WWW/computer question

[Shirl]

I'm not a computer wizard so I'm totally confused as to the problem I have.

For about a month now, occasionally I haven't been able to get to my two favorite sites, WC and a bird chat. I can go ANYWHERE else but these two. It gets to "Site Found, Waiting for Reply" and sits there, eventually it will say that the site cannot be found. Bringing up a new browser doesn't do a thing. I have to disconnect and dial up again, sometimes more than once, to get a good connection.

This a problem at my end or my ISP?? Thanks for your help!

Shirl

[Imagi]

Most likely, it's your ISP. Actually, I recently had this problem (and I'm on DSL!!!), for DAYS, I couldn't even connect at ALL. Blew my system away (reformatted), and went through every concievable setting to fix the problem . . . turns out it was the signal in the phone line that wasn't "turned up" or whatever . . .

If you're on dial-up, you could maybe try another local connection phone number, see if it makes a difference (sometimes busy ISP's, like AOL for instance, just changing the phone number your computer dials can make a difference). If this doesn't work, I would call them and see if there's been problems with their equipment or their service in general, could be a bug in the system or something.

If not, their tech support should be able to give you some guidence (if the problem is indeed NOT on their end . . . )

~Imagi

[Shirl]

Thanks Imagi,

I had horrible problems about a year ago at my other house--also was the phone line:(.

Suspected ISP was the culprit. The phone number I use is the same one for the past year; however, they recently made it a secondary number, the primary is long distance tho.

Sure is strange that I can't get to WC but can go almost anywhere else.

Shirl

[perry31415]

Hmmm, just a thought. Do you spend tons of time on WC and in chat rooms?

Do you have a computer savvy partner or spouse or parent?

If it isn't an ISP (DHCP) issue, then maybe WC is blocked.

[arlene]

perry,
that would be grounds for divorce! :eek:

[Shirl]

Ha! No, just me on the computer. I don't spend a lot of time at those 2 sites, but they're only ones I visit frequently.

But they're the only 2 that I can't get to sometimes........strange.

Agree w/Arlene:D:D.

Shirl

[perry31415]

It might be time to call your ISP's help desk.

Get some details for them, 'cause they will usually ask:

- OS
- type of computer (CPU, HD, RAM etc.)
- application being used
- error messages, if any
- mother's maiden name, well, OK, not this, but they always seem to ask an unexpected question, so get the name of your senator, the capitol of Belize, speed of light in centimeters per second, you know, the usual :-)


They will want to talk to you while you are on the net. So if you have a single dial-up connection this might be a problem. A cell phone might work, but I've been on hold for some time.

Don't forget to make a sacrifice to the IT gods. Stab a small floppy-disk under a full moon.

Good luck!

[Leslie M. Ficcaglia]

This may be totally unrelated to your situation, but I'm running Netscape 4.7 on a Mac and have sometimes found that graphic-rich sites won't load if I haven't manually emptied my browser cache file recently. The sites get stuck at "5k read" or the equivalent and don't move at all. If I go into Preferences and open up Cache under Advanced and then click on Empty Cache Now it usually remedies the situation. Sometimes I need to quit Netscape and then reload it to effect the change. Then everything's back to normal.

[Neillydun]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is relevant to your problem but I recently had difficulty reaching a few sites (WC being one of them) and I eventually tracked it down to a problem with my ISP's proxy server.

I use Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 6 and normally my proxy settings are set automatically. However when I had the problems I decided to set the same information, manually, and since then i've had no problems whatsoever.

/Neilly

[philwms]

Its pretty much impossible for the layperson to figure these things out... There is software that will draw a map of how you are connecting to a site, but the information is pretty much difficult to read. If there are blocks (very often having nothing to do with you or your ISP) such software may be able to identiufy where the problem is... essentially the last entry on the map before not being able to get to the site you're trying to get to... :) But that is often little help.

Surely the best thing to do is alert your ISP that you are unable to get to a site that you have always been able to get to. If it is important, they might even be able to alter the normal routing for you to that site...

At any rate, it's all very technical and confusing, but suffice it to say, if you've been able to get to a site and suddenly can not, the problem is probably not at your end and most likely not even with your ISP... but instead some router along the way that has had a bit of a fit... Normally things get up a running again pretty quickly... But, as I said, if there is a real important reason to be able to connect, your ISP may be able to set up an alternate routing to the site.

BTW, Leslie... You might try upgrading to a later version of Netscape for the Mac. I believe that version for the Mac was quite buggy. It was also pretty buggy fopr PCs.

[nieradka]

If its only two sites, try clearing your "cookies" or turning them off, and clearing the history and the cache for good measure. These options can be found in edit --> preferences in most web browsers or something similar.

Scott

[KanuK]

I agree with clearing your cache, your history and your cookies... although be careful with the cookies. You will loose any login "remember me" items and you'll have to relogin to all of the sites again. So be careful.

[scottb]

Another thing to consider is that if you are using an older version of Netscape (anything before 6), you should seriously consider upgrading. For the best experience at WC, I recommend Internet Explorer - not because I like Microsoft, mind you - I don't - I hate them, actually, but their browser is more forgiving.

[tess2000]

Dear Shirl,

Are you using WindowsXX? Are you using Netscape?

It sounds like you have a corrupted fat.db file if you are using Netscape. Not a big deal as it can be manually deleted (which is what you have to do) and that would fix your problem.

Let me know and maybe I can help you.

Best Wishes,
Tess

[KanuK]

Personally, I find Netscape has coded itself out of existence. There are so monay things wrong with it that Explorer, for me anyway, is the only way to go. As a web designer, I keep a copy of Netscape 4.7 and that's as far as i will go. I tried 6 and it completely killed my Mac and I had to rebuild by system. Sorry but that just doen't make me like a program.

[philwms]

I'm with you Kanuk.. I'll keep 4.7 around as long as there are a significant number of people still using it, which of coures they shouldn't be doing, but... so goes the world... :)

As you I use 4.7 to at least make sure my website designs degrade gracefully on it... (is that a graceful sentence, or what!!!)

Netscape 6 ain't bad... but MSIE is where its at for the moment.

[KanuK]

Completely agree. When I look at the stats for my sites that I host, less than 1% are using Netscape so i tend to not even bother any more...