I have been having problems viewing images that are posted by any auction watch users. (myself included). The images appear fine on my Macintosh running netscape, I.E. or Safari. They also appear fine on my Windows 2000 machine running Netscape 6. However, when I try to view the auctions using Internet Explorer 6 on my computer, all I get is a small blank rectangle with a blue outline where the image should be. I was able to use a Windows XP machine this weekend and the auctions appeared to show up fine with Internet Explorer. So, I think there is some sort of problem with Windows 2000, I.E. 6 and Auctionwatch. I have run all the updates for my Windows System and for Internet Explorer. Any suggestions for taking care of this problem? (I've also been getting e-mails on my auctions stating that people can not see my images... so I think this may be a widespread issue that AW needs to take care of!) Thank you for your help!
What ISP are you using? I am on similar conditions as you, and I am able to view all images without any problems. Also, for the people emailing you -- are they AOL users by any chance? Or are you not able to tell what ISP they are using?
My internet connection is through a College network. The people e-mailing me do not appear to be from any one particular ISP.... but the e-mail addresses don't always show the ISP. Some of the e-mail address are from hotmail, some from yahoo, some from netzero, etc... When you say your conditions are similar... are the three main conditions (Windows 2K, IE6, & AW) identical... or just close?
Also worth pointing out that it worked fine on this system until about 1 week ago when I tried to create a new auction from this system. When I went to load a picture, nothing came up. I have deleted all my cookies, temporary internet files, etc... Any other suggestions?
posted on January 20, 2003 11:03:43 AM new
Hello eauctionmgnt,
Please check your browser preferences in IE 6.0 and make sure that the browser is set to view images. Are you only having trouble with AuctionWatch images using this browser?
The only option I see for viewing images is a box under Tools->Internet Options->Advanced->Multimedia->show images. This box is checkmarked. Yes, I am only having problems with Auctionwatch images on this browser. Let me know if there is any more information I can provide you with to assess this situation. Thanks for your help!
posted on February 11, 2003 01:25:05 PM new
Chris,
Thanks for the reply. It appears that the auctions that are having problems only arise from my magaznine advertisement auctions...although not all of them! (I run magazine ads and photography auctions). The images in the magazine ad auctions are all numbered in the following convention (letter + 2 digit serial... i.e. A04, C27, F33, etc...). The only auctions I have received complaints from have been magazine ad auctions. I do not run any pop-up blocking software on my Win 2K box.
Here's something interesting though... I've experimented with this 4-5 times on my machine with the same result. I will open Internet Explorer and go to various auctions (not mine) and the images will all appear perfectly. Then, I will go to one of my magazine auctions... the image will not load and all I see is a blank blue box where the image should be. Then, I try to go back to the same auctions that I HAD seen the images in... now those images don't appear either. It seems like something in the images on my magazine ads is corrupting Internet Explorer so that it can not accept images. I have had other customers complain of the same problem.
For an experiment... try recreating the scenario by first visiting:
posted on February 11, 2003 01:48:26 PM new
Christopher,
Thanks for your prompt response. Here's my results:
When you say you see a blank image, are you seeing our 'image not available' message, or just a small blank box? - I see a blank box with a blue outline.
If you right-click on the missing image link, and use the 'show image' option, does it then load? - No... it just hangs
Can you see the same image from one of those listings, when pasted above, here in the MC? I'm not sure how to paste an image into the message center. I'd be glad to give it a try if you gave me instructions.
This is on Windows 2000, the regular version, not professional, correct? - Wrong. I'm sorry for not making that clear. My machine is Windows 2000 Professional.
