Had not been able to access forum for days..

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheehs1 Hi target 2019. I have a MacBookPro that is not even a year old. While Firefox is better than Safari...page loading is still not as fast as it used to be and neither Safari or Firefox are as fast on this site as they both are on the other sites I go to. When I have the time I will continue to play with it, investigate it...etc. First time this has happened so ..something has changed. Just don't know what yet.

If you have not got around to trashing the pref files for Safari, I would suggest an un-install/re-install. It's doubtful (but not impossible) that the any safari update would have led to a bug specific to this site. Something's corrupted.


-ERD50

[kaneohe]

I guess what I don't understand is the generally asymmetric nature ot this problem. A says I have trouble with this site. Others say we have no troubles with this site. Conclusion: A, it's your fault.

But A also said I have no problems with other sites. Why is there no conclusion that perhaps something could be improved by the site?

I have experienced similar problems elsewhere. I previously gave the automated phone example with ingdirect. I also have experienced something similar at work where vendor A's material worked on all tiers of my reactor but vendor B's material only worked on the top but not on the bottom. Whose fault? Obviously my responsibility to make my process more forgiving so both tiers worked but isn't there something lacking in B's material also.

In the real world of course, it depends on who is more desperate to fix the problem, how well each party understands what they can do to fix their part, how much each fix costs, how easy it is to implement the fix,etc.
Probably the hardest is to convince the other side that they have a role esp. if you are the only complaining .

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaneohe I guess what I don't understand is the generally asymmetric nature ot this problem. A says I have trouble with this site. Others say we have no troubles with this site. Conclusion: A, it's your fault. But A also said I have no problems with other sites. Why is there no conclusion that perhaps something could be improved by the site? I have experienced similar problems elsewhere. I previously gave the automated phone example with ingdirect. I also have experienced something similar at work where vendor A's material worked on all tiers of my reactor but vendor B's material only worked on the top but not on the bottom. Whose fault? Obviously my responsibility to make my process more forgiving so both tiers worked but isn't there something lacking in B's material also. In the real world of course, it depends on who is more desperate to fix the problem, how well each party understands what they can do to fix their part, how much each fix costs, how easy it is to implement the fix,etc. Probably the hardest is to convince the other side that they have a role esp. if you are the only complaining .

It isn't necessarily that complex at all.

I've had problems with this site, when others have not, and I found that the problem was on my end in several cases.

To put it in your terms, it can be an interaction with a problem on A and this site. B does not have that problem, so no problem on any site. But that does not make the site at fault, just that the problem is site specific (like a corrupt cache for an item from that site).

If you read a bunch of threads, that is a lot of page loads. Your browser will cache the common elements (and there are a lot of them - all those 'thanks' 'submit', edit' buttons, etc). It happens sometimes that the cache gets corrupt. Clearing the cache has fixed several problems for me.

Try the simple first. Clear cache, maybe uninstall/re-install the browser - could be something hidden away more deeply.


OTOH, is the mail function still having a problem with certain ISPs or address names? I am still routing them to my gmail address, as it suddenly didn't seem to like the one I use with my ISP. The admins acknowledged a change in their email service. So in this case, the problem was/is on the site end, but it is still specific to something on my end, as many others had no problem, and I didn't have the problem when I moved to gmail for this.

After that change on my end, I was having problems with duplicates of old post notifications that kept showing up, though I kept trashing them. I found it had something to do with the fact that I had a rule set to move the ER.org emails to another folder in my local mail reader. This somehow messed up the google mail, and I guess it thought it never sent them, and resent them to me? I'm still investigating that, but when I disabled that rule, the dups stopped.

Quote:

Probably the hardest is to convince the other side that they have a role esp. if you are the only complaining.

And they also can't 'fix' a 'problem' that does not exist on their end. What can they do if your cache is corrupt, or your installation has gone south? Nothing but what we are telling you, clear the cache, install/re-install.


-ERD50

[sheehs1]

Still wondering if it is browser related. Firefox has the same issues. Not having any problem on any other site with either browser. Having the same problem Dave is having with the question marks instead of the buttons and avatars. Will follow his thread also. I turned off the ad blocker, have emptied my cache numerous times...etc. The first question is why this site and no other. The analyst in me says if it was my browser, router or internet connection, I should have the same problem on multiple sites. I'm not . ummm......

[sheehs1]

Just another piece of info. During the time when I could not get any access...I also did not receive any emails in my inbox from the threads I had subscribed to. I am getting those now. In hind site...I don't know if it was that I could not get access to the site....or if it was that it was so very slow...that I got out of it. That seems to be what is happening now. Takes a long time.

[FreeAtLast]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaneohe no problems on a Macbook (knock, knock) using Chrome

+1

[sheehs1]

I just downloaded Chrome. It has taken me minutes to get this far on the site. Just wanted to let you guys know i am taking your suggestions. None of the buttons are on any of the post...but I don't see any questions marks. Perhaps that because I don't see any boxes either. Oh....as I type this...it is still sending/receiving....and blank boxes are popping up. Again...am not having this problem with any other site with any of the browsers. Chrome isn't much better for me on this url. I'll investigate further when I have time. I'll see how long this takes to post.

[sheehs1]

It took 1 minute and 40 seconds to post my last post.

[Bestwifeever]

Sheehs, (if you can get on long enough to read this post ) I had some problems with this site (and this site only) several months ago regardless of the browers or which of the three computers I could use to connect to my wifi and finally called my cable company (Comcast) when I found I could connect with DH's iPhone's 3G service but not when the iPhone was connected via our wifi. Comcast did something on their end while I was on the phone with them and reset our service, and it took care of it. So try that?

