font-face not working in IE9 only

Question

I've seen several questions asked here and on other blogs but it didn't solve my case. This is my syntax:

@font-face {
    font-family: "texgyreheroscn";
    src: url("texgyreheroscn-italic-webfont.eot");
    src: url("texgyreheroscn-italic-webfont.eot?#iefix") format("embedded-opentype"),
         url("texgyreheroscn-italic-webfont.woff") format("woff"),
         url("texgyreheroscn-italic-webfont.ttf") format("truetype"),
         url("texgyreheroscn-italic-webfont.svg#texgyreheroscnitalic") format("svg");
    font-weight: normal;
    font-style: italic;
}

this works everywhere except in IE9 (IE8 works too). The syntax looks fine to me, the .eot file is on the server and has permissions to be accessed.

i've tried

• adding src: local('☺︎'), - this breaks the font for every browser (as seen on @font-face works in IE8 but not IE9)
• asked the backend guys if the .eot font was there and was accessible and the answer is YES
• substituted the " with '
• added format("embedded-opentype") on the first src: line

nothing seems to work for me. any heads up on this? thanks