"You Have Entered an Invalid Domain" Error Message When You Attempt to Customize Privacy Settings (303477)

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to customize privacy settings and override cookie handling for individual Web sites, either of the following behaviors may occur:

When you type ftp://ftp.domain_name.com in the Address of Web site box, you receive the following error message:
You have entered an invalid domain. Domains must be in the Internet zone and must be use the HTTP and HTTPS protocol.
When you type ftp.domain_name.com in the Address of Web site box, domain_name.com is added to the Managed Web sites list.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs if you attempt to override cookie handling for FTP sites. Note that cookies are not a feature of the FTP protocol, and therefore, you are unable to configure privacy settings for FTP sites. Privacy settings are valid only for Web sites that use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) protocols.

When you type ftp://ftp.domain_name.com in the Address of Web site box, Internet Explorer recognizes that this is an invalid protocol with regard to privacy settings and displays the message described in the "Symptoms" section of this article.

When you type ftp.domain_name.com, Internet Explorer assumes that the URL is an HTTP site instead of an FTP site. For example, if you type ftp.microsoft.com in the Address of Web site box, and then click either Block or Allow, microsoft.com is added to the Managed Web sites list, and per-site rules are created for the microsoft.com domain. As a result, when you visit the www.microsoft.com Web site, cookies from this Web site are either blocked or saved to your computer based on your per-site privacy settings. For example, note that these privacy settings apply to the Web sites http(s)://microsoft.com, http(s)://ftp.microsoft.com, http(s)://msdn.microsoft.com, because cookies settings are established on a per-domain basis. However, when you visit the FTP site ftp://ftp.microsoft.com, the per-site privacy settings do not apply and no cookies are blocked or saved to your computer, because cookies are not a feature of FTP sites.

RESOLUTION

You cannot add FTP sites to the Managed Web sites list because FTP sites do not use cookies. Ensure that the Managed Web sites list contains the correct addresses for the Web sites that you want to manage. Remove any incorrect or inappropriate addresses from the list, and then type the correct addresses for any Web sites that you want to manage in the Address of Web site box. The Web address must be in the Internet zone and use the HTTP or HTTPS protocol. For example, the following are valid Web addresses:

http://www.microsoft.com
http://microsoft.com
www.microsoft.com

Therefore, to resolve this issue, follow these steps:

Start Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click the Privacy tab.
Under Web Sites, click Edit.
In the Managed Web sites list, click the address that you want to remove, click Remove, and then click OK.
In the Address of Web site box, type the correct Web address, and then click Block if you do not want to allow the Web site to save cookies on your computer. Or, click Allow if you want to allow the Web site to save cookies on your computer.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about managing cookies in Internet Explorer, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

283185 How to Manage Cookies in Internet Explorer 6

For additional information about default privacy settings in Internet Explorer, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

293222 The Default Privacy Settings for Internet Explorer 6

For additional information about custom privacy settings in Internet Explorer, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: