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How to get the Wayback Machine working again, at Archive.org
Posted: 2022-10-01, 13:59
by CodeLurker
The Wayback Machine at Archive.org (
https://web.archive.org/) is sometimes quite useful in retrieving webpages that have since gone down. In recent weeks, however, it started giving me this "Fail with status: 498 No Reason Phrase" when you type in an address, and the page it is on, the calendar page, which is thus broken, is very important to finding good archives of the page in question. After some searching the forums and elsewhere, I came across this solution: "
Fail with status: 498 No Reason Phrase' error message: what does it mean?". The last message there held the solution that also worked for me: network.http.sendRefererHeader, e.g. in about:config, needs to be set to 2, or else the Wayback Machine will break (and then how will Mr. Peabody go back in time?). Doing so compromises privacy a little, by allowing it to be sent in all cases (the FF default) instead of when "links or similar elements are clicked"; as per
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Referrer. If anyone cares enough, they might write an extension to switch it per website.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again
Posted: 2022-10-01, 14:05
by Moonchild
web.archive.org works just fine for me without messing with the referrer header settings.
Although, perhaps it depends on the website in question you are visiting, in that it may not like it that it's been archived on a different domain (archive.org instead of its original domain)? If that's the case then maybe it's an idea to report this to web.archive.org so they can adjust their translation/processing to catch this corner case.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again
Posted: 2022-10-01, 14:58
by CodeLurker
I tried to recall several different pages in recent weeks, and have only encountered this error. The answer I found was by someone presumably recalling another. Maybe it has to do with me using Win7; but it used to work for me for a long time (although maybe that was just in Basilisk). I just tried it again, on a completely different site:
https://cygwin.com/faq.html, but it still errored out if it was "1', but not if it was "2". The problem seems consistent across several websites. Reporting it there is a good idea. I'd hope PM becomes more popular, and more PM users would ask for webmasters to not break it. I had the thought of offering a story to FOSSHub or the like, about supporting CAA extensions again (although of course, not 100%, but the vast majority of the ones that matter) to popularize it. You may want to offer such a story instead. I don't mind a few hacks to get sites working again, when PM works like FF should have been working all along. I'm glad to be able to offer a solution for a change, instead of a problem.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again, at Archive.org
Posted: 2022-10-01, 15:29
by Mæstro
The Wayback Machine works for me in Pale Moon by default: I could navigate from web.archive.org to
this site as normal.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again, at Archive.org
Posted: 2022-10-01, 15:34
by CodeLurker
I can get to the page at that link just fine too, even if it's "1". It's just the calendar part that's giving me a problem. in the Console, I get the error:
Code: Select all
Unhandled promise rejection TypeError: Cannot convert a Symbol value to a string
Stack trace:
5cuX/t.exports/S<@https://web.archive.org/static/bower_components/wayback-search-js/dist/vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:41800
2eJa/</<@https://web.archive.org/static/bower_components/wayback-search-js/dist/vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:26021
V37c/t.exports@https://web.archive.org/static/bower_components/wayback-search-js/dist/vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:293710
PKPk/<@https://web.archive.org/static/bower_components/wayback-search-js/dist/vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:250600
R/<@https://web.archive.org/static/bower_components/wayback-search-js/dist/vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:358253
s@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:5449
value@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:22070
value@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:21180
globalThis.litHtmlPolyfillSupport/s._$AI@https://archive.org/includes/build/npm/lit/polyfill-support.js?v=556d76d3:6:2978
value@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:20509
value@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:21823
value@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:21134
globalThis.litHtmlPolyfillSupport/s._$AI@https://archive.org/includes/build/npm/lit/polyfill-support.js?v=556d76d3:6:2355
jt@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:17005
value@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:26130
value@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:12821
value@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:12435
i/<@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:12156
p@https://web.archive.org/static/bower_components/wayback-search-js/dist/vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:360690
f/i._invoke</<@https://web.archive.org/static/bower_components/wayback-search-js/dist/vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:360445
x/</<@https://web.archive.org/static/bower_components/wayback-search-js/dist/vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:361050
f@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:1395
s@https://archive.org/includes/build/js/ia-topnav.min.js?v=556d76d3:756:1602
Y@https://web.archive.org/static/bower_components/wayback-search-js/dist/vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:303398
G/<@https://web.archive.org/static/bower_components/wayback-search-js/dist/vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:303620
vendors~main.a8451b6a32aaad51a0aa.chunk.js:3:267773
That's PM 31.2.0.1 64-bit.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again, at Archive.org
Posted: 2022-10-01, 15:44
by Mæstro
I am using the same version, and I had accessed that page through the calendar after searching the URL.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again, at Archive.org
Posted: 2022-10-01, 15:47
by CodeLurker
Hmm. I'm on Win7 SP1 x64 tho.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again, at Archive.org
Posted: 2022-10-02, 02:16
by jobbautista9
Setting network.http.sendRefererHeader to 1 does break the calendar for me, and I'm on GNU/Linux.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again, at Archive.org
Posted: 2022-10-02, 04:12
by andyprough
Yes, my network.http.sendRefererHeader was set to 2 by default, if I set it to 1 I lose that little calendar timeline at the top of the wayback page. But as I say, I was on 2 by default and it was working. Sounds like that extension the OP mentioned could be useful, as you could leave it set to the better privacy setting of "1" unless you needed to send the referrer header to a page. I'm going to try leaving it at "1" for a bit and see if that screws up very many sites.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again, at Archive.org
Posted: 2022-10-02, 10:25
by Blacklab
CodeLurker wrote:Hmm. I'm on Win7 SP1 x64 tho.
Hmm... I've tested WayBackMachine (WBM) on a Win7 SP1 x64 machine and the site works as expected using my normal Pale Moon profile and on a completely clean profile... the
https://cygwin.com/faq.html website opens and WBM's calendar page displays correctly.
Therefore, I don't think using the Windows 7 OS has anything to do with whatever is causing your problems with WBM.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again, at Archive.org
Posted: 2022-10-02, 10:33
by Moonchild
Well, the default for network.http.sendRefererHeader is 2 for a reason, is all I can say.
Re: How to get the Wayback Machine working again, at Archive.org
Posted: 2022-10-03, 13:39
by CodeLurker
I guess my Basilisk had it on "2", but my old PM, which I updated and am now using as my main browser, had it on "1" - whether I set it that way, or some extension might have, I can't remember. In retrospect, I might have right-clicked it, and chose "Reset" to see what the default value was. I don't suppose that setting ever being 1 is important to people, as there are extensions that manage referrers already. So, I'd think skip the extension.
This can be of help to those who have this problem having gotten the setting changed for whatever reason in the future. The post I found with the solution was by somebody who had the same problem.