I've never seen an ad on this discussion board. Never. I even had to compare screen shots with another user to figure out where the ads are supposed to go.
I've tried to log out to determine if I'll see ads as a guest, but my cookies file still has an entry in it from the various server & software moves. Something keeps auto-logging me in each time I return to the forum-- even after assuring me that I'm logged out. I haven't figured out where the cookie is hidden and rooted it out.
Every time I've gone to a forum page, there's a delay of at least 3-4 seconds until it loads. Sometimes that delay is as long as 10 seconds. Browsing this website is an experience more akin to dialup than DSL.
I spent a couple weeks logging tracert pings and discussing other possible ISP issues with the admins, but then I went on travel with a laptop and experienced the same behavior with free WiFi & hotel networks. (I have the same cookies on all computers.) I've even experimented with my neighbor's network because he doesn't pick very good passwords. Regardless of the bandwidth or the service provider the board's behavior is the same. I don't think it's my ISP and I don't think it's that scrawny little fiber between Hawaii and the Mainland.
I've finally figured out that the site loads briskly upon my browser until it gets to the upper ad-display part of the screen. On my PC, whether it's my desktop or a laptop, DSL or someone else's network, everything halts while E-R.org waits for the ad pitch.
I'm no expert, but I'm beginning to think it's a combination of my IE6.0 WinXP firewall and Google's ad server. I think that Google's servers are attempting to load ads every time I go to a page of the board and the board obligingly waits until Google is finished. The problem is that Google isn't getting a response from my computer-- no open ports or even a notification that a port is closed or any other sort of acknowledgement. Google just keeps pinging away until it times out, gives up, and returns control to the E-R.org board-- which finally finishes loading the page.
So, admins, is this how it's supposed to work? If so, then how does this stop? How do we tell the E-R.org software to not wait on Google every single time I move to a different page of the board? I'm not enthused about messing with my firewall and I'd like to [-]stop Easter-egging[/-] confirm the process before I figure out a way to speed things up...
I've tried to log out to determine if I'll see ads as a guest, but my cookies file still has an entry in it from the various server & software moves. Something keeps auto-logging me in each time I return to the forum-- even after assuring me that I'm logged out. I haven't figured out where the cookie is hidden and rooted it out.
Every time I've gone to a forum page, there's a delay of at least 3-4 seconds until it loads. Sometimes that delay is as long as 10 seconds. Browsing this website is an experience more akin to dialup than DSL.
I spent a couple weeks logging tracert pings and discussing other possible ISP issues with the admins, but then I went on travel with a laptop and experienced the same behavior with free WiFi & hotel networks. (I have the same cookies on all computers.) I've even experimented with my neighbor's network because he doesn't pick very good passwords. Regardless of the bandwidth or the service provider the board's behavior is the same. I don't think it's my ISP and I don't think it's that scrawny little fiber between Hawaii and the Mainland.
I've finally figured out that the site loads briskly upon my browser until it gets to the upper ad-display part of the screen. On my PC, whether it's my desktop or a laptop, DSL or someone else's network, everything halts while E-R.org waits for the ad pitch.
I'm no expert, but I'm beginning to think it's a combination of my IE6.0 WinXP firewall and Google's ad server. I think that Google's servers are attempting to load ads every time I go to a page of the board and the board obligingly waits until Google is finished. The problem is that Google isn't getting a response from my computer-- no open ports or even a notification that a port is closed or any other sort of acknowledgement. Google just keeps pinging away until it times out, gives up, and returns control to the E-R.org board-- which finally finishes loading the page.
So, admins, is this how it's supposed to work? If so, then how does this stop? How do we tell the E-R.org software to not wait on Google every single time I move to a different page of the board? I'm not enthused about messing with my firewall and I'd like to [-]stop Easter-egging[/-] confirm the process before I figure out a way to speed things up...