IE6 problems when using gzip_disable

[dbro]

Thanks for the suggestions Maxim. I think there is some progress
described below:

Maxim Dounin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Probably (at least your installation of) IE6 has
> problems with 
> downloading (big?) .js files over keepalive
> connections.  Gzip has 
> mostly nothing to do with it as 1) it's disabled
> as expected, 2) 
> one can't rely on content being gzipped all over
> the net anyway 
> and 3) having problems with non-gzipped content
> doesn't mean there 
> are no problems with gzipped one.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. It seems like gzip is involved
in the problem, either on IE's end or nginx's end, based on this
summary:
With nginx conf file having "gzip off;", the problem exists (for .js
files. other files work OK)
With 'gzip on; gzip_disable "msie6"', the problem exists (for .js files.
other files work OK)
Keeping "gzip on;" and removing 'gzip_disable "msie6"', fixes the
problem for .js files, and other files continue to work OK.

> You may want to check the following:
> 
> 1. If size or actual javascript content matters
> (i.e. if using 
> smaller or simplier file makes any difference).
Yes! I created a test file with a single javascript command (alert('test
message');) followed by a long block comment. When the text file's size
was less than 2596 bytes (gzip'd file was 719 bytes), it worked just
fine. Any larger, even by a single character, and it would show the same
delay as before. What does this mean?

> 2. If removing gzip completely makes any
> difference.
See above. the problem exists when nginx's conf file has "gzip off;"
too.

> 3. If using another web server with keepalive
> support makes any 
> difference.
I havent tried this

> 4. If your IE6 installation is able to cache files
> (and time is 
> set correctly).  Note that most of the problems
> with "IE can't 
> download file" seems to be caused by "can't save
> to disk but need 
> to" problem, see here:
> 
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812935
This souded like a different problem, involving https. In any case, they
recommend unchecking a box to fix it (if I read it correctly), and it
was already unchecked in the IE options.

Posted at Nginx Forum: http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,167982,168084#msg-168084