These things
Help. My internet browser had a nervous breakdown this afternoon. Apropos of, seemingly, nothing, it stopped loading webpages properly. Images wouldn't load, typefaces came out in weird sizes, layout was all drunk. I use Firefox, so I consulted their Help pages and was advised to remove cookies pertaining to the culprit websites (which, by the way, was pretty much all of the ones I was bouncing between - BBC, Guardian, Blogger, Flickr ... Wikipedia was particularly odd, as the pics wouldn't load and the search bar disappeared, until I scrolled down and down and found it at the bottom, skulking - it was like being Alice in an online version of Wonderland, but without smoking opium first). I did as I was told. Hey! Some of the images reappeared. But not all. So I removed all cookies*, which scared me but I was willing to take any advice. Et voila! My browser sobered up. And all was well with the world ...... For a few minutes. Then they started to go wonky again. Does anyone out there understand cookies? I've never really had cause to fiddle with them before, and now all of a sudden they are using up all of my valuable time with their demands. As I type this, things have calmed down again, but I'm expecting the worst.
I'm rather hoping there's something I can do. Is there? (I have recently updated Firefox, as prompted by a big box telling me to, but I don't think this is what's causing the drunkenness, as I did so after the problem started - stupidly thinking this might fix it.)
* In removing all cookies, I have now had to go back and re-input all my passwords and logins, but this is a small price to pay.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 5:02 PM
33 Comments
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33 Comments:
Without wishing to resort to cliche, have you tried a) restarting Firefox, and b) restarting your machine?
When you restart Firefox be sure not to restore your previously opened tabs, so you're starting from scratch.
You see, I love the IT Crowd simplicity of that advice. I have restarted Firefox, and the machine, but do you know what? I'm going to shut it down right now, go home and tentatively open it up again when I get home. Thanks!
Not sure what's wrong with your browser, sorry, but if it helps cookies are basically things that remember information about how you've interacted with a particular website (e.g. your search preferences). They're also delicious. Mmm, cookies.
I'll start with the basics, which is a little patronising, but you've got to start with them. I hate to ask but, have you tried switching your computer off and then on again?
I know it's a cliché, but there's a reason it's a cliché. It works a lot of the time.
I'm assuming you have tried that, so the other things I'd try are:
- reboot your router
- turn off your firewall and see if that helps
Were you in the British Library? You may well find all is well when you get home and the problem was with their Web Tube.
Sigh. When users call the help desk they really should give all pertinent information...
You could have a corrupt Firefox profile. Follow the instructions here to open profile manager and created a new profile. Hopefully it won't be too daunting for a non-techie person.
PS - if it works you need to thank science and engineers :)
AC: off subject but there's a spoof diary by Diane "big old nazi" Mitford in private eye this week (FYI)
A friend called me today asking for advice on sorting out his broken dongle (stop sniggering). I told him to turn it all off, unplug modem, dongle and start over. A 'soft reboot'. It worked. It is truly the best advice ever - on then off again.
I also suggest you stop looking at so much porn if you don't want to catch computer clap.
I would also suggest the rather obvious advice of reinstalling Firefox. It works for me when things go wonky.
Were the pages loading quickly? When my net connection is poor I get the same problems. If not... er, trash Firefox (& preference files) and reinstall?
In case its of use in the future going to "Tools" then "Clear Private Data" in Firefox allows you to be a bit more selective about what gets cleared. So you should be able to clear all cookies without losing passwords etc.
I had problems with previous releases of Firefox and found that clearing the cache usually fixed things. (Same method: tools/clear private data).
Not a Mac user myself so can't comment on whether there are any Mac-specific issues. (I use Linux I do - what a dweeb eh?!)
I had the same problem not so long ago.
Oddly, it seemed to resolve itself. I blame my connection.
If you have just upgraded something, it could be a faulty add-on. I know I've just had trouble with one of mine.
Have you tried loading Firefox in Safemode? Close FF (Select Quit FF in the FF menu), then hold down the Option key as you start FF. You can then disable all add-ons. If this corrects the problem, then start them up one at a time (Tools, Add-ons)
Andrew, give up on it and switch to Chrome. Over the past month or so Firefox has simply gave me too much cheek and nonsense so I fired it's ass. Simple as that.
Best guess, as it was intermitent, is it was a problem with the internet connection in the place you were, whether it be their connection to the outside world or your wifi connection to their connection (if you know what i mean).
If it happens again, first thing to do is narrow down where the problem is (after a full restart as everyone says). Use safari (which i think should be already on a mac negating having to fluff around installing stuff), if you get problems in that aswell, its not firefox. Use a different internet connection (or check if other people/computers on that connection are also having connection problems). If at the end of that its still not working, it may be some kind of firewall jiggerypokery or your computer may be buggered.
Sounds to me like it's simply a connection problem, and Firefox wasn't loading or parsing the CSS file (which contains information such as font type/size, and where to put stuff on the page). I occasionally get that when I've a really slow connection or something.
