NavList:

   

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Gary LaPook wrote:
> My recollection is that I used to be able to click on links on the
> website and they worked but that stopped some time ago. I went back to
> try to determine when the problem began. As examples, the two old
> messages in the links below each contain links that show up properly
> when I view them in my browser, both with Firefox and with Internet
> Explorer on the FER3 website. This shows that the problem is not with my
> browsers or with my computer.
>
>
> http://www.fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx?i=108866&y=200906
>
> http://www.fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx?i=108826&y=200906

Go to one of the above pages and view it raw HTML, not rendered as a Web
page. There should a command somewhere in your browser menus for that.
With Internet Explorer, it's View, Source. Note that the URL is
encapsulated in some HTML gobbledegook. Said gobbledegook is not present
in recent messages when viewed at the Web site.

I won't say *all* browsers work this way, but the ones I use will render
an URL as plain old text unless the URL is augmented with the HTML to
make it a link. Here some HTML I wrote to test that:





   
   
   



#1: http://www.fer3.com/arc/ is not clickable.

#2: http://www.fer3.com/arc/ is
clickable.

#3: NavList does the same thing as
#2.

#4: http://www.fer3.com/arc/
actually takes you to Microsoft.




You can copy the above lines into a text editor and save it as, say,
test.html, then open the file in a browser to see it work. The final
paragraph demonstrates how a scammer can secretly direct you to a
completely different place than you think you're going. But, if you put
the mouse pointer on the link and look at the status line (probably in
the bottom of your browser window) the true destination is visible.

Email programs tend to handle URLs differently from browsers. They
recognize URLs and automatically make them clickable. If browsers worked
that way it would be awkward for some purposes. For example, suppose you
had some Web pages to teach novices how URLs work. Some fictitious URLs
might be present. You wouldn't want them clickable.

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