Error Message Appears When You Try to Add a Long URL to a Security Zone (260606)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows NT 4.0
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows 98 Second Edition
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows 98
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows 95
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows 2000

This article was previously published under Q260606

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to add a Web site to security zone, you may receive the following error message:

You have entered an invalid wildcard sequence.

Examples of valid patterns:

*://*.mysite.com
http://*.mysite.co.jp
ftp://157.54.23.41/
file:\\\\localsvr\\share
*://157.54.100-200.*

Examples of invalid patterns:

http://*.sub.mysite.edu
ftp://*"

CAUSE

This behavior occurs when the length of the URL is greater than 255 characters in length.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, shorten the length of the typed URL. This can be done in some cases by using wildcard characters in the URL name, based on the "Examples of valid patterns" section of the error message located in the "Symptoms" section of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

To assign a Web site to a security zone, follow these steps:

On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options.
Click the Security tab.
Click a security zone: Local intranet zone, Trusted sites zone, or Restricted sites zone.
If you clicked Local intranet, click Advanced.
Click Sites, and then type the Internet address for the Web site that you want to add to this zone.

Note: You cannot add Web sites to the Internet zone, which includes everything that does not belong to any other zone and is not on your local computer.

REFERENCES

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

200235 Err Msg: The Name You Have Entered for the Favorite Is Too Long

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	1/14/2006
Keywords:	kbprb KB260606