote images (especially here!) is a bad idea.

[RichieRich]

The site says I’m allowed 50,000 hits in 24 hours. Since my problem was that I wasn’t getting the images/photos to appear then there shouldn’t have been any hits until late yesterday when I finally found the problem. I would love to see the IP addresses of the hit count, sorted by IP address.

There are 11 guys in my fishing group. They rarely visit, only when I’ve updated it with a new fishing trip, which I haven’t done since last fall. All the old images/photos should be cached. There are a total of 3,241 files in the entire web. If each of us visited and requested every file in the site, putting the files in their cache, there would still be 14,349 hits left. Now if 16 people who had never been to my site, got the URL from this thread and visited, then yes, it would exceed the 50,000 allowance, if they visited every page in the site. I think someone was hammering the site but I can’t prove it. I can’t stop it.

[RichieRich]

@Frank419

That’s also be added to why using FrontPage with remote images (especially here!) is a bad idea.

I have never before hit the limit, developing several updated pages with photos and images in all of 2023. If I request an image/photo/page, it’s cached. I don’t think that counts as a hit if the page finds it in my cache. Even now, with a disabled site, I can still see most of the pages because they come from the cache, not the server. Only when I change / add a photo to the IF site will it be a hit.

Here’s the graph from my site. As you can see, it’s normally at about zero.

[KangJL]

@RichieRich

Since my problem was that I wasn’t getting the images/photos

I believe every image is considered a hit, whether the response is 200 or 404.
If you have 999 images on every page, you will get 1000 hits for every page view.
Just 50 page views will cause your hosting account to be suspended

[RichieRich]

@KangJL

I believe every image is considered a hit, whether the response is 200 or 404.
If you have 999 images on every page, you will get 1000 hits for every page view.
Just 50 page views will cause your hosting account to be suspended

If my account is suspended then there shouldn’t be any hits right now. Yet I can see all the pages that are in my cache because the browser searches the cache first, before sending a file request to the web page. Only when I visit a page I haven’t seen since moving to IF do I get the ‘suspended’ page.

I’d like a technical person from IF to show me why a cached file counts as a hit since the file isn’t resolved by the web server.