somethings changed

[mel]

Ted, as of this morning I've now got to switch off the firewall and security settings at work to access the site (I only ever used to have to do this for the classifieds) have you changed something to do with cookies or whatevers but its a real pain and might actually alienate a whole area of people at work etc.

[PetrolTed]

The home page has been restructured but there shouldn't be anything fundamentally different.

Having said that, I've just tweaked the banner delivery code to remove a port reference but that's always been there so should always have broken! Is it any better now?

[Greenv8s]

I haven't noticed any change, nothing special in our firewall. Couple of times recently I've hit the 'next' button in the gassing station and got a completely blank page, page refresh shows the next page properly although it seems to have lost track of which messages are new. Otherwise no problems, and the performance seems back to normal too.

Cheers,
Peter H

[shayes]

More general feedback:
I find that the home page takes ages (and ages and ages - around 30-45 seconds) to load using IE5.x but around < 10 seconds with Netscape 6.2 through the same firewall.

If I go directly to /ads or /gassing or /news then the page build time is more acceptable < 5 to 10 seconds. I can connect via any of my firms proxy/firewall ports in any country and experience the same delays in IE vs Netscape.

Strange and only happened since the Pistonheads / Nildram relocation.

[PetrolTed]

The redesign of the home page should see it downloading quicker (or at least in more useful stages). I'll go test under IE5.x again

[mel]

yep works ok now

it might be something to do with the "add blocking" thing we use which chops off banners etc

[PetrolTed]

So you don't see any of the adverts? That's not so good. I need you to be buying from the advertisers!

[Greenv8s]

quote:
The redesign of the home page should see it downloading quicker (or at least in more useful stages). I'll go test under IE5.x again

Oh if only there was some automated monitoring tool that could emulate the various different browser types from different locations and automatically warn you about performance problems and download errors ...

(Yes OK it's a shameless plug I know!)

Cheers,
Peter Humphries
www.jyra.com

[PetrolTed]

Ok, you've got me intrigued. Had a quick look at the website and couldn't find such a tool - can you point me in the right direction (does it emulate the bugs in Netscape 4 that cause it to crash!?)

[shayes]

Work's a peach now Ted.

Cheers

[Greenv8s]

quote:
Ok, you've got me intrigued. Had a quick look at the website and couldn't find such a tool - can you point me in the right direction (does it emulate the bugs in Netscape 4 that cause it to crash!?)

The Jyra SMS pretends to be many users in different locations all doing 'stuff'. It monitors how successful the 'stuff' is and how long it takes to do, with various forms of analysis and reporting. 'Stuff' can range from basic IP and SNMP operations up to SQL and HTTP(S) transactions. There is some support for emulation of specific client applications like Netscape, but don't expect too much from it - it's more aimed at availability/response time monitoring rather than compatibility testing. But if you have a service level agreement and want concrete evidence to beat your provider over the head with, this might be the sort of thing you're looking for.

This technology isn't cheap, and it is massive overkill for what you want, but since the subject came up I thought I'd mention it!

Cheers,
Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)