In recent weeks I've had a heck of a time posting here. It's as if my keyboard is sticky ... registering some letters and not others, not advancing when I hit the space bar, and so on.
As a result, I've been forced to keep my posts short -- some readers would see this as a benefit, not a problem -- and they still take me way too much time.
I've not noticed this with the two other forums on which I occasionally participate. Has anybody experienced the problems I describe on this one?
Nothing similar here - on any of my 3 machines.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I have not experienced that problem here, but there are plenty of other problems that I have had with the composition functionalality. I usually write posts in WORD and then copy/paste them into the composition box. That causes problems by changing the formatting which I had never experienced prior to this software version of the forum. It is particularly problematic in quoting someone.
But if your keyboard is acting like it is failing to make connections, that seems like the likey source of the problem, especially if it is doing the same thing on other forums.
That has happened to me, and it is a result of the video ads on the side of the forum repeatedly loading, which uses a lot of bandwidth. I have had to use an ad blocker to fix the problem.
dakotafredIn recent weeks I've had a heck of a time posting here. It's as if my keyboard is sticky ... registering some letters and not others, not advancing when I hit the space bar, and so on.
Out of curiosity, are you ona wireless (WiFi) connection, and do you have one of those fancy DirectTV or similar TV systems that use the Internet connection?
My problem with 'sticking' keys (particularly the space bar and repeated arrow keys) came along with an irritating hopping up and down of the items, making it a crapshoot to select theright item, and an irritation when the wrong thing (often a list of posts from months or years inthe past) is presented. I had been presuming this was an artifact of abysmal local ISP performance, but I'm always prepared to find my expectations for lousy Web IxD exceeded...
I was assuming that the latency problems were associated with the stickiness ..the 'composition box' changes only show after the two-way TCP/IP-mediated trip to the server and back, and perhaps some of the codes are being lost of 'malprocessed' on the way. Note how slow deleting text with the backspace or delete key is, too -- this can't be just coincidental. I don't know how much of the actual ad content traffic is 'streaming' (and hence interfering with 'client latency') but there are many other examples, probably going back to the dawn of the commercial exploitation of the Internet, where ad content takes precedence or is 'modal' (I can even remember sites that would not load content if the calls to ad sites did not 'complete' first).
I do not yet know the whole story of the little exploitation opportunity associated with introduction of Win 10/EDGE, but I do notice a persistent and massive problem with perceived QoS on many sites that started just around the time Windows 10 was introduced.
What did he just say?
I thought fat fingers were bad....
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
I guess I should consider myself lucky in that I don't understand much of the preceding posts, and I don't have the issues that dakotafred has. Most of my computer issues are self-inflicted, with an assist from forums that have eliminated spell-czeck.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
I did notice the "sticky" keyboard problem a few times about a week or so ago, but it hasn't happened lately. If I X'ed out and re-entered the forums, it was OK.
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"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
I spoke too soon. It just happened to me again this morning.
I did follow the previous posts and they are essentially correct. Some web sites do some interaction between the computer and the web site for EVERY character that is typed, so a slow internet connection can be frustrating. And that slowness can be exacerbated by advertising content that takes time and data space to download. Some animations also chew up the computer's processing power and that also makes typing slow.
I have experienced the delayed display of typed characters until I updated the HOSTS file on my computer...
The HOSTS file contains a list of web URL's and a corresponding IP address... it is usually used to re-direct a request that is to be sent out on the internet as a URL, to be an IP address that is reserved for 'nothingness' and thus nothing gets sent out and so there is nothing sent back when that URL is "requested". It is often used by anti-malware software to redirect requests to web sites that are known to be "bad" sites to visit (contain phishing scams or known for hacking activities).
When a web page is downloaded to your PC, it contains a "program" that is executed by your browser. Most of the file is positioning information about where to put the various text and images to be displayed along with the text and sometimes the image data to be displayed. But it also contains URLs to send out on the internet to gather images that are not included in the initial download of the page.
Lots of advertising information comes, not from the site you think you are communicating with, but from "brokers" of advertising that pay the owner of the site you are visiting to include a URL to one of their servers to send advertising. The owner of the site you are visiting can request that some advertising be limited to certain subjects (or levels of maturity). The code for that page just contains pointers to where to put the requested data and how big it is. The advertising site can set up the URL such that it can send any of dozens of advertising packages, and even change which one is sent each time it a bit of data is requested.
This system of doing things simplifies the job of the primary site owner because they don't have to contract with all the various commercial entities to carry their advertisements. It also simplifies the commercial entity's need to contract with thousands of primary web site owners. A Broker ("3rd party") takes care of all the advertising contracts, collects the money paid to show the advertisement, skims off their profit and sends the rest to the various web site owners that have a contract with the broker. How much they get depends on how many times their web page sends requests for advertisements.
But, by knowing the URL's of the advertising agencies (brokers) you can insert their URLs into the HOSTS file along with that dummy address and thus the program that is displaying the page you want to see will send the URL out to get data to display at a certain spot on the page, but get nothing in return because the HOSTS file redirects it to the dummy address and thus you don't see what was supposed to be in that spot on the page.
