What happens is that the heading appears quickly (Horizons Unlimited together with the Touratech and Kudu logos) but the contents simply do not load for an age; at least 5 mins, sometimes longer. When I try to open a topic (eg Sahara travel) after the topics eventually load the same thing happens and so forth down the line. This makes the site totally unuseable. The same thing happens on my Mrs's computer too.
This problem is intermittent (today all is working well; last week was useless for Wed and Thursday) and I never have any problems if I use Firefox as a browser.

Any ideas?

Q

Sorry for the late reply, been nuts here.

Are you on a slow connection? And what version of IE are you using? What operating system?

Here's my analysis to start, without more info:

Browsers load information as it comes in, so you should see the info line by line. IF it's a super simple page, and almost nothing is.

The HUBB uses vBulletin software, which is all encased in a giant table. Looks good, and is consistent across platforms - e.g. Windows Mac etc.

BUT the browser doesn't know how to display the contents of a table until it's loaded what's in it!

You see the top bit, because that's in a very small table and thus downloads quickly, also the images are cached in your system, so they are already downloaded, and so display almost instantly.

The next part is one huge table. Sucks and I wish there was a way around it.

Firefox as you noticed does well, but IE is "stupid" and doesn't load as quickly, so if you had perhaps waited longer it might have come in. If not, then something else is happening.

1. Javascript - do you have it turned off or on? The site is much more user friendly with it on, though it should work fine with it off. I recommend on, as Javascript is not a big security problem despite what you may hear.

2. Something weird! Let me know the answers to the above questions and I'll see what I can figure out.

3. The intermittent problem makes me think it's a problem on your computer's IE settings OR firewall / antivirus, especially if at the same time Firefox is fine.

Try turning your AV / firewall off for a minute the next itme it happens and test to see if that solves it. Turn it back on immediately after testing of course. If that does solve it we know where to start.

The fact that it is the same on two computers presumably on the same connection sounds like a isp problem, but it's odd.

Are you using the same AV/Firewall, and operating systems?

If not, I'll keep thinking!

I recommend Firefox or Opera anyway. I test on all 4 main browsers, IE Safari Firefox and Opera, and on Win 2000, XP and Vista, and Mac OSX.

Anyone else experienced the same thing?

Hopefully not!

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

HU has been running slow with IE for about a month but not to the point it's unusable, it's just noticeable compared with before. Especially when I first log onto the site. It's not as slow as Quintin is experiencing. I'll check it out on Safari to see if there's a difference. Back in 5...

Ok, I'm on Safari now and it loads like lightening. Must just be IE. They don't call it Windoze for nothing!!

Hi Grant
Thanks for your reply and sorry for delay-been a bit nuts here too!

Erm, I'm on Broadband-about 1.5 thingies. Fast enough. Latest IE (7??) and XP. Fully up to date with updates. We both have AVG 8 Pro AV software all fully upto date and all working correctly. I have Javascript (don't think wife has) which is on. Perhaps I should have said but this problem only occurs on the Hubb though I don't use the only other V Bulletin powered site often enough to know whether that's affected too. All other web pages load normally. When it happens again, I'll check. Looking back on it, I think the problem only happens shortly after I've downloaded a Windows update and then seems to cure itself after a day or so. This has happened twice before to me (the last time in early/mid 2008 from memory) and always seems to cure itself after a few days. When it happens the tables eventually load but it can take at least 5 mins and often much, much longer. 'refreshing' has no effect. When I try to open any of the tables again it takes ages and ages-many minutes-before the various subjects to display (but they do eventually). When opening a subject again the same thing happens and so forth. I have had a variation on the problem in the past in which the tables display normally, I open one (eg Sahara), the subjects load but after looking at no more than two postings/messages the problem occurs with attempts to open subsequent messages failing.

The weird thing of course is that the problem seems to cure itself in time.

I'd love to know what's going on.

Thanks for your time though Grant.

Best wishes

Q

Firefox loads instantly but IE stalls completely. I've not installed any Windows updates so that can't be it and the other VBulletin site that I visited in IE (Expedition Portal Forum) loads normally. It seems to be a problem specific to the Hubb. Very odd.

Q

Hi,

The first step to solving this problem is being able to duplicate it...

In Internet Explorer, if you go Help and then About Internet Explorer, you get a small info box which shoes the version number of the browser. Mine is 7.0.5730.13. Annoyingly it won't let me copy this, I had to remember. Mine also says it's update version: 0.

What's does yours say?

Next question: do you have any tool bars installed? What about antivirus software? Are you behind a hardware firewall? Could you turn it off to test the site? I don't think it's this, but both can interfere with browsers, so it's an obvious next thing to look at if we get the same version browser set up and find it's ok.

Thanks,

Jeff

Fresh start for the day on IE, not logging in automatically:

IE 7 loads the HUBB index page for me in under 5 seconds, and then the Sahara forum in under 2 seconds - and I'm on a 1mbps broadband connection, so quite acceptable.

