One of our regular users has emailed me a few times now to say that he is having trouble accessing On Line Opinion as it is very slow to download and freezes. I'm not experiencing any difficulties at all in any of the browsers that I regularly use. I am wondering whether others are experiencing difficulties or not.

Thanks GY that is me.
Having a very hard time.
Running xp and was using best explorer that will run.
Problem.
Log in stopped every time on forum page grey one no general or articles.
Once adds appeared it froze.
Tried a lot.
Re installed xp.
Renewed macafee and un installed adaware.
Got goggle crome now, trying to learn about it.
Tried ealier no change.
This time it took ten full minutes but made it this far.
using crome tried, got grey page forum, add came and it again froze, stopped every thing.
try again add came but kept searching.
Told me it waswaiting and each step took over 90 seconds .
ten minutes in total to get to post this.
any ideas?
hope to be able to get back in after working on my crome , need to find spell check for a start.

Graham I periodically have a problem with most of the websites that have any form of moving/dynamic advertising. OlO is one of the worst, only exceeded by an MSM site, & a couple of classic car sites.

My screen doesn't freeze, but can spend up to a minute opening a new page of a post, or a new post. It will regularly time out, before the post is opened.

At other times it is quite quick. I can find no consistency in why or when this will occur.

I have no idea if it is your site, but believe it is more likely my provider, or Telstra making things so slow.

I recently exceeded my "fast" limit, & was advised my speed would be reduced for the rest of the month. My video speed did slow, but if anything, sites like OLO appeared to come in faster.

GY, No problem here.

My eldest son, a “thingy whatsit hacker consultant” reckons most “slow “MS systems are “clogged PC’s” .

Belly, I could help you but it would be very expensive.

OK, let’s do a cheap job.

Do a delete “temporary internet files” after you have been on-line next time and tell us how long it takes? (Minutes and seconds

More information.
After posting here I visited one other thread and posted.
the time it took can be seen.
But have noted every action, from opening a thread, going to post , or review post, post ,brings me back to the forum grey front page.
With new crome I see the hour glass and know I must wait,and wait, hard work
any ideas?
visit in morning if I can get in.

Belly, do you need help or what ?

yes spindoc any help from any one would be great.
no expert but here is the over night story.
deleated explorer 8, running goggle crome.
Went to other pages,news papers and more this morning no problems .
Came here at 6.02 clicked to open OLO.
two minutes screen showing just first step grey forum page.
Told me each step including waiting for add then opened.
Scrolled down to this thread read all posts clicked to post.
waited 2 minutes for it to change from grey screen then started this reply.
it will do just that after Iclick review post and again after I hit post.
ideas?
why just here?
will try more during day
thanks all
PS 15 MINUTES ,SO FAR FROM FIRST GETTING INTO SITE, AJOB THAT COULD BE DONE IN 3?

My browser is Mozilla Firefox, and my operating system is Ubuntu Linux.

I have been having no significant difficulties with the OLO site recently. Occasionally a particular page may leave you waiting before anything appears in the progress bar, but if the page looks like it may be hanging I just click the 'stop' icon, then click again the page to which I wish to go. It then frequently loads in a flash.

I am assuming this behaviour has something to do with the routing of my download request, rather than having anything to do with the OLO site itself.

Could Belly's problem have anything to do with the fact that he has a satellite connection to the internet? Could it be a bandwidth availability problem related to extra traffic, or degraded capacity, on that link? Perhaps his ISP could shed some light on the problem.

Belly, not sure if you answered my question although you quoted 15 mins?

Go to blank page on your browser, "click" on TOOLS, Then click on "delete browsing history", then click on "Delete Temporary Internet Files".

Tell me how long it takes to delete temp files? (minutes and seconds)

Thanks Forrest and spin doc.
Got in this morning and saw Forrests post.
spent some time on responding but lost it so went walk about for a few hours.
Came back about ten, maybe more minutes ago, read spin docs post, yes mate any help would be good.
So went back and did what spin doc asked, it took mili seconds to clear all history,even had to log back in here.
here is the history, about Monday? it stated.
Almost instantly loged into OLO front page, grey back ground but the 4 actions listed one under the other.
Each action I took takes me back to that grey page.
3 days ago changed from explorer to crome.
No difference.
macafee expired about that time, down loaded adaware and used it.
Then renewed subs to macafee total protction , using that.
hard work it is going to take about 15 minutes from opening to posting
thanks in any case.
most note no trouble down loading on any site but here.

