ME Forum

[Billy MillsParticipant @billymills]

Normally get 17M from BT copper, use Firefox and Chrome mainly on Ubuntu or Mint ( no AV needed) or XP if I want to run slowly. This site has been very slow lately -even late at night. Have given up posting at some times when things crawl along. No slow down on any other site in UK, EU or USA. The animations are stored on your machine so after the initial download they run without a bandwidth hit, turning them off will not make much difference unless speeds are very low. Time of year when cellular phones run very slowly as well.

 

Billy.

[Billy MillsParticipant @billymills]

One other little point, when you compose a post it looks like a “Cloud” application, every letter typed seems to go to the server which then echo’s back to show you what the server has to date. Sometimes you type away and then nothing comes back when things are slow.

 

So Cloud users beware, you are placing reliance upon the link being fast and there. I will stick to local software applications wherever I can!

 

Billy Canute.

[RJWParticipant @rjw]

Les, thanks for crediting Ady with my tip, I’m sure he appreciated it

Whether or not Firefox stores animations in the browser cache is a moot point, as the browser refreshes the page everytime you change it, even on many occasions when you hit the ‘back’ buton.

 

The main reason I posted the tips was to point people to fixes to get rid of damned annoying distractions when trying to view pages here rather than save on bandwidth, although I can state from personal experience, that when using a very slow dial-up account, those animations Do slow page loading to a crawl!.

 

Not everyone has a superfast connection – or even a fast connection, and many are on a very limited monthly download allowance as well – and if you’re having to use a PAYG wireless broadband dongle to get on-line, that stuff eats up your limits Very quickly.

If webmasters want to pay me for downloading and viewing their fancy web crappery and graphics, fine, but if not, spare a thought for those of us that do have to pay for it.

John

 

[RJWParticipant @rjw]

What some of you also may not be aware of, is that your computers
are probably set up for networking by default even if you don’t have a
network at home – this has been the case since XP was a sprog,

The result of that can be several hundred in and outbound web
connections live at any one time without you being aware of it, all of
which is eating up your bandwidth.

 

Almost all the
software you have installed on your pc’s – even when not running, will
be ‘calling home’ to the programme originator regularly to check for
everything from updates to tracking your web useage. (how often do you see programme update notifications or ‘special offers’ that you never signed up for?

If you don’t believe me, check the inbound and outbound
traffic stat’s on your firewall programme ………..you do Have
firewalls ……………. don’t you………………!

 

Google is one of the worst and most intrusive
offenders ever for tracking your web movements, and their services are
installed by stealth default if you installed Google Chrome, or Comodo
Dragon, you’ll also find it’s loaded into your pc’s registry and
services!

Go to > Run, Type ‘services.msc’ (without quotes) and take a look – (Google updater) you can disable it from there!

I usually delete all Google entries directly from the registry to make sure!

 

Having
just checked the outgoing connections in my firewall using Comodo
dragon as the only live connection to this site using that browser,
there is a continous data transmission of 1B/s which shows that those
animations do use bandwidth, and the connection IP of 74.125.79.101 is
registered to Google!

Whilst typing this post, it’s so far used 4.5Kb and that’s just my browser sitting on a page with the animations running!

OK, it’s damn all if you’re on broadband, but try waiting for 4.5KB to download as an Email for instance, and you’ll sit waiting a while I can tell you.

And, what data is Google sucking from my pc that I don’t know about!

Not for nothing did they get a whigging for ‘accidentally’ recording wireless transmissions during their streetmap fisco!

 

 

Another huge factor affecting how fast a connection ran that I became aware of fairly quickly, followed the introduction of BBC I-Player,
anyone downloading programmes using that medium, is downloading several Gigabytes of data for just one programme down the very same phone lines
we all use for our ADSL connections, and it all hits the available bandwidth from your local
exchange.

How many TV’s are now hooked up directly to an ADSL connection for All viewing!

 

As far as I can see, everytime a service provider
updates systems and spouts about how fast we’ll be able to use the web,
some bright spark comes up with a way to exploit it and destroy any advantages very quickly.

Anyone remember when Broadband first hit the streets! how soon will fibre optic go the same way!

My
broadband connection is all too often little better than my old dial-up, and my 3G
PAYG dongle is so much quicker than my BT ADSL line these days, I’m
thinking of ditching BT’s onerous miserable 18 month 10 gig/month
contracts and jumping ship.

 

I’ve not used my
wireless dongle since getting back from France, is anyone finding
problams with wireless broadband, or is it just an ADSL issue?

 

John.

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Well, I don’t know anything about these mysteries, it’s all greek to me. We have given up on BT and wires, the broadband connection was hopeless. We now have satellite connection, and it is good, can even see videos now.