Firefox has moments, it usually gets over them without anything being done by the user. It's infuriating but it has benefits over other browsers. If you don't mind moments, firefox is good, if you can't deal with it switch to opera or safari.
Off topic: Just saw you on Sky 3's "50 Questions of political correctness" talking about Benny Hill. Didnt notice if you were on old or new teeth.
(As I type its moved on to the Black and White minstrels. Commenters include Bernard Manning, Kenny Lynch and, blimey, Dominic Diamond. Oh and now Michelle McManus is on ...)
Switch your computer off - and then don't switch it on again.
It doesn't fix the wibbly pictures but it does wonders for stress.
Yours helpfully,
Computer-allergic-person
Have you tried roaring, pounding your fists into the ground, puffing out your cheeks, hammering at your chest and throwing your machine repeatedly against a wall in fury?
People love giving advice. It gives us a sense of purpose. I think to increase hits on a website all you would need to do would be to post a picture of a crying woman next to scrolling line of text asking for help on a variety of minor/easy to solve issues.
How do I get cat hairs off my rug?
How can I satisfy my man in bed?
Why does my computer not like me?
I for one would be rushing to offer help. But in this case I'm too late and too lacking in useful knowledge. I pimped up my Firefox with too many add-ons, with the result that it stutters and has more nervous breakdowns than a bed wetting public school boy.
I too saw you last night on 50 questions of political correctness. When I saw it in the guide I thought it was just going to be an excuse to show clips of racist jokes(which it did) but it turned out to be quite informative.
this is weird - about 3 customers and contacts emailed me today with a similar issue... (perhaps they assume it's my fault?)...
i presume all these people upgraded to FF new version on the same day and for some reason it's failed after a fixed time...
Andrew -- don't bother looking for the google chrome thing - it's not even out in Beta on the Mac yet.
I personally use safari, opera and firefox - i quite like camino too,,,
It's defenitely the p*rn.
Voiceofexperience.com
Aka Hoops McCann
90% of the problems in almost any field are very standard (in IT they are typically resolved by "turn it off and on again"), 90% of the remainder are straight-forward but often tedious to fix ("it's a known issue that is resolved like this...") but that last 1% are ridiculously impossible to solve because they are the ones where the symptoms bear no relationship to the actual problem. And that's why you need to have experts. The flaw in the system is that in order to keep in work, the experts tend to make out that all problems are in that last 1%. And because they are experts, we tend to believe them...
There's a great letter in Private Eye this week (as well as the funny Diana Mosley diary) about why Chiropractors have more of a reputation for "miracle cures" than perhaps they should for similar reasons.
-- David
Thanks for all your advice. I knew I could count on "the people". I have tried clearing my "cache" - oh, and it did seem to work fine when I got home, which suggests it is something to do with the connection at the Library (although I've had no trouble with it before).
I've never seen that political correctness programme on Sky. I think it's about two or three years old? I rather expect it'll be on again. (If only taking heads got repeat fees. We don't. If we did, of course, they wouldn't repeat the programmes so much. QED.)
By the way, Phil, you know I love engineers.
In case this pertinent, IT pals, the connection is dodgy again this morning, and I keep getting this message:
Connection Interrupted
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
The network link was interrupted while negotiating a connection. Please try again.
This is new one on me. Could the two problems be connected?
I'd say they were almost certainly connected. If firefox was behaving when you got home, it's unlikely to be a problem with your machine.
I know you're not allowed to talk in libraries, but could you find someone else with a laptop and see if they're having problems too?
If you're back at the library, try asking the kindly old British Librarian lady if she's having trouble with her interweb. Tell her you're having trouble accessing rude pictures of ladies.
Without wishing to put pressure on you to provide us all an hour and six minutes of free chat, will you be going round to Richard's house to play today?
i only ever really get involved with the cookies to get rid of evidence of porn.
..and don't pretend you haven't
Sounds like the library have a wobbly internet or some wobbly wifi. As people have said, check with the staff there so they can get a moss/roy on the case. Also probably worth checking with a few other people in the library if they're having problems as the first rule of IT is blame the user, the second rule is blame the users equipment, then, and only then take responsibility and have to do something.
Connection Interrupted
- exactly that -- in old terms the phone line was cut off.
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
- it couldnt connect and so tried again. (reset). This would explain why pages look dodgy -- it loads half from the net and half from your 'cache' and the two no longer match up = dodgy display
The network link was interrupted while negotiating a connection.
-You sometimes get this when sites get too many viewers and the server can't connect. Sometimes the fault as it your end with your connection.
Please try again.
- wouldnt bother - if it's an issue with server overload then that will compound the issue. I would "Please try again, but later."
As someone else said, cookies just store data from a website, often a session code so that they can 'remember' you when you revisit the site. Cookies shouldn't have any affect on loading of images / CSS (the code that tells your web browser how to layout the web page).
It's more likely to be a flakey internet connection that is dropping out when trying to download the images or CSS, causing the page not to load or display properly.
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