SiteMeter Crashes Internet Explorer with 'Operation Aborted'

Last night several of my web sites, including the Drudge Retort, began crashing Internet Explorer with the error message "Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site ... Operation aborted."

I've encountered this error before, and when it occurs out of the blue on a site you haven't changed, the culprit is usually a problem with third-party Javascript code, as CNet's Clientside blog explains:

IE does this when you attempt to modify a DOM element before it is closed. This means that if you try and append a child element to another and that other element (like the document.body) is still loading, you'll get this error.

To find the error, remove JavaScript widgets one at a time from your site until the error disappears. The culprit here was SiteMeter, which made some recent changes to its code. I've pulled the SiteMeter code until they announce a fix.

Programming · Publishing · 2008/08/02 · 3 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

It looks like it works now with SiteMeter. We were having the same problem.

#1 · QuiQui · 2008/08/02

One at a time disabling wastes some of your time. Disable half of your external scripts. If it fixes the problem you now know which half. Repeat. It should take no time to narrow it down even you are running a site with more external scripts than metacafe.

This Comp Sci trick works when some app launched at startup starts causing grief as well.

#2 · Stephen Boisvert · 2008/08/03

That also happen to my site ... at first i thought somebody had hack my site ... Because recently i had post some leak video about china oplympic opening ceremony footage. Thx for the info.

#3 · henry chiah · 2008/08/04