Tom Burke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >This is OT as strictly it has nothing to do with Macs per se at all, >but I can't think of anywhere else to ask the question. So my >apologies, and I ask for your indulgence. > >I frequent eBay.co.uk. In recent months I;ve noticed a strange >phenomenom, in that it can take a very long time for a page to load. I >mean minutes. I have an ADSL cinnection, so it's not line speed, and >indeed looking at my router during most of the delay there won't be any >traffic. I get messages on the status line like this "completed 1 of 4 >items : 2 errors". > >The bizarre thing is that this beaviour varies from week to week. Last >week, for example, the site was very responsive. Since their weekly >Friday morning maintenance shut-down, it's been like treacle. > >I've tried raising the issue with eBay but with no success at all - >they won't even acknowledge it. Furthermore I'm pretty certain it's an >external issue - it's the same using both Safari & IE on my PowerMac, >Safari on the Lombard, and even IE5.5 on a PC laptop. > >Does anyone else see such behaviour? Anyone got any suggestions as to >why it happens? Reply off-list of you'd prefer not to take up list >bandwidth.
I've seen a similar phenomena on some sites. What I believe is happening is that one or more of the banner ads aren't loading. A number of sites sell "space" on their web pages to banner ad companies. These are the ads you see for X10 minicams and assorted junque (the ginzu knives of the internet, as it were). Some banner ad companies either oversubscribe their service and/or their server crashes, so the ad never loads or loads so slowly that it times out. Some browsers will display each sublink they're loading along the bottom of the window so you can see what in particular it's trying to load (this is the information you should report to the site's webmaster--if you can get it). Sometimes, if you hit the browser 'stop' button it will display the parts of the page that have loaded (which are often the only parts you're interested in anyway) with a generic icon over the parts that didn't load. This is the one--and probably only--case where popup ads are better: if the 'ad' site is down it won't take the whole referencing page with it. This can be a difficult problem to resolve because sometimes the ad sites work fine from one area but are horribly slow (or unreachable) from another. I think some of the ad sites change domains frequently to outwit software that blocks "known" ad sites (actually, it doesn't block them; it intercepts them and returns a blank page--so the browser thinks the link has been resolved and displays a blank banner ad), and there can be delays in propagating domain names around the internet. Also, some sites are reluctant to address this problem because they get revenue from banner ads and don't want to bite the hand that feeds them (not fully realizing that that same hand is choking their site to death and rendering it all but unusable). -Jeff [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- "You can't brew a premium lager with a kool-aid mentality." --Harold Green in _The_Red_Green_Show_ -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
