We are developing a site that creates files and places them in designated folders. There is a requirement to download these files using browser from the front end, by right clicking on the mouse and choosing the 'Save Target As' option. The browser can be IE 4 and above and the site is hosted on a Windows 2000 server.

A problem exists when we attempt to download files from folders with the suffix '.com' The IE browser message displayed is as follows "Internet Explorer cannot download 'filname' from 'site name'. Internet Explorer was not able to open the Internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later."

This problem does not exist when folder name is anything else or when the site is hosted on a Windows NT 4.0 server.

Sounds like the OS thinks the .com files are websites? Can you save them as something else and then change the name back once you have them downloaded?

It happened to the project -- Wellsnet -- I am working on, also. When I use I.E. 5.5 Service Pack 1, the same message "Internet Explorer cannot download 'filname' from...." shows up. As an end user, I know you can work around this problem by selecting the button "Open the file from current location"
instead of the button "Save this file to disk". After you do that, the same widnow will appear on the screen, just select the button ""Save this file to disk". Then you will be able to save this file on your local drive.

However, as a web developer, I need to find if there are alternative ways solve this problem. It seems like that it might be a I.E. bug. Has everyone found any solution?

Amanda