Belly,

Since GrahamY notified viewers that you were having this problem, I have been watching what happens on my own computer more closely.

Yesterday, when all these troubles seemed so far away, another computer in my house in play, downloading TV gave the game away. The two computers in the house were sharing the one ADSL landline connection to the internet. Yes, that's what happened, yesterday.

(Sorry about that. You know. Channelling. Paul again.)

Yesterday, while all that video was downloading to the other computer, my own connection to OLO slowed down noticeably, to the point where I saw (for very much shorter times than you are experiencing) the same 'grey screen' hanging problem when moving around the OLO site. My nominal ADSL connection speed is 1500/512 MBPS, but that does not mean that I always actually get that speed, especially when sharing the connection. I suspect your satellite connection may be a bit slower than that.

I am wondering whether your satellite connection may be carrying more traffic since this problem started for you.

One way this could be happening is because your ISP is connecting more users to this link. You mentioned that the problem started on Monday last. Perhaps a heavy usage client was connected then, with unforeseen consequences for other clients of the ISP.

Another way your bandwidth could be being 'shared' is if there is a wireless connection in your home to the satellite dish. If your home network (even if of only one computer) has an unencrypted wireless connection to your satellite service, some other user (bludger) may be helping themself to your internet connection, with adverse effects upon your own access speed. I don't know whether in your locality anyone else lives (or can regularly park a vehicle) close enough to be within range of any unencrypted network wireless connection you may have, but its a distant possibility. If its done from a vehicle its called 'wardriving': pinching someone else's internet access without charge.

Having too many tabs up in your browser can also slow things down.

Damned computers!

Hi Belly, your problem does seem to be bandwidth related. Forrest is right; some links and transmission types can be degraded for lots of reasons and you don’t get anywhere near optimal performance.

Also remember that any browser or web page that has lots of adverts, particularly video, are using “your” bandwidth. This may account for some pages working OK and others with long delays. So if you have bandwidth problems it may well only show up on some of the “busier” pages.

Good luck

But if it is bandwidth related, how is that other sites aren't affected?

Thanks blokes, lets not pretend I know much about it I do not.
But I am a bit handy with a Cobb and Co tool box.
Every country born bloke is.
Tools constist of a big hammer, wire cutters and any nearby fence,[do not let the live stock out.
It may well be my server and bandwidth.
They canceled my insurance, every ones! after years paying? the service is poor, remember they had me of service for near a month.
Here is the Cobb And Co plan.
Tomorow will take computor to mates place, he unfortunatly is a genius but stuborn.
Runs the oldest explorer will have nothing to do with soft ware not invented ten years ago.
He has fast broad band!
So islolat one issue tomorow.
Seems a waste but broadband, far more speed than I get on satelite via radio is now available here.
Will look into that, tomorow.
thanks to all, ps only me here and only this pc.

GrahamY asks, with respect to Belly's problem loading pages from the OLO site:

"But if it is bandwidth related, how
is that other sites aren't affected?"

I can only observe that on past occasions when the OLO site has been very slow to load, I have been able to access sites like Twitter or Twitpic with no difficulty. Should it have not been an OLO server problem on those occasions, I can only think that I was running into some form of bandwidth bottleneck somewhere along the route of my connection, a bottleneck I did not encounter connecting to, say, Twitter. I don't pretend to have any understanding as to how the internet makes its routing decisions, I simply understand that those decisions can constantly vary from one attempt at connection to another.

I also understand that which ISP one uses may make a difference to connection speed. I use Internode, and it is my understanding that Internode has dedicated 'backbone' cabling for some of the routing not shared with other internet traffic than that of Internode clients. It thus may be that a connection to OLO attempted through Internode encounters less bandwidth bottleneck than one attempted using, say, bigpond.

Belly,

Should it be that the problem, after you have had it checked out, seems not to be your own computer, or any of the software you are running on it, it might help to email your present ISP and ask whether they can provide you with a log of the internet connections made using your account since this trouble started. If they are willing/able to supply such a log (there shouldn't be any privacy problems - you are their client) and you find records of sites you know you have not visited, then you will know someone else is using your connection and 'sharing' your bandwidth.

