The board is: Down, Slow, Fine (you're the problem)

About This Message Board
#1

How can I tell the difference?

Sometimes it’s obvious, like when I got the “cannot find string” message. Or that horrible time I got the “banned” message. I knew I hadn’t done anything to get me banned and so I figured it was a board problem.

But sometimes. . .
I’ll only get part of a page to load. Or I’ll get “site not responding”. Or the really scary “site not found”.

I know I’m not typing the URL incorrectly because I have a link in my favorites that sends me directly to the Forum description page. I’ll try alternate methods to connect (sometimes going in through the Threadspotting link works). If I can’t get in after more than two hours or so, I usually e-mail Tuba --the poor dear.

My questions are: What are the signs that the board is just slow? Are there times when my repeated attemps to access the board only make things worse? What shall I do about my addiction to Dope?

#2

Okay, I’ve heard a couple of reports that the board has been a tad slow for a few people today.

Chalk it up to some people having the day off (and surfing) on top of all the folks that didn’t have the day off that were surfing from the office . . . I would be willing to bet we had lots more traffic than usual.

That being said, biggirl, I bet you connect through AOL. Lemme go see here a mo . . .

I just talked about AOL’s problems in another thread. Let me copy it here.

**AOL has what’s known as a “resource leak;” instead of releasing computing power back to your system as it performs various chores, the AOL program accumulates this power and sits on it until your system gasps and crashes.

The first signs of this show up in the AOL browser, it spins and spins and spins and nothing happens and it times out.

What can you do about this? Reboot often. That releases resources back to your computer. Keep those caches cleaned out, too. This includes checking your browser settings so that temp files are automatically deleted and manually deleting the ones that escape that by yourself. (Do a “Find” from time to time for “tmp” and “chk” files. Delete the ones you find that are truly trash files.) Defrag regularly as well.

And use an external browser on AOL. For best results on this board, try Internet Explorer, vB is written with IE in mind.
**

Hope this takes care of your problems with the board. Please let me know if it doesn’t and we’ll look at other factors, see if we can’t get you a solution.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

#3

Yes I have the hated AOL (when will my RoadRunner arrive! I cry). One of my fixes at home is to open up IE instead of using the AOL browser. Rebooting works sometimes, sometimes not.

I really worry that my repeated attempts are doing more harm than good.

And thanks for the the AOL lesson. I always wondered what was so magical about 39%. AOL will hang after 39% of the doc is transfered. This little problem is usually cleared up by rebooting.

Sorta off the topic, I thought AOL’s browser was IE.

#4

It’s AOL’s proprietary version of IE. I just assume that AOL couldn’t be pleased with it unless they messed with it some. I think it’s an older version of IE, not sure if they’ve upgraded it much.

But yes, rule of thumb; when your browswer goes to 39% and stops, rebooting is your only solution.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

#5

What’s so magical about 39? Divide by three and find out. :smiley:

Anyway, even if you don’t use AOL and the board siezes on you, reloading can be just the fix. Kinda like rebooting when Windows crashes or all the other spit-and-duct-tape solutions proprietary software forces us into: Tell the machine to try it again, this time with some spirit.

:smiley: