Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site

Subject: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: pavane
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 06:29 PM

This evening, since editing and uploading one of the files (just a simple change of text), my laptop (running XP professional) won't access my site (www.greenhedges.com) at all. It just sits there saying it is loading, for ages.

I can get to it fine on a different PC (win98se), so I am sure I haven't corrupted the site itself. Can anyone suggest what might have happened on the Laptop? It gets to all other sites OK, just not that one (I am using it to send this message). I have tried the obvious things like deleting the cache and temporary files, and rebooting, without success.

The only other thing I did was to accidentally edit with Front Page (I clicked on the HTML file by mistake).

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: MudGuard
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 06:36 PM

Which browser are you using?

It shows fine on Firefox 1.0.7 here (ok, there are lots of error messages in the Javascript console).

Opera 8.5 shows the page too. Same for Konqueror 3.4.0 (on Cygwin).

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 07:13 PM

Fin running Mozilla from Mac OS9.2.

Linn

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 07:13 PM

That word is supposed to be "fine"!
LSS

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 07:24 PM

Dunno - works OK here. I doubt it is your laptop though.

For my ongoing (and hopely to beta where I ask a few others to help me test before the end of next week) rewrite of folkinfo, I have taken to using this to see if it picks up anything wrong (with my code - I'm ignoring what posts in a thread, etc. may contain, etc.)

Your site shows a number of errors see here. I'm not sure if there will be anything severe enough to cause you problems though.

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Nov 05 - 03:17 AM

Thanks - that is great. Glad to confirm that it works OK. (I am using IE6 at present)

Most of those errors in Jon's link seem to be in the code that the ISP has dumped into my file automtically, to implement their banner stuff.

I will have to send them the list of errors!

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 14 Nov 05 - 04:34 AM

Well maybe you should point it out to them. It seems silly that an ISP should prevent one from providing HTML pages that conforms to standards.

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Nov 05 - 01:56 PM

If, by chance, the laptop is the machine you used to edit your stuff, there is the remote possibility that you are the victim of Microsoft's attempts to be overly helpful.

Especially if you use one of the default "modern" WinXP setups, Windows attempts to keep track of what you work on, and in some circumstances may create and "update" shortcuts for you. The persistent insistence that "everything" has to be in "My Documents" is the tip of the iceberg here. Sometimes files are put there, but sometimes it's only a shortcut and the actual file goes somewhere else.

There also is a vaguely defined (vague to me at least) ability for Windows to update shortcuts to a file when you drag-and-drop move a file that the shortcut points to.

It should be rare, but working on a local copy of a web page could have "updated" your browser short cut so that when you try to open the web page Windows is trying to open the copy of the web page on your own machine. Usually, if the front page is missing, you'll get a "cannot open" kind of error message; but if a linked object isn't immediately found, Windows may attempt to search for it. A full drive search, especially with the slower drives common on laptops, may make it look like nothing is happening for a very long time. You won't get the "file not found" error message until Windows is happy with its own conclusion that it's looked everywhere.

I don't think this is too likely, but you should be able to check it quite simply by manually entering the URL for the website instead of using an existing shortcut to the site.

You may have already done this, but if you've only tried to connect using a "previously good" shortcut/bookmark to try to get to the website you may have "been helped" and Windows is trying to open the page from your laptop - or your bookmark may have been corrupted in some other way.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: GUEST,Pavane at work
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 03:21 AM

It does sound a possibility, but I am sure I also tried by typing in the URL. Will check again. Thanks

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: Nick
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 06:49 AM

Could it be that easyspace (?) have made some sort of change at their end (some DNS change perhaps) that is slowly going round the various ISPs - hence some machines see it and others don't? Do you perhaps have a different ISP for the laptop and the other machine? I've seen it before where I can not see a site on one ISP but can from another when using the same machine.

I cannot access your index page or your links page with my machine (IE6 - Windows XP) but an educated guess led me to http://www.greenhedges.com/harmony.htm page and onwards to the /cobol.htm, /music.htm, /HOME.htm. Links from those pages to /links.htm and /index.htm still do NOT work.

I'd try your webhost and see what they are up to!

