Why do I repeatedly need to refresh on PPRune

[snooky]

I posted this query on another thread a couple of days ago, because at that time I had lost the buttons for "new topic". These buttons have now reappeared strangely enough, maybe someone here can help.

PPRune has always worked fine on my PC, until this week that is. Now whenever I want to go to another page or topic I get "Done" indicated at the bottom of the scree, but with just a blank sceeen or occasionally a small symbol at the top left of screen. If I click on refresh, I sometimes get a "Done" and blank screen, but usually after a couple of refreshes and "Done"s I get "connecting to" and the page address at the bottom of the screen, followed by the page that I requested appearing.

I'd be grateful for any advice on how to go back to the way it used to work, i.e. no refreshes needed.

I am using IE 5.5 and W98SE

I couldn't edit my post, because the edit button was missing, but just to add that this only happens on PPRune, not on other BBs that I visit.

[Don Coyote]

I am glad that I am not the only one.

I cant help with a solution to your problem but I was getting quite infuriated. I thought it was my computer and have tried all sorts to get things back to normal.

The pages would come up all messed up and clicking on a link would rarely come up with the correct results. I have deleted all my cookies, reset to all the defaults and everything else I can think of.

I wonder if the pprune site is using new software or has a problem.

Would be interested to see how many other users are having problems. Win 98ME IE 5.5

ATB Don

[flyingwysiwyg]

Don, Snooky,

I used to get this all the time using Windows ME, IE6 and BTOpenworld dial up connection. Have just cleared my hard drive and upgraded to Windows XP, still with IE 6 and my BTOpenworld dial up account, and no problems.

I think it must be ME, It's useless.

"Get Bill Gates In Here"

Try XP Pro. I personally think its a great improvement.

FWyg

[5milesbaby]

I used to get the problem too with Win98SE and IE5.5, but no longer suffer. Have gone through a full Win98 re-install, and upgraded to IE6 (free download from Microsoft website), and my ISP has changed from AOL (lots of problems including Java sites never appearing) to cable broadband, and now all web pages appear fine. I do remember when I installed AOL that there was a page that appeared saying if I wanted everything displayed in the browser, or have some compressed, and canot remember what I chose, but might have something to do with it. Have you tried searching in Windows Help? or even your ISP help? Worth a try maybe.

[Timothy]

I might, just might have a clue to this.

I mainly use Opera as my web browser, on account of it being much better and faster than IE6, and one of the things it does is to tell you in the bottom right hand corner exactly what it is doing.

I do not get the problems that you guys have mentioned either at home or in the office (both have Broadband) but I do get it on GPRS, which is a packet switched network which uses spare capacity on mobile cells. Because GPRS only takes spare capacity it is relatively cheap, but it is subject to the vagaries of availability, so sometimes is much faster than others.

So, putting the last two paragraphs together, I do find that things freeze on GPRS, and I can see exactly what it is doing, and every time it freezes it is interrogating oz.valueclick.com.

So it may well be the fecking ads, guys!

W

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

snooky,

Go to Tools > Internet Options > Temporary Internet Files > Settings:

Check for newer version of stored pages:

Every visit to the page

Take Care,

Capt. Richard J. Gentil, Pres.
Naples Air Center, Inc.
Custom Computers of Naples, Inc.

[snooky]

Thanks for the replies.
I've cleared spyware with spybot, and checked that the pages are updating on every visit, still the same though. At least it's not only me that gets this.

What I find particularly strange is that it's only PPRune that this happens on and that previously (until about a week ago) it worked fine.

[fobotcso]

Do you have a firewall and are you blocking things with it? Privacy settings can influence the browser's download perfomance.

Do you allow Microsoft's automatic updates to Browsers and Windows? This could be why the refresh stopped working apparently spontaneously.

Could be a good idea to upgrade to IE6.

However, if you can afford the time on-line it could be no bad thing to let the Microsoft Auto-update have its evil way with you and fix any bugs. You always have the last say in what you are going to permit but you have to allow the time to sit, read and think about what is on offer because sometimes the jargon is tortuous.

[snooky]

Thanks fobotcso.

I do have a firewall, but turning it off still gave the same result. I tried updating IE 5.5, but it would'nt let me because microsoft say it's now out of date.

If I download IE 6, does it keep favourites etc., and does it have any effect on outlook express?

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

snooky,

The upgrade from 5.5 to 6 is painless. (As long as you have a fast connection to the net, since the full download is a big one.) The upgrade keeps all your settings, but if you are worried, you can just make a copy of your favorites folder and do a backup of OLE.

Take Care,

Richard

[fobotcso]

If I remember correctly, IE6 was a big improvement on 5 because it is better software. It's smaller, faster and more secure. It wasn't simply an update on 5.5. Hence the new Version number. Also, there is now a Service Pack for it. You should get the IE6 upgrade from a magazine disk and the SP from the web.

Go for it:ok:

[fobotcso]

Further to my last post and to bring the thread back to the top:

Personal Computer World arrived today and had the Tiscali disk with it. IE 6 is on the disk in its entirety (70MB).

The BT disk has it as well (48MB).

OneTel doesn't have IE6.

FreeServe just give you a link for an installation from the Web.

Tiscali seem to be the best bet but watch out for "Branding". That is, even if you don't sign up to Tiscali your Brower and Outlook Express may have "Tiscali" in the Title Bar at the top.

You may avoid this if you install direct from the Setup.exe in the Folder on the CD instead of through the Autorun Menu.

[snooky]

Thanks for all the replies.

I suspect it's something to do with the ads, because sometimes it actually just comes up with the flashing "notice this banner". The only answer seems to be to get IE6, so I'll do that ASAP.

[snooky]

I just thought I'd try once more before changing to IE 6, which appears to be a simple job, but I'm computer simple too!
By turning off the Norton ad blocking, every page now loads, still a bit of nonsense here and there but basically back to what it used to be.
Hope this helps if anyone else has had similar problems.

[Danny]

Thinking about offering an 'Ad Free' membership for PPRuNers. For a fee I can allow a user to get the forums with no banner ads. Obviously I ave to charge a fee for this as the income from the ads is what pays for the servers and all the associated running of PPRuNe.

It would appear that some of you are having problems when running some ad blocking software. Your perogative but if it is ruining your PPRuNeing experience then perhaps it may be worth the cost.

No fixed plans yet for the fee but judging by other websites that offer a similar feature possibly something around the £3/$5/€5 a month mark. Have to take into account the cost of administering it and the time to run it.

Comments?

[Fujiflyer]

Danny, I've always thought some sort of membership fee for using PPRuNe would be fair given the huge value this site is to us. Not sure the best way of structuring it but maybe along the lines of a 1 month trial membership (free) followed by a paid up membership of say between 20 and 80 Euros per annum. For infrequent users perhaps the option to pay nothing but have more adverts (if they really do any good + limited login time).

Obviously one could come up with all sort of complex ways of calculating members' dues based on individual contribution etc but the above may be an easy way of starting it off.

Best Regards

Rich