One last item, could you let us know the exact version number of IE on that machine causing this error? version 6.0.2800.1106
Thanks again for all your help with this. Let me know if I can answer any other questions!
posted on February 11, 2003 01:50:21 PM new
Just opened this thread in Netscape and realized that YOU had posted the image in your response. So... that changes my answer on the 3rd question to No. I can not see the image in the message center from Internet Explorer. (your smiley also doesn't show).
posted on February 11, 2003 02:07:36 PM new
Christopher,
Both images in the message center come up fine in Netscape. Neither of them show in Internet Explorer. I took the experiment one step further.... and did a view source to get the image URL. I closed Internet explorer and was able to see the image of the renamed picture when I went to the direct URL. Then I used the direct URL for the original named image and was also able to see that image as well. But then when I went back to the message center... neither image appeared. Weird....
posted on February 11, 2003 05:51:47 PM new
Hello eauctionmgnt,
This problem is looking more and more like some sort of image corruption that is affecting only certain browsers/systems. We are able to partially replicate the issue here, but we are unable to find anything in our code that would cause this.
Did you do anything differently when you created the image attached to item 3207589793? This image seems to be causing problems, whereas the images in your other auctions are not. Please try resaving that image locally, then deleting it online and reuploading the resaved image (as long as the filename matches, it will reattach to your listing automatically.)
posted on February 12, 2003 06:17:45 AM new
Diana,
I just downloaded the file to my computer and re-saved the file. I deleted the file on auctionwatch... and then uploaded the file again. Then, I went to the auction on my Windows 2K Internet Explorer... and it still showed the same symptoms as before.
Then, in case the file I downloaded had a problem, I did a "select all" on my image, copied the content, and pasted it into a new image document. I saved that file as the old image name and repeated the process above. The same problems occurred.
I'm not sure if it will help... but in case you need this information too... I'm using Adobe PhotoShop Elements v.2.0 on a Macintosh OSX system to create the images. The images are being saved as a low-compression baseline standard JPEG. Any more help you can give me would be appreciated. Let me know if I can provide you with any further information.
posted on February 12, 2003 12:40:46 PM new
Hi there,
I will pass this information along. When we saved the image locally and uploaded it, we were not able to replicate the problem. Have you been using Photoshop all along, or have you just started using it? I believe that Photoshop does have a proprietary jpeg format.
posted on February 12, 2003 01:02:28 PM new
Diana,
Thank you for your reply. I've always used some sort of Adobe imaging software ever since I started using images on eBay. I think my first version was Photoshop 4.0 for Mac... since then I've progressed to version 5.0, 6.0, then about 1.5 years ago I switched to Adobe Photoshop Elements version 1.0. This is the program I still use on my home MAC OSX machine (running the program in classic). At work, I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements version 2.0 on my office MAC OSX machine, and Adobe Photoshop version 6.0 on my Windows 2k machine.
I've done some further leg-work, and have gone through all my current auctions to find which ones have images with this problem. It seems to be all my images that have a Jxx, Kxx, Mxx, Nxx or Oxx name. (probably close to 100 images in all). The images with these names were originally either created with my Photoshop Elements v.1.0 or with my Photoshop Elements v.2.0 (I can't remember exactly which one I used). My guess, though is that I would have used version 2.0. It is also possible that this may be the first images I have put on AuctionWatch that have been created with Photoshop Elements version 2.0 (again I'm just not sure).
To give you a better idea of how I am creating the images, I use the "Batch Processing" feature in Photoshop elements to convert my images to JPEG low quality, and to rename the files using my naming convention. One thing that I have noticed that is different between the version 1.0 batch process and the version 2.0 batch process is a compatibility option that appears under the File Naming section of the version 2.0 process. It has check-boxes for Windows, Mac OS 9 and Unix. The Mac OS 9 is by default always checked, I checked the Windows box myself, but it does not appear as though the Unix box was checked. Is it possible that this could have created the problem? I am guessing that your servers are probably running a Unix environment.
Anyhow... this whole thing is pretty weird and confusing. I'm open to all ideas and suggestions. I also truly appreciate all the help and support your company gives its users. It is certainly one of the things that makes Auctionwatch far superior to its competitors.