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Apologies John (RJW),

I have not been not been following this thread from the start I just saw ady’s message with the information in it. On the original topic I did have problems early evening one day this week which I am convinced was due to this website. Loading pages just timed out. No other site gave any problem at the time and my connection speed was showing as about 7 mbps. (BroadbandMax.co.uk speed test.)

 

Les.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Today the connection to the Forum is very slow and takes agaes to cnnect and load, this coincides with the schools shutting for the day!

Must be all the kids hogging whats left of the bandwidth.

Also late at night the big shops locally download their data and it is hard to get a connection again.

We are 7 km from the exchange and its never been any different.

 

Clive

[RJWParticipant @rjw]

No worries Les, I did plonk a winking smiley on the line

 

I must confess that this week has been particularly bad for connections speeds, and totally forgot about kids bailing out of school and onto their pc’s, usually 4.00pm onwards for a couple of hours at least here!

I also got the ‘connecting to model engineer’ loading warning on the page for quite a while just now.

 

We’re only 3 miles from the exchange here, but you’d think we were in the outer hebredes some days.

I did a speed test yesterday in fact, and are getting 2.3 meg’s upload, and 300KB down!

BT says that’s satisfactory, which says it all as far as their ‘Up to’ claims go, should be a 10 meg connection ……………if only!

 

I’ll hook up my ‘T-Mobile’ dongle when I hit a bad speed patch and see how wireless goes – I binned BT’s wireless connection when even after resetting the modem password, some varmint locally kept hacking into my network and robbing the bandwidth.

 

Fact is, there’s so much stuff being rammed down BT’s antiquated old wires, they’re completely overloaded and can’t cope anymore.

I don’t think the problem is totally down to Model Engineer’s site.

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi John,

The problem is probably a bandwidth problem at the MEW site rather than a problem with the site itself. I was thinking of moving to BT next time I have a line or exchange problem. I am with Talktalk at present. The download speed is almost always about 7 meg. The problem with Talktalk is that reporting a fault is almost impossible. There is nowhere on their site to log a fault..

 

Les.

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

We have cripplingly slow internet speeds here. Use Firefox with the adblock plug in, and block the ads and pictures that re-load for each new page…

 

Neil

[RJWParticipant @rjw]

Hi Les,

You’re probably right, although I am experiencing delays across the board getting pages to load on most of those I visit, which include eBay and PayPal, plus a couple of horology and ex-pat forums.

 

I wouldn’t hope for much in the way of an improvement with BT over TalkTalk ……unless you’ve got the patience of Job and can decipher Indilish,

their call centres are in India somehwere, and the operators treat you like a numbskull, leading you through all manner of scripted inane checks on equipment that you know are working fine,when all you want to know is if the engineer with the guts ripped out of a local box, has cut the line!

You can’t log a problem on BT’s website either as it happens.

 

My connection was so bad yesterday, I went to check my broadband useage in case I’d gone over their miserbale 10 gig limit, and were choking my connection ………. the meter had been removed, and links to dialogue boxes had been greyed out, no way to contact anyone.

If you try calling them on the phone about a BB problem, you’re lead through a nausiating rigmarole of button pushing and infuriating verbal menu’s that almost make you lose the will to live.

 

I suppose all phone providers are as bad, but BT have turned crap customer service into an art form!

 

Is anyone using SKY, their deals look Very enticing!

 

John

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

As far as I understand it, it matters not which service you use if it comes down a BT wire. We used to get reasonable speeds, but now there are so many new houses, all full of kids, our service just about disappeared. Hence the satellite system. BTW I’ve tried just about all available providers and BT were the best, doesn’t say much for the rest does it?

[PETER AYERSParticipant @peterayers98304]

Seems to work ok here in Normandy although at odd timmes when the net is really busy it can drag it’s feet a bit

Peter

[michael howarth 1Participant @michaelhowarth1]

Gordon /RJW………we are with BT but all of our neighbours who use different providers only get the same rubbish broadband speeds of about 1.7Mb/s. I have actually found the BT servic line quite helpful and I have no problem being treated as a numbskull because as far as computers are concerned I am one. At least the service calls are free. Having said that I object being charged top dollar for rubbish broadband speed. This site very very slow today.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Les, you say there is no way you can report a fault on Talktalk. Yes, there is.

Go to:- TalkTalk Members Forum and log in and become a member (No cost). They are the best bunch of guys you ever want to meet.#

 

They do not stop at the end of a problem and will re-contact you as often as you need them, please try it.

