posted on May 6, 2001 05:36:04 PM new
I am having all kinds of problems lately.
I have a cable modem and have our email thru the cable company. Two days ago their "server farm went down" (this is what tech support told me when I called), so we haven't been able to send or receive email. They don't seem to have any idea when they'll have it fixed. So I went over to hotmail.com and registered over there so I at least could contact winning bidders.
Now, yesterday morning I notice that the internet has come to a screeching crawl for me. I use Internet Explorer. Sometimes I can access a site, eventually, but forget about doing any navigating within the sight because the pages won't finish loading. Sometimes, I can't even access sites at all. So back on the phone to support where they run some diagnostics. The guy just keeps saying "Oh my" then finally says something about a reduction of 29% in something and that they will have the cable guy at our house tomorrow because he thinks the problem is in the connection at our house.
So, I'm goofing around this evening and I log on to Netscape instead of IE and while things aren't as fast as they should be, I am able to navigate successfully and much quicker. So I guess my question is, if the problem is with the cable connection here at our house, why is Netscape working and IE not? I'm very worried that the tech guy got something wrong and our problem won't be corrected by the cable guy's visit tomorrow. This plus the email fiasco is VERY frustrating!
[ edited by mapledr1216 on May 6, 2001 05:38 PM ]
posted on May 6, 2001 08:42:12 PM new
I assume you are using an @HOME service. The email is TERRIBLE. I do not use @home anymore because the email was SO unreliable. The website was also very poor, crashing all the time and their support just kept saying "we're upgrading our equipment to meet demand..."
Unacceptable to pay $40/month for that trash. I am now paying an extra $10/month for an email and website provider.
The cable modem service quality will largely depend on how many others in your area are using the cable service. It's also possible that a degradation occurred because your neighbor dug an improper hole and busted the cable, or something like that. Our cable modem usually goes out during heavy rain.
posted on May 7, 2001 05:50:17 AM new
No matter who you use, it pays to have access to a secondary provider. While some bidders can be sympathetic, others are not. Web-based email, like Yahoo or Hotmail, is also a very good backup.
posted on May 7, 2001 07:45:18 AM new
There are areas that can be causing netscape to work and IE not:
1. Security settings, such as your proxy access. I don't know much about this, and even less how cable modems work, but depending on the security/firewall/proxy settings, IE could be set up incorrectly and NS correctly, and thus only NS might be working.
2. Timing settings. If your ISP has slowed down a lot, one browser may be timing out sooner than the other.
3. Java/javascript settings. You can set up your browser to ignore these or not, and that can cause differences.
I'm far from an expert on all of the above, but these are the kinds of settings that could be different between your browers, and thus could be making one work and the other not.
If you have people check out your system, these are two areas that often cause the kinds of problems you are experiencing.
Hope this helps.
And do consider a backrub ISP service, like a dial-up modem provider. Maybe one of the free ones, or a $5/month "emergency" access plan. Between that and a web-based mail, you can almost always stay in communication on auctions.
[ edited by captainkirk on May 7, 2001 08:25 AM ]
