Strange tech problem???? (WEB TV)

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem???? (WEB TV)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 12:58 PM

Oh, well. I just PM'd you a long message with instructions, and I forgot that you have Internet television. I retitled your thread so others don't make that same mistake. It's probably the same process as what you do on a computer - your WEBTV apparatus has a hard drive, and that drive stores old pages you've viewed so you don't have to reload completely every time you look at a page. You should have a "tools" option somewhere on your system of menus, and you need to clear your cache of stored messages.
It's hard for me to work these things out unless I'm on my dad's WEBTV, and I don't know if I'll be going to Florida to visit him until after January 1.
But anyhow, look for a cache, and clear it.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: Noreen
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 04:41 PM

Not deliberately anyway

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: Noreen
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 04:40 PM

If you're deperate to post something greg, PM it to me and I'll put it in the relevant place.

Sorry no help in solving the problem (did you bury the slug at the bottom of the garden?) and no, I'm not following you around.

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: GUEST,greg stephens
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 03:47 PM

Exactly the same problem now, and its very annoying.For example, I want to write up fred Dibnah's funeral on the relevant thread. it is technically impossible for me to do so. If I log in as "greg stephens", I cant access any threads. If I log out(as I am doing now) I acn't access threads longer than 40 posts, so I cant get into the Fred Dibnah thread. Strange are the ways of Mudact and ntl cabletv.

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 02:01 AM

.. and PCs don't take kindly to being thumped - you can damage the hard drive that way... :p

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 01:32 AM

Did have same problem, same time as greg, hit my internet box, shouted at it, then just gave up on mudcat till it sorted itself out.
I assume it was some sort of internet TV bollocks, [there probably all the same company, and were updating the system or something?]

All seems fine now.

Its pointless me buying a computer, i'm too thick to understand them, it took me ages to figure this internet box out, and there supposed to be easy!

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 06:41 PM

Interesting - John from Hull uses Web TV - haven't seen him have that problem.

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 06:38 PM

one wonders just 'where' cookies are set in Web TV, so that it usually works for greg....perhaps the whole thing was a WebTV glitch.

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: Snuffy
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 01:27 PM

Maybe John was right - is it coincidence that it works now that we're back on Greenwich Meant Time?

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 12:43 PM

Make a note of all rites, rituals, incantations, and profanities used. From now on, if anyone else has a similar problem, we'll refer them to greg stephens.

Who knows? Someday "ask greg" may be as famours in the computer world as "It's in Knuth."

John

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: greg stephens
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 08:59 AM

YIPPEE
Today(you can see it says "greg stephens" above this post) the problem has sorted itself out. Trouble is, it may come back in five minutes, and I still have no idea what, if anything, I or anyone else can do about it.

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 01:32 AM

greg -

I assumed that it was your 'cat cookie that you meant, but the other possibility did suggest itself.

I don't have any relevant experience with cabletv connection, so can't offer much except to observe that it does look like a "porn filter" behavior. It could be something preset in your cabletv box, or if you have "user adjustable" filter options it could be, as suggested, an inadvertent change in settings. Otherwise it could be related to the recent total lunar eclipse and will go away when we go back to DST in 6 months.

John

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: GUEST,greg stephens
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 07:45 PM

I can get in easy to other sites that need some kind of signing in, eg my yahoo email. To Johnin Kansa: I have no computer; I get onto the internet via ntl cabletv internet access. By "log in" or "log out" I mean doing the relevant business on Mudcat, making myself "greg stephens" or "GUEST", or cookie-setting as I believe it's called.

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: treewind
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 07:24 PM

If you're logged in to Mudcat, it's checking your Mudcat cookie. Could your browser (or some intermediary) be disallowing access to sites that need cookies?

Anahata

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 11:57 AM

We assume you mean when you "log in" at mudcat or don't log in at mudcat, i.e. a "site login."

You could also mean when you "log in" on your computer or not. You may normally "sign on" when you start up your computer. With recent Win versions you can also operate as "generic user" and may have different security and privacy settings for that user - and no 'cat cookie. A "machine login." While I don't think this is what you're talking about, it would be a lot easier to guess at reasons for your problem if it was.

Most browsers allow a variety of security, privacy, and content settings. The content settings include the famous "porn filter" functions, and usually allow either whole sites or individual pages to be blocked, by site address, and/or can be set to block "based on content." Most of them can be set to block "chat rooms" and/or "discussion" sites.

If you intentionally set up the content filter functions, you would probably use a password; but if they've never been (intentionally) turned on, you often can set them without a password, and it can be pretty easy to mess up the browsing experience by making casual privacy rules. With some browsers it's easy to inadvertently apply a rule, without realizing you've done it, especially if no password has been applied. In IE, as an example, you have to "turn on" the Content Filter in order to look at what can be done there, and it's easy to leave it on when you exit Tools. Even if it appears that no rules were turned on, the "blank" filter can affect your browsing.

If you have "looked at" the "Content Filter" or its equivalent in your browser, it could be the source of the symptoms described.

If anyone else has had access to your computer, they may have inadvertently or deliberately changed content filter use and/or security and privacy settings. The truly malicious could even enter a password and change the settings, if they had "your" or "superuser" authority on your machine. (The password used cannot be broken or discovered by any normal means, so if you ever do use one be sure to "remember it in writing.")

While the Content Filter is supposed to be able to produce the symptoms described, recent Windows and IE updates have applied much more aggressive rules, and a too high Security tab setting could possibly be to blame.

Most of the above assumes you have control of your own machine and connection. If you're on a nework, particularly at a workplace, your SysAdmin may have found someone "wasting time" at the 'cat and just blocked the "Threads" site for everyone. He can do that - and ignorance can be damnable.

John

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: GUEST,greg stephens
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 06:51 AM

that last GUEST was me. Well, I'm still no nearer solving this, it's very frustrating.

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 06:37 PM

Yes. Doesnt work.

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: Snuffy
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 06:09 PM

When you're on your PM page, have you tried clicking on Lyrics and Knowledge in the Mudcat Header strap at the top of the page?

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 05:03 PM

I had (still have) a similar problem when using one particular browser (Opera 6)...I could not log in, but go thru the 'back door' and see PMs and such. I use Opera 7 and Firefox and have no problems with anything, so I quit worrying. Maybe Jeff knows some arcane answer..

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: GUEST,greg stephens
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 02:34 PM

If I try to access the Mudcat forum page via "mudcat.org/threads.cfm" when I am logged in, I just get a big purple square saying I cant, basically, which is what ntl puts up if you cant access a page for whatever reason. If I go to mudcat.org, that works fine, and I can progress to my PMs, but I cant get to the forum by any of the standard roots. If I am logged out, "mudcat.org/threads.cfm" takes me straight to the forum page, no trouble.

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: MMario
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 11:32 AM

I have that problem at work. But it is due to a content filter.

Subject: RE: Strange tech problem????
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 11:27 AM

What happens if you try to get into the forum when you are logged in ?
Do you get any funny messages etc. Have you tried clicking   "Checkout our Forum" as well as "Lyrics & Knowledge" ? If you search the forum from the front page, does it let you get into the threads which it finds ?

Subject: Strange tech problem????
From: GUEST,greg stephens
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 11:05 AM

I am having a weird problem. If I am logged in as "greg stephens" I can get at my PMs, plus any threads that I have a trace on. But I cant get on to the forum.If I log out(as now) I can get onto the forum, but obviosuly I cant get at my PMs. What's going ?. This happening to anyone else(I expect it's to do with my ntl cable tv internet system, it's always throwing up bizarre things).
    I hope some clever person will make a suggestion(and dont say "buy a computer"! I normally manage to access Mudcat perfectly).