 

Clive

[VersabossParticipant @versaboss]

Reading the stuff above about stopping these flashing adverts, I searched around in my browser (Opera) for similar settings. I found that in Opera I can adjust settings individually for websites, and so I disabled ‘animation of pictures’ for this site. That worked, but now it wasn’t possible to log in! The e-mail/password entry just went blank again after a second. Enabling the animation brought back the flashing ads, but not the login. Only after the deletion of the model-engineer entry in that (very large) file list brought it back.

The effect is repeatable; I did it twice yesterday and today, and in between Opera made an update.

It is strange that this does not happen with other browsers…? Don’t say use another, I like Opera!

Greetings, Hansrudolf

[Billy MillsParticipant @billymills]

When you have a slow ME site issue try connecting to another site or two , if you get straight in then the finger can only point in one direction.

 

Everytime I have been unable to get in or very slow to react every site tried elsewhere has been fine. So I think it is the 17 titles shairing the same server with limited bandwidth issue.

 

If you want to blame your ISP, Browser, Settings or the kids go straight ahead. I went back to BT, get a fast connection 1/2 mile from the exchange, very happy with their service at home and at work.

 

Billy.

 

[Raymond MuttartParticipant @raymondmuttart67503]

Good evening lads from Canada,, i’m from N.Eastern Ontario, and always have no problem going through this great site.

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Posted by Raymond Muttart on 10/12/2011 01:12:33:

Good evening lads from Canada,, i’m from N.Eastern Ontario, and always have no problem going through this great site.

 

You don’t think being several time zones away from all the heavy users of the sites might be a factpr

 

Neil

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Clive,

Thanks for the tip about the Talktalk members forum. I have applied for membership and am waiting for my application to be approved.

 

Les.

[Charlie,Participant @charlie18171]

Hi Chaps

Yes i have recently had problems loggin on to this site.from being timed out

my browser claiming it cant find the page, Etc Etc,So i have to leave it be

and come back n try later, Which useualy works, I dont know what my

bandwidth is but it is useualy ample for my humble needs, I dont need

greased lightning my brain dont work that fast anyway,

regards

[SpringbokParticipant @springbok]

It is these damned ads causing it I have high speed broadband and still occasionaly get the not responding and have to do the ctrl alt del to escape most of the other forums do not have so many ads that blink and annoy, so much so that I try to ignore them. we should have a option to turn them off. at present 14 to load even before you get started. And I am sure the bean counters in ME would think there should be more and everyone then would stop useing this forum, counter productive I say

 

Bob

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi John (RJW),

 

Thanks for those tips, I knew who first suggested them . My forum experience is greatly improved by applying them. No more ‘flashing’, and ads I can actually bear to look at. Why do designers think that using such annoying techniques are successful in attracting attention. I often leave pages without reading them if there is that much distraction. The only reason I stay on this site is the valuable, interesting and often humorous discussions that take place.

 

 

Best regards

 

Terry

[michael howarth 1Participant @michaelhowarth1]

I have added flashblock to Chrome but nothing comes up on this site to enable any disablement…..what am I doing wrong please.?

[RJWParticipant @rjw]

Thanks Terry, it was an occasion for me to actually put something back into the forum as a little payback for all I’ve learned here, it’s good to know some folks are enjoying the site better as a result.

 

My dial-up connection in France is so parlous, anything that affects downloads speeds has a disastrous affect on web pages loading, such that on many occasions I have to stop images loading altogether, and use the web as a text based service.

 

I got so sick of animated GIF’s, especially on bulletin boards with stupid puerile grimacing smilies, boxing cats and dancing adverts etc, I went web trawling to find ways of killing them off ……those tips were the result!

It’s testament to the fact that those adverts don’t work, that software guru’s have written code for web browsers to stop them, so we’re certainly not alone!

 

Part of the problem is with webmasters who are probably a bit on the ‘young side’ and think anything that moves is either ‘cool’ or must attract attention, they’re also website designers and not commercially savvy, other wise they would know better, and as we all know, the product is totally counter productive.

The number one rule of writing code for any web page if you want to snare and keep visitors, is slick page loading and easy on the eye when it does open!

 

Mick, Flashblock is a software plug-in that cripples Flash animations, the adverts aren’t Flash based but animated GIF’s, a GIF being a less ‘lossy’ image format for saving photo’s and graphics that uses less memory than jpeg’s.

 

I only use Firefox these days, and don’t use Google Chrome, because I detest Google software with a passion, as being ‘spyware by stealth’ foisted on us by one of the most privacy intrusive companies on the planet.

Someone may know of a fix for animated GIF’s in Chrome, but I’ve never searched for it.

 

John

Edited By RJW on 11/12/2011 16:54:29

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