Answers.Body: <p>When you create a mailing with CiviMail, there's an option:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Track Click Throughs</p>
    
    <p>Track the number of times recipients click each link in this mailing.</p>
    
    <p>NOTE: When this feature is enabled, all links in the message body will
    be automatically re-written to route through your CiviCRM server prior
    to redirecting to the target page.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Perhaps you have enabled this option? This wouldn't normally prevent the links from working, however.</p>
  
  <p>Are the links in the email something like, <a href="http://mysite.com/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=123&amp;qid=12345" rel="nofollow">http://mysite.com/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=123&amp;qid=12345</a> ? If so, that is normal when tracking click throughs is enabled.</p>
  
  <p>What happens when a user clicks on one of the links?</p>
  
  <p>Which CiviCRM version and CMS (Drupal, Wordpress or Joomla) are you using?</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-19T15:26:52.773Z
Answers.Text: What happens is that the link which should be to our website is now saying something like 192.168.1.4/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/… - not like yours. When I click on that it takes me to our civi program and shows me the page I wanted on the website, but when other people click on it they see nothing because they're not authorised to access our Civi program.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Carol Thornton
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-19T15:49:32.637Z
Answers.Text: Your link seems to be like mine except for having 192.168.1.4 in place of a hostname. 192.168.1.4 is a private IP address, meaning it can only be accessed from within your local network. Two solutions: either turn off "Track Click Throughs" on future mailings, or talk to your network administrator, refer them to this post and ask if external access can be configured for /sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php . You may also want access to open.php in the same location, to track people opening the emails.
Answers.UserDisplayName: davejenx
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-20T08:27:17.320Z
Answers.Text: Thanks - that looks plausible - I've passed it on to the IT guys (who we buy in, so I try not to use them too much!) and we'll have a play with it later to see if it works.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Carol Thornton
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-19T14:15:48.243Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-04-19T14:15:48.243Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: davejenx
Answers.Body: <p>If it works for you but not for anonymous users, it is likely connected to a permission problem either caused by CiviCRM/your CMS or your server set up. Did you change anything on your set up lately e.g. put your install behind a VPN?</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-19T15:21:15.417Z
Answers.Text: Maybe I didn't explain properly. What happens is that the link which should be to our website is now saying something like http://192.168.1.4/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=473&qid=204189 - when I click on that it takes me to our civi program and shows me the page I wanted on the website, but when other people click on it they see nothing because they're not authorised to access our program.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Carol Thornton
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-19T14:42:26.333Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-04-19T14:42:26.333Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Fabian
Body: <p>I use our CiviCRM database to send out mailings to members.
  The mailings contain links to articles on our website.
  It has worked well for years but now when I press 'Send' the links in the email corrupt and reference a CiviCRM link instead of the website link so recipients can't access it. For a while I didn't notice because of course when I click the link myself in the copy I receive, it opens, and CiviCRM doesn't give an alert or warning.</p>
  
  <p>Any idea what's happening and how I can fix it? (Remember I'm not an expert!)</p>
  
Tags: <issues><links>
Title: Links corrupt on send
ThreadText: # Links corrupt on send
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2016-04-19)
  
  I use our CiviCRM database to send out mailings to members.
  The mailings contain links to articles on our website.
  It has worked well for years but now when I press 'Send' the links in the email corrupt and reference a CiviCRM link instead of the website link so recipients can't access it. For a while I didn't notice because of course when I click the link myself in the copy I receive, it opens, and CiviCRM doesn't give an alert or warning.
  
  Any idea what's happening and how I can fix it? (Remember I'm not an expert!)
  
  **Tags:** issues, links
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2016-04-19. Score: 2
  
  When you create a mailing with CiviMail, there's an option:
  
  > Track Click Throughs
  >
  > Track the number of times recipients click each link in this mailing.
  >
  > NOTE: When this feature is enabled, all links in the message body will
  > be automatically re-written to route through your CiviCRM server prior
  > to redirecting to the target page.
  
  Perhaps you have enabled this option? This wouldn't normally prevent the links from working, however.
  
  Are the links in the email something like, <http://mysite.com/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=123&qid=12345> ? If so, that is normal when tracking click throughs is enabled.
  
  What happens when a user clicks on one of the links?
  
  Which CiviCRM version and CMS (Drupal, Wordpress or Joomla) are you using?
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: What happens is that the link which should be to our website is now saying something like 192.168.1.4/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/… - not like yours. When I click on that it takes me to our civi program and shows me the page I wanted on the website, but when other people click on it they see nothing because they're not authorised to access our Civi program.  
  > **username_1**: Your link seems to be like mine except for having 192.168.1.4 in place of a hostname. 192.168.1.4 is a private IP address, meaning it can only be accessed from within your local network. Two solutions: either turn off "Track Click Throughs" on future mailings, or talk to your network administrator, refer them to this post and ask if external access can be configured for /sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php . You may also want access to open.php in the same location, to track people opening the emails.  
  > **username_0**: Thanks - that looks plausible - I've passed it on to the IT guys (who we buy in, so I try not to use them too much!) and we'll have a play with it later to see if it works.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2016-04-19. Score: 0
  
  If it works for you but not for anonymous users, it is likely connected to a permission problem either caused by CiviCRM/your CMS or your server set up. Did you change anything on your set up lately e.g. put your install behind a VPN?
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Maybe I didn't explain properly. What happens is that the link which should be to our website is now saying something like http://192.168.1.4/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=473&qid=204189 - when I click on that it takes me to our civi program and shows me the page I wanted on the website, but when other people click on it they see nothing because they're not authorised to access our program.  
  
  ---
  
  