American Association of Petroleum Geologists

Bulletin/Bulletin Archives help for Norton Internet Security/Norton Personal Firewall users

Many users of the Norton Internet Security and Norton Personal Firewall products have reported that they are unable to access the AAPG Bulletin Online via AAPG Members Only. This is because of some faulty default settings in the Norton software. We have identified two potential problems which are caused by the Norton software:
  • Your AAPG dues are paid, but you do not see the gold buttons at the top of your screen.

    • —OR—
     
  • You see the gold buttons, but you see a second login screen when you click "AAPG Bulletin Online" or "Search Bulletin Archives".
The first of these problems is being caused by Norton Internet Security's "Ad Blocking" feature (it thinks the buttons are banner ads). The second is because Norton is blocking your computer from sending "referer header" information. The following step should solve both problems and allow you to gain access to the Bulletin Online:
  1. In Norton Internet Security, double-click Privacy Control, and then click Advanced.
  2. In the bottom of the "Advanced" window, click Add Site.
  3. In the "New Site/Domain" box, type datapages.com (NOTE: do NOT leave the "www." in the box!), and click OK.
  4. Click "datapages.com" in the left frame of the Options window.
  5. On the "Global Settings" tab, under the "Information about visited sites" section, uncheck Use default settings.
  6. Click Permit. (This will allow the referer header to be sent to datapages.com.)

  7. Click Add Site again.
  8. In the "New Site/Domain" box, type aapg.org (NOTE: do NOT leave the "www." in the box!), and click OK.
  9. Click "aapg.org" in the left frame of the Options window.
  10. Click the Ad Blocking tab.
  11. Click Add.
  12. In the "Add New HTML String" dialog box, select Permit. (This will allow the buttons to be visible, even with ad blocking turned on for other sites.)

  13. Click OK, then click OK to close the Advanced window, then click OK to close the Ad Blocking window.
  14. Close all instances of your Web browser, and then reopen your browser and access AAPG Members Only. You should be able to see and use the gold buttons to access the Bulletin and/or Bulletin Archives (depending on your membership type and level of access).
For more information from Symantec/Norton's Web site, take a look at the following articles: If you are interested in more detail on the "referer header," check out this article from the September, 2005 Explorer.