The World WYKES Web is a complex website which contains static web pages (like this page) and dynamic pages generated by programs which run behind the scenes on the web-server.  Examples of these programs are the search facility, accessible from the home page, the Visitors Book, the Family Trees, the Distribution Analyses and the Private Forum. 

If you are running a personal firewall, such as BlackICE, AtGuard, Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall then you may find that parts of this site do not work properly.

This is because some firewalls block certain (harmless) interactions with this site.  Some even block the transmission of http information, in direct contravention of the accepted standards.

How Can I Tell if this is Happening?

Look at the image inside the red box above.  Then compare what you can see to the examples below.  The text to the right of each example explains what is happening.

Example 1

If everything is working correctly, you should be able to see two YX logos above, side by side, like Example 1.  The YX logo on the left is a normal, static image, the one on the right is generated by a program.

Example 2

If the image above looks like Example 2, and you can only see one logo and nothing else, or you see the YX logo on the left and an  icon which indicates a broken picture, then your personal firewall is blocking the output from programs on the web-server.  You probably need to configure your Personal Firewall to trust content from this site (www.wykes.org).

Example 3

If the image above looks like Example 3 and instead of the YX logo on the right, the word Blocked appears, then your personal firewall is blocking the HTTP_REFERER variable.  You probably need to configure your personal firewall to pass the HTTP_REFERER variable through to this site. You may be informed by your personal firewall's documentation that this information is for your privacy, but the HTTP_REFERER only contains the name of the page that invoked a call to the web server. It sends no personal information. The HTTP_REFERER is used by several of the web-server programs on this site to prevent them being used (stolen) by other web sites.

You should check your firewall's documentation, or the support section of the vendor's web site for information about relaxing the firewall security for this web site, or permitting the HTTP_REFERER information to be passed to the web-server.

If you are running one of the Norton firewalls, then you can enable HTTP_REFERER using the procedure described below (from the Symantec Web Site):-