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I get an error message "invalid character in line 1" when loading my ISP's webmail program

  • 7 replies
  • 11 have this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by TimPat

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I've tried ALL possible solutions offered in the Firefox articles without success. No problem with any other web sites, just the web mail site offered by the ISP, which blames Firefox. However, I can load the web mail site in IE (don't want to, though). The web mail program first gives the error message then allows login information to be filled in, then starts initializing and gets to "90%" of initializing then freezes while the wheel goes round 'n' round. Any ideas?

I've tried ALL possible solutions offered in the Firefox articles without success. No problem with any other web sites, just the web mail site offered by the ISP, which blames Firefox. However, I can load the web mail site in IE (don't want to, though). The web mail program first gives the error message then allows login information to be filled in, then starts initializing and gets to "90%" of initializing then freezes while the wheel goes round 'n' round. Any ideas?

All Replies (7)

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You can check the page source by prefixing the URL with the view-source: protocol like on the page:


You can reload web page(s) and bypass the cache to refresh possibly outdated or corrupted files.

  • Hold down the Shift key and left-click the Reload button
  • Press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
  • Press "Command + Shift + R" (Mac)

Clear the cache and cookies only from websites that cause problems.

"Clear the Cache":

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content: "Clear Now"

"Remove Cookies" from sites causing problems:

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > "Use custom settings for history" > Cookies: "Show Cookies"
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Thank you... tried that earlier and it hasn't solved the issue.  :-(

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Your issue started recently?

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Yes. Since it happened a few days ago, I have downloaded and installed the latest Firefox (went from ver. 29 to ver. 30), and I degraded IE to version 9 from version 11. The error message comes up in Firefox immediately, at exactly the time the sign-in page (username and password) loads on the screen. The error message no longer appears when I log on with IE ver. 9 (it was appearing the same as on Firefox until I degraded IE from version 11).

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TimPat: Thanks for your confirmation. So something goes wrong in Firefox 30. Can you open Web Console of Firefox and find any errors?

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You can remove all data stored in Firefox from a specific domain via "Forget About This Site" in the right-click context menu of an history entry ("History > Show All History" or "View > Sidebar > History") or via the about:permissions page.

Using "Forget About This Site" will remove all data stored in Firefox from that domain like bookmarks, cookies, passwords, cache, history, and exceptions, so be cautious and if you have a password or other data from that domain that you do not want to lose then make sure to backup this data or make a note.

You can't recover from this 'forget' unless you have a backup of the involved files.

It doesn't have any lasting effect, so if you revisit such a 'forgotten' website then data from that website will be saved once again.

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In looking at the console (first time - I am a naive user, not an expert) I find that there is a 404 error appearing on the 6th line of puts and gets in the console. All subsequent lines are 404 file not found errors, until the computer hangs. Here is the reading of the 5th and 6th line:

16:01:02.248 PUT https://www.webmail.bellaliant.net/ajax/multiple [HTTP/1.1 200 OK 443ms] 16:01:03.366 GET https://www.webmail.bellaliant.net/ox6/v=OEU5Kkd/plugins/com.openwave.richmail.userguide/lang/en_US.po [HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found 32ms]

Now I have found a virus on scanning the computer with Bitdefender, and I believe the problem may be caused by malware attached to a script library. Bitdefender says it cannot clean the file. Here is the message from Bitdefender:

c:\users\Tim\AppData\Local\Temp\DI\ValidationSctiptLibrary.dll has been detected as infected. Bitdefneder could not clean this item. Your computer is not virus-free. Virus name:Gen:Variant.Adware.AdGazelle.1

Cor-el suggests cleaning the Firefox memory with "forget about this site" - will that remove the problem?