Oh... and just so you know I tried saving the file on both my Mac OSX machine w/ PE ver2.0 and on my Windows 2K machine w/ Photoshop ver. 6.0 and did not have success with either of them. Thanks again for your help!
posted on February 13, 2003 02:27:04 PM new
Hello again,
When you create your jpeg images with Photoshop, do you see two images (one labeled as an "alias"?) I seem to remember problems with Photoshop jpegs, that seemed to be alleviated by using the "alias" image rather than the main image. Because this is only affecting certain images, and it does not appear to be affecting other users in the same way, we are fairly certain that the problem is some sort of image corruption. Have you tried resaving the images in a different image editor?
posted on February 13, 2003 05:58:52 PM new
Diana,
I think the "proprietary JPEG" problem you are referring to with Adobe Photoshop JPEG's is when a JPEG is created from a CMYK file. If this is done, photoshop produces a four-channel CMYK JPEG files which will not work well with programs not designed for pre-press work. However, all my files were created from RGB formats which should create a standard JPEG file that should be compatible with all internet browsers.
When saving the JPEG's through Photoshop, I do not see two images like you were talking about. I believe that "alias" is predominantly a Windows term, so it probably is not occuring because I use a Mac.
I have not tried saving the images in any program other than Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Adobe creates the best imaging software in the industry, so I have never found a need to purchase anything else. I do have a copy of iPhoto, however so I will try that and see if it helps.
I do agree with you that it seems to be some sort of image file corruption. But the question is, where is the corruption originating? And... why is the corruption only affecting a small percentage of browsers/operating systems?
I do have a question that might be relevant to this problem. When images are uploaded to your system, are you using a straight binary transfer? I just ask, because I do know that any type of text conversion could create file corruption in a JPEG when transfering files between computers running different operating systems.
Also... I compared two of my images in a text editor to see if I could spot the corruption. The first Image was working fine in my auctions, and looked like it was supposed to in the text editor (having JFIF in the first line of text to indicate it being a JPEG). The second image was one that was not working in my auctions. This one did not appear like it should have. Instead... of opening up in "plain-text" (like a JPEG should), it opened up and showed me three lines of text:
awbp.gif
Image Hosting by auctionwatch.com
Previous page
There was a ? symbol inside a box in front of the first two lines, and each line was separated by a paragraph break. The fact that my defective JPEG file now clearly has auctionwatch information embedded in it leads me to believe that the corruption is orriginating on your end of things.
Anyhow... thank you for continuing to work with me on this issue. I will continue to look into things on this end, and will appreciate your efforts on your end.
posted on February 13, 2003 06:19:53 PM new
Hi there!
Thank you for providing the above info, but I can say for sure that I'll need to escalate this to an engineer because I have no idea how to interpret any of that. I'll let you know what they think when I hear back.
posted on February 13, 2003 06:23:01 PM new
Oh... and those downloaded files are from the THUMBNAIL images that Auctionwatch creates. When I download the images directly from the original file... they both show up like they should in a text-editor. Which again... makes it look like the corruption is originating in the Auctionwatch-generated thumbnail picture of my original file. (just a thought). Thanks again for your help! Let me know what you find.
posted on February 13, 2003 06:34:17 PM new
Hi - one more thing - would you mind emailing a couple of the problematic images to [email protected], so that we can take a look at the format from here?
posted on February 14, 2003 06:12:03 AM new
Diana,
I'll send you off some files right away. I've also found out something else interesting. With these auctions, we're actually dealing with two image files. One is the thumbnail that Auctionwatch creates, and the other is the original image that appears when the thumbnail is clicked. On a hunch... I had my Internet Explorer go directly to the URL of the main image, bypassing the auction with the thumbnail. Guess what? The image appeared without a problem! I think that is pretty conclusive that the corruption is somewhere within the thumbnail image that was created by Auctionwatch! Anyhow... I'll send some of the problematic files right off to you so you can do some more detailed analysis. Thanks again for looking into this.
Oh... also... image N45.jpg all of a sudden started working today. Not sure if you all did something to it last night... but I didn't touch it. Also, now when I download it and view it in a text editor, it looks like a normal JPEG should.
