Opening octet-stream instead of going to link

[Guest]

I've been having a problem with FF 3.5.2 and NS 1.9.x (happening now with 1.9.8 and whatever the last versions were over the past 2 weeks).

The problem is that some links to pages or to "actions" on the page incorrectly trigger a dialog about "Opening a ... [blank line here] which is a :application/octet-stream from: [url here]
What should Firefox do with this file ... Open / Save."

One example of when this happens in Yahoo Groups. In this case the link is to a a script that changes the display of messages either Group by Topic or List as Individual Messages.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xxxx/mess ... m=p&tidx=1

Selecting "temporarily allow all this page" in NS lets the link work as expected.

In other cases I don't know what the link might be for, or which specific script needs to be allowed. In the case of the Yahoo page there are probably 20 different entries in the list that could be allowed, but I have no idea which specific one might be required -- is there any way to know?

Are there any settings in NS that deal with "application/octet-streams" ?

[Grumpy Old Lady]

Selecting "temporarily allow all this page" in NS lets the link work as expected.

In other cases I don't know what the link might be for, or which specific script needs to be allowed. In the case of the Yahoo page there are probably 20 different entries in the list that could be allowed, but I have no idea which specific one might be required -- is there any way to know?

Unfortunately, there's no royal road to discovering what domains a page needs for functions a user wants.
So a process of elimination is the only proven way to get your answer - unless you can have an educated guess from the domain name - - as for example mycomment.com might be a good guess for accessing commenting in web2 stuff.

Are there any settings in NS that deal with "application/octet-streams" ?

No.
That's a name for data that a browser (or other apps, for example mail clients) can't associate with a MIME type - see your Fx Tools|Options|Applications list for the ones your Fx knows about. It can be application or document. Anything binary. You can edit that list.

I'm not able to guess in any detailed way about your particular problem, but it's very likely not a NS problem.

However, Yahoo US is a minefield that I have no clue about and there could likely be all kinds of Yahoo routines requiring scripting for particular MIME types - - don't know there. Even if I logon - I have a yahoo ID for flickr - I get no further with your example link than a message that informs me that

To enjoy this Web-only feature of xxxx, you need to enable Web Access.

- but that's a clue that some kind of extra scripts are needed if you've enabled a yahoo function.
If you want to give me any detailed examples that don't need a login and aren't yahoo, I might be able to have a better guess to try to direct you to where else in the Mozilla maze you can start troubleshooting.