Problems can arise depending on how the program is written... it can just hang until it gets a good response and thus if you go to that page and have "blocked" one of the URLs that it wants data from, you won't see anything until it gets something. Since you blocked it, you never see the page and just have to close that browser window in disgust. ("WAHTSA MATTER WITH THIS DUMB THING?! IT ALWAYS HANGS ON THIS SITE!" can become a familiar refrain!)
Most programs take into account that some sites don't respond sometimes (servers die, go off-line, or get too busy to respond) and will eventually time-out and proceed to the next item for that page, so if it never gets an answer to some URLs you still see the part of the page that the program can display.
Advertisers, of course, don't want you to know how to modify your HOSTS file. Conversely, there are others that are quite adament about killing all advertising and keep tabs on what URLs are advertising ones and keep a list available that you can add to your HOSTS file to block those URLs and thus not see some advertising.
You will still see advertising that is "built-in" to the web page and any advertising that comes from sites that are not in your HOSTS file.
Advertising brokers come and go and new URLs get changed and invented and so you have to "maintain" your HOSTS file to keep unwanted advertising at bay. Those that buy "ad blockers" are paying someone to maintain the list for them and get an updated HOTS file every so often. There are also web sites that offer a maintained list that you can download and add to your HOSTS file at your own risk. You really need to "maintain" the file so that you don't have duplicates or URLs that no longer exist (it doesn't cause problems other than make the file bigger and slow the searching of the list, which could be noticable on slow computers).
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Murphy Siding I guess I should consider myself lucky in that I don't understand much of the preceding posts, and I don't have the issues that dakotafred has. Most of my computer issues are self-inflicted, with an assist from forums that have eliminated spell-czeck.
Mookie Murphy Siding I guess I should consider myself lucky in that I don't understand much of the preceding posts, and I don't have the issues that dakotafred has. Most of my computer issues are self-inflicted, with an assist from forums that have eliminated spell-czeck. Murphy - you and I must be from the same planet. I don't get a lot of ads and I don't get whatever they are saying. And I wouldn't know what to do if I did!
Murphy - you and I must be from the same planet. I don't get a lot of ads and I don't get whatever they are saying. And I wouldn't know what to do if I did!
Recently, one of the Posters here mentioned problems with pop up ads and such. They had suggersted to try "Ad blocker plus" . I investigated it, and installed it on our machine.. Seems to have resolved many of those issues with the random ads showing up.
My wife likes to use the MSM site for her searches, and when I used it to get to The Forum, or other sites I had problems with being shut down, and having to back out to restart..Could not get a couple of other sites to do much more than start then would get messages that there were problems on those sites...I have installed and use Mozilla-Firefox and that seems to allow me to read most sites without interuptions. My connestion is via WiFi from our local Cable TV provider, I had tried saetllite based services in the past, but they seemed to provide less than stellar reception, dropping out at the slightest reason. Cable seems to at least be consistant around here. Just my .
That was easy!
Thanx Sam!
Dakota: Have windows 8.1 and IE 11. Have offer to go to windows 10 but don't want to be a beta tester.
My work around has been if other sites first and Trains forum causes problems. Just restart and go straight to trains. Then going to other sites no problem but then coming back once again your problems arise.
blue streak 1 Dakota: Have windows 8.1 and IE 11. Have offer to go to windows 10 but don't want to be a beta tester. My work around has been if other sites first and Trains forum causes problems. Just restart and go straight to trains. Then going to other sites no problem but then coming back once again your problems arise.
Windows 10 was Beta tested before it went 'live' July 29.
BaltACD Windows 10 was Beta tested before it went 'live' July 29.
Lets see July 2015 about July 2017 most problems will be solved then maybe will install. After all the problems on this small upgrade to Trains forum do not trust any programers and their assurances the beta test was successful. We are all beta testers who install a " new" program or revised one..
blue streak 1 BaltACD Lets see July 2015 about July 2017 most problems will be solved then maybe will install. After all the problems on this small upgrade to Trains forum do not trust any programers and their assurances the beta test was successful. We are all beta testers who install a " new" program or revised one..
BaltACD
'Trains' forums updates won't be problem free in 2099. W7 is installed on the machines at work and they have been problem free.
Thanks to all for your helpful advice.
Wiz, no wireless or TV here. I have seen an occasional action ad, but couldn't call them a problem (as far as I know).
Paul, I will try exiting and coming back. If that doesn't work, I will go to Blue Streak's restarting and going straight to TRAINS.
No problem this eve. TRAINS was my 3rd stop.
I'm encouraged that I'm not the Lone Ranger out here.
Every now and then I'll get a situation where nothing I type on the forum shows up. But if I hit the "post" button, it's all there. Strange.
About the time an OS gets mature and stable, it always seems like a new one comes out...
I'm a slow adopter - I'm usually about three generations behind on OS's, and rarely regret the decision.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
tree68 Every now and then I'll get a situation where nothing I type on the forum shows up. But if I hit the "post" button, it's all there. Strange. About the time an OS gets mature and stable, it always seems like a new one comes out... I'm a slow adopter - I'm usually about three generations behind on OS's, and rarely regret the decision.
I feel very "composed"when I post.
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