My IE 7 installation is version:
7.0.5730.11
Update version: 0

NO toolbars, pretty much default, using AV of course.

Firefox loads the index page in well under 2 seconds, although all the images would be cached.
Opera, the "speed demon" takes 8 seconds, no caching on at all. Sahara then takes 3 seconds.
On a Mac, Safari loads the HUBB in 5 seconds, and Sahara in 3.

Question - when you do get the page loaded, are you already logged in, or do you need to login? (Wondering if the login process is slowing it down)

Do you see the "New to HU?" etc box of text just under the logo? That's run by javascript.

Grant

Hi Both

I've got 7.0.5730.11CO
Update version 0
'New to HU' is displaying.
Turning off the firewall makes no difference.
I have AVG 8 Pro AV

I've got quite a lot of toolbars but nothing more than the standard Google things (interestingly Autofil hasn't worked for a month or so)

I've been running IE for 5 mins now and it still hasn't loaded.

Now just loaded (must have taken 7 or 8 mins) but it's loaded weirdly with the display not fitting into the standard width of the page-i.e. I have to scroll to the right to get to see the rest of the page. Also none of the logos or whatever they are immediately to the left of the topics are displaying. I just get a box with an 'x' in the middle. Accoding to the load box at the bottom of the page is concerned it's only about half loaded and I have 2 items left to load "downloading picture http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/misc/menu-leaf.png" It's now well over 10 mins.

Q

Oh and I'm logged in on IE

I'll update my version of IE to the same and see if I'm getting the same problem.

Could you try this experiment:

Keeping the firewall on to keep your computer safe, and making sure that you only have Horizons Unlimited open in a browser, on a page you know is causing problems, turn AVG off and reload the page. Does it still happen?

You may need to close IE, turn off antivirus, and then open IE on that page.

Run only a minimum number of programs while you do this, especially don't run email, because while the antivirus is switched off, it won't have the chance to scan incoming mail.

My update is busy downloading.

Thanks,

Jeff

I started with a nearly new install of Windows XP - new last week and has had only minor alterations - and upgraded it with the critical patches. I didn't install their root certificate updates. I ended up with the same version of IE as I had before. HU loads without any delay.

I think that means that the version you are running is older. Could you check Windows Update?

The only quirk that might affect it on this machine is that I have the ability to run IE6 side-by-side for testing.

Next question: would you check your AVG and Firewall settings about the ability to run javascript. Most HU pages include javascript and the browser could get stuck waiting for a script to end. Try turning off javascript completely in the browser settings and loading a page. Does it still happen?

Jeff

Right Jeff

I've turned off AVG entirely-no difference
I turned off Javascript in IE and again no difference.

I'll check for updates on IE and I'll also run Uniblue Registry Booster to see if I have any bad paths in IE.

Thanks for all your help.

Q

Well there were a couple of bad paths in IE so I fixed these, restarted the computer and lordy The Hubb opened normally. I opened this table and that opened normally as it did when I opened this topic. However when I tried to post a reply the same thing happened and it's all frozen up.

Clearly the problem is at my end. I'm going to re-install IE and take it from there. Actually I may not bother and simply continue to use Firefox which does load pages far quicker than IE even when it's working properly.
Thanks to you and Grant for all your help.

Best wishes
Q

I'm no expert but I think your problem has something to do with the Phishing-filter and/or the safety/security settings of your browser.
I experience the same delay but certainly not as long as you describe. I would say, 1-2 seconds sometimes a bit longer on the homepage of the HUBB and some of the bigger threads (same goes for other sites/pages with a lot of content filed in different databases/locations).
I discovered it also depends if you've visited this page before in the same session. Is your PC cleaning the cache and removing everything everytime you shut it down?
When I periodicly clean my XP-pc it removes everything (including cache and cookies) and it takes dramaticly longer to display familiar websites. It occured to me that my new flashy VISTA-pc does this automaticly after a few weeks with pages I don't visit regarly. BTW maybe the AVG antivirus has also something to do with this.


Hope this can help in the search, bart



Ohh btw, IE7 7.06001.18000 on VISTA with the arrow indicating a fishing Phishing-filter.

__________________
bart & sophie

Thanks Sophie, that's a good idea about what could be causing the delay.

Another idea: Sometimes things like this happen in IE if there's a corrupt addon. You could try turning them off to see what happens. There's an list to Disable them: Tools, Manage Addons, Enable or Disable Addons.

Also there's a drastic action you can try...

There is a reset button in IE. It turns all the IE options back to the default settings. If it's a setting that's causing the problem then this would reveal it. But I think this is drastic if HU is the only site that's having problems. Look in Tools, Internet Options, Advanced settings tab. At the bottom of the dialogue.

Yes, probably you are best off using Firefox, although I'm sorry I couldn't solve the problem.

Jeff