[kaneohe]

One of the beauties of knowing nothing is that I can persist in believing , despite ERD50's attempt to educate me, in myths and old wive's tales.
BWE beat me to it but I was about to say that this is an even worse situation than I thought at first when I talked about a 2 party issue....your Mac and this site. As BEW noted, it is really a 3 party issue involving your ISP too.

I mention this because we are on a municipal wifi. Normally it works ok but sometimes something happens and it get very slow. I noticed during those times that I could usually get on most sites eventually but that I usually had extreme difficulty getting on yahoo mail, hotmail, and this site. Have no idea why. About a week ago, they did something and it is blazingly fast. No problems so far but it's a pretty short time to really make it conclusions from.

Another Mac-related idea..........I've heard people say sometimes that a site didn't
"support" the Mac so it might not have all the functionality desired. This was a Tax-Aide online training site. Have no idea if this can be true.....all I know is that my Mac at home wouldn't work but the public PC at the library worked fine on that site.

[ERD50]

kaneohe, you are right, there is the ISP in the mix, and the DNS (the service that converts domain names like "google.com" to the numbered addresses that the internet really uses ) . I think it was mentioned before, but look into alternates DNS servers (just some numbers you type into your internet setup dialog) if you continue to have problems, I've seen that clean up some issues.


By the way, I gristle when I hear someone say that a site doesn't
"support" the Mac (or Linux, or xyz browser). Web sites are supposed to be built on standards. If they stick to the standards, any standards compliant browser should work fine, regardless of make/model or OS. The web site does not need to do anything to "support" those variations, if they stick to standards, it should all be fine. If there is a "support" issue, they created it on their end by using some non-standard coding that might work on one browser, but not another.

Microsoft apparently used this to try to kill other browsers. MS offered free web site authoring tools, and (surprise!), their tools used non-standards based methods, and (surprise!), Internet Explorer was tweaked to work with those oddities, but other browsers had to reverse engineer this stuff, since they were not published standards. This kind of made IE seem to work 'better' in many cases. In the long run, didn't seem to help them much.

-ERD50

[kaneohe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 By the way, I gristle when I hear someone say that a site doesn't "support" the Mac (or Linux, or xyz browser). Web sites are supposed to be built on standards. If they stick to the standards, any standards compliant browser should work fine, regardless of make/model or OS. The web site does not need to do anything to "support" those variations, if they stick to standards, it should all be fine. If there is a "support" issue, they created it on their end by using some non-standard coding that might work on one browser, but not another. Microsoft apparently used this to try to kill other browsers. MS offered free web site authoring tools, and (surprise!), their tools used non-standards based methods, and (surprise!), Internet Explorer was tweaked to work with those oddities, but other browsers had to reverse engineer this stuff, since they were not published standards. This kind of made IE seem to work 'better' in many cases. In the long run, didn't seem to help them much. -ERD50

ERD50, thanks for that education. Now, if I can remember, I'll have a comeback if somebody tries to pull that again.

[sheehs1]

Bestwifever, I called my ISP this morning and as I expected there was no problem with my service. Even I sounded illogical to myself while trying to explain to them "it is just one site".....but no problem with other sites. They did tell me there was an internet outage today that could degrade service...but then they said, "since I could get to other sites, that is not my problem. I asked them if there was one last week...and she couldn't tell me. I also wondered about the snow blizzard out west and if there could be some nodes down that are slowing down packet switches.

ERD, Kaneohe and others that have been kind enough to respond, I have a couple of more things I can try when I have the time to rule things in or out. I'll reset my modem, do a direct plug in to my Mac...etc.
When I first got my Mac, I had a hard time with Scottrade real time freezing up on me. I spent many minutes with their technical guys. Eventually it resolved itself.
I think this will too eventually.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheehs1 ... I called my ISP this morning and as I expected there was no problem with my service. Even I sounded illogical to myself while trying to explain to them "it is just one site"....

But as you can see from this thread:

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ml#post1143228

it is not illogical. This site has links to specific domain names that your other sites may not. So you can certainly have site specific problems.

Again, I'd try changing your DNS entries.

Google Public DNS

Google Public DNS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-ERD50

[sheehs1]

ERD50. Success.! Adding 2 DNS servers codes specified in an Apple problem resolution thread did it! For anyone having the same problem on a MAC, I added DNS 4.2.2.1 and 4..2.2.2. I had read about this back on 12/20 but had tried other things first.
Thanks so much ERD50. I think I'm back in business!

[kaneohe]

I kinda feel sorry for that problem. It never had a chance. You were relentless! Victory deserved.

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheehs1 Bestwifever, I called my ISP this morning and as I expected there was no problem with my service. Even I sounded illogical to myself while trying to explain to them "it is just one site".....but no problem with other sites. They did tell me there was an internet outage today that could degrade service...but then they said, "since I could get to other sites, that is not my problem. I asked them if there was one last week...and she couldn't tell me. I also wondered about the snow blizzard out west and if there could be some nodes down that are slowing down packet switches.

Glad all things worked out for you. When you changed the DNS, the entire game changed. What is the game? You can see what happens if your perform a traceroute from your computer to a given site. Then change DNS and try again. You'll see that your problem is actually complex. There is a lot of switching and routing that one packet goes through. If one of the hops is bad, or under attack, or whatever, you and thousands of users going through that hop have problems.

[sheehs1]

Thanks kaneohe. Glad I was able to get on intermittently to post about the issue. There may be others out there who can not see these two threads about the DSN fixes.

[kaneohe]

Could you kindly provide the url for the Apple forum you mentioned.
Also could you provide some detailed instruction on how you added those
DNS nos. Thanks..........just consider it the price of success.

[target2019]

Changing DNS Settings in Mac OS X