Shouldn't it be "file://" instead of "file:/"? If that fix doesn't lick it, it may be something to do with oldschool Mac colon delimited file hierarchies vs. newschool Unix-interweb forward-slash delimted hierarchies. Maybe IE mangles the translation of that, I dunno. Potentially it could be a big problem, if other applications are doing the same thing -- hardwiring the : delimter instead of allowing the system to define it. Hmm. Something to watch for with Classic apps....

Hi,

Why are you using "file" URLs anyway? Remember you've got an Apache web server running so just put your home page in "/Library/WebServer/Documents" (on your OS X volume if you're using the Finder) and then the URL is "http://localhost/filename.html"

Once you've done that read the Apache documentation at "http://localhost/manual/" and you can have fun with your web server doing things like setting up include files. I forget exactly where Apache hides its config file on the OS X install but log into a shell as root and execute "find . -name httpd.conf" and you'll find it.

So you should have to be running Apache to access your own custom bookmark file?

Are you from Microsoft?

Something funny is going on with my on-machine apache webserver and MSIE for OSX

I have my machine set to manual TCPIP configuration to operate behind my firewall - here's a reproducible crash for me: Boot the machine while disconnected from the ethernet network. Open MSIE, type http://localhost/ in the address bar. BOOM - no more MSIE!

Open terminal application, "ping" localhost --> no problem.

Open MSIE, type "http:/127.0.0.1/" --> no problem.

Now connect the machine to the network, reboot. Type http://localhost --> Works no problem.

Hmm. Again, boot the machine disconnected from the network. Open MSIE. Plug in the ethernet cable. Open http://localhost/ ---> no problem.

Now disconnect the ethernet cable. Type http://localhost/ --> no problem.

Put machine to sleep. Wake it up later, still disconnected from network. Type http://localhost/ --> no problem.

It seems that, on every boot, MSIE needs to be connect to the ethernet network at least once to access localhost? Then it can be disconnected, and continues to work, until you reboot. ?

IE5 has a bug that results in an immediate shutdown at startup when it's own "Favorites.html" file is used as the "home page" AND that "Favorites.html" contains certain HTML code. Sounds like that bug is still there in the 5.1 Carbon build. I have only experienced this once myself in OS9. No idea what causes the problem. Wonder if MS even knows?

BTW, the format is "file:///" I set my OS9 IE "Favorites.html" as the "home page" in OS X and have been using it with IE, iCab and OmniWeb for a couple weeks now with zero problems.

3.1 Browsing local files or network zones will cause Internet Explorer to quit unexpectedly
Browsing local volumes or network zones will be supported in the final release of Internet Explorer 5.1 for Mac.