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: Paul Burke
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 07:46 AM

Funny thing when I tried (Firefox): it hung up with "waiting for 127.0.0.1" - that's the local loopback IP address.

You couldn't have been trying something out, and left that address in could you?

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 07:56 AM

I am baffled, because I can get to the site OK from my desktop at home (On the same broadband connection as the laptop) and from work. I can see it at this moment, and the counter is up by over 20 hits since yesterday.

So why are some people and some machines having problems?

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 02:06 PM

I fairly often get a similar result with my setup, two to five machines on one dialup connection; but I thought my system was so obsolete nothing like that could happen on a modern broadband setup.

I have one machine that connects to the ISP via it's internal modem, and is set up to "share" its connection via the Windows built-in ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). Any other machine plugged into my 10/100BaseT LAN is supposed to be able to call on that machine to pass Internet stuff back and forth. All other machines (except the ICS host) are set to connect via "Local Network."

The ICS host machine frequently "forgets" that the other machines are there, and fails to answer them and/or to pass anything to the ICS server. 127.0.0.1 is the default address that the host machine assumes. It has a very primitive DNS naming utility to assign 127.0.0.x addresses to the other machines, but they're temporary assignments and the host apparently drops them at random intervals.

Frequently when the host gets absent-minded the "host" machine can continue to communicate with the web, but other machines get "Page not found" or "Cannot Connect" - or just sit there "waiting." The limited error messages that come back to a "user" machine mostly are the same ones you'd get if there was a problem with the website, and one must infer (i.e. guess) that the problem is actually with the "ICS host."

Our usual fix is just to go to the ICS host machine and "disconnect" the modem. The restored connection seems more reliable if one of the "user" machines then opens a browser, to make the ICS host "dial on demand" to make the web connection. (Rebooting the ICS host machine usually will work also, but our "host" is a Win2K that can take up to 15 minutes to reboot.)

My impression is that most broadband connections that are intended to allow connection sharing do the share management in the broadband interface device; but there seems to be quite a variety of systems and one might get a "simplified" system that behaves similarly to the Microsoft ICS. The solution probably would be to "reboot" (or otherwise re-start) the device that manages sharing.

This does not explain the "connect to every other site but one," but we have noted that the ICS frequently drops out when the ICS host machine connects to specific web pages that have no apparent "peculiar properties." (Other than being "web games" "SHE" insists on playing when I'm in the middle of an umpty-MegaByte download.) On dial-up the ICS can't recover just by going to a different page than the one that "triggered" the interruption, since the ICS host modem doesn't recognize that the connection is gone. It's necessary to manually disconnect and re-dial. A slightly more sophisticated share manager might be able to reconnect the share when the sharing machine goes to a different page(?).

This probably isn't helpful for the problem cited, but I needed something to do while I downed the first three cups this morning.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: OldPossum
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 02:19 PM

From the source code of www.greenhedges.com:

<script language='javascript' src='http://127.0.0.1:1025/js.cgi?pca&r=19718'></script>

I suspect that is what causes the error. Possibly those with Javascript turned off will have no problems, while with Javascript on there could be problems.

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: GUEST,Pavane at work
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 04:04 AM

Thanks OldPossum, I will look at that.

I didn't put that in myself, it is one of those lines dumped into my source by the ISP! (See above).

My site is totally built from (hand-crafted) HTML, so I know what is SUPPOSED to be there!

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: OldPossum
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 04:31 AM

OK, now I understand. My ISP does the same, very irritating. The only other thing I can think of (and in your case this is probably not the problem) is to check the HOSTS file to see that it doesn't contain anything inappropriate. The HOSTS file can be used to block or redirect IP addresses, and sometimes malware will make changes to it.

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 08:19 AM

very slow loading so far

Win 98 (not SE) IE 6.2800.1106 braodband Telewest

White screen no text
13:21 GMT

Subject: RE: Tech: HELP My PC won't show my site
From: GUEST,Pavane at work
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 03:43 AM

Will try a fix as soon as I have a chance. Can't do it from work, of course. It still works OK from here though. Maybe because they have firewalls etc?