In a way, even this thread constitutes corroborative evidence of innocence should somebody be trying to set you up for downloading illegal copies of copyrighted material, or kiddyporn. You know, as payback for having told it like it is.

Hi Graham,

If I am getting 'grey screened' because the kids are chewing up bandwidth I dive for the iphone. Not quite as easy to read but loads in an instant. The difference is the IPhone doesn't run Flash. The reason Apple has left Flash alone is because of bandwidth and battery issues.

"""
The reason Apple has left Flash alone is because of bandwidth and battery issues.
"""

That's simply nonsense!

Apple hate flash because it gives developers a way of bypassing their appstore (No cut for them). There is no reason why flash would consume more battery life or use more bandwidth than any other app. HTML five (which they don't really support fully(Again no cut for them) and are pushing) is not more friendly to bandwidth or battery life, so what you're reading or hearing from apple zealots is just bull!

What belly is most probably experiencing is an add that is being drawn from a suboptimal location slowing down the site. That's what usually brings a local site that works ok normaly to its knees.

Perhaps installing Firefox 4.0 with "addblock plus" and "noscript" extensions installed (standard fare for using the net these days if you have a brain) will fix all his problems in two easy downloads!

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/

He should be using anything other than Internet Exploiter, it's just asking for trouble, like walking through a toxic, medical, waste dump with thongs on, you'd have to be an idiot! And Google Chrome is just a window for Google Corp (TM) to see what you do on the net every second of the day!

No issues for me here and I use the same as Forrest but not Ubuntu. Debian here, baby, the mother of Ubuntu and the best operating system in the world :)

Belly, make it clear, is the problem restricted to OLO ?
Do a comparison; wia.org.au takes five seconds for most of the page
and a bit more takes another two seconds.

How long does it take you. I am pretty sure that satellite will be
longer as you have 0.4 seconds up and 0.4 seconds down overhead for each file needing an ack.
So you should be able to get it in 10 secs I would think.

The time once in the Telstra system should not vary much as it is X25
and has virtual dedicated routes to the destination area switches.
They do that because otherwise the tcpip can send packets off on a
frolic of their own and take the scenic route.

How long since you did a cleanup and defrag ?

oh good i thought it was my server[dodo]

i often only get a grey page
[and normal adverts at top of page]
but not side or lower adverts..or any text

also [this might relate]
to the other problem mentioned earlier

ie spindocs delete temp files fix

ie i get no page change
[the newer posts dont showup]
just the same page i saw last visit

[yet got notice of new posts]
after realising it i grew suss when the page loads fast
so if the page is too quick i push the refresh button

using an old microsoft program
anyhow we get used to things not working
[so i never use any updates]

so will read on
and maybe fix at least one problem

or just accept the web is designed to do the things it does
especially when it dosnt do ..as we need it to be doing

if its working
refuse all updates
and system restore is your best friend when things go wrong

never do change
for change sake

UOG:>> if its working
refuse all updates
and system restore is your best friend when things go wrong
never do change
for change sake<<

OUG, ahha a follower of the Luddite paradigm no doubt. As for myself I follow the kiss school of thought. Goodluck Belly.

Gday all.
Well still have a problem
And still do not know just what it is
a School of ham radio/PC experts have no idea either.
Working on it.
Got in without trouble, have cleaned hard drive, reinstalled every thing three times.
Away from home.
every time on very fast broadband link server.
WITHOUT PROBLEMS.
yes Bazz always only been this site.
Sevice provider can be trusted, if its my gear it will be replaced free,but tests continue, who knows?
Thanks all, lets not trash the adds the site has to make money to just stay around
regards all
Avery frustrated
Belly

Well thanks every one, it seems we fixed it.
Turned it off at 202 am this morning had updated and changed a great deal.
Still seeing weird things e mail not working, but it is going to be fixed.
In terms of a motor car we took the engine out three times.
Changed the plugs coil and spark plugs.
Kicked every tyer twice a minute.
Have not got a clue what the problem was!
Ham radio operators are like that, love to throw things about but just some times an expert in this Field could get it done in about two minutes.
Again thanks, band width was not the problem, server was OK,test again today.