The good morning, good night thread

[Geoff_N]

I often have trouble connecting to this site. Sometimes I write a long reply eg  a crit and the page freezes. I leave it to go on a bike ride, return to find the 'Cannot connect...' error message. If I reboot the PC then I can usually, but not always, connect OK but even so it is slow. I use BT Connect and there is always work being done down the road on the BT cables    But Cafe Doom site seems to be the slowest and most prone to freeze than all the other programs I use.

Oddly, if I trick my wife out of her computer, then CD always works well on that one! Same network too.  So it must be this Dell computer. I often flush out the cookies, temp files, etc. Not done a defrag for ages - not usually necessary with XP these days, but maybe I'll do that tonight. I could have another go at other non IE browsers. Tried Opera and Firefox in 2006 but they caused worse problems! Not tried Mozilla and Safari, and I'm not willing to spend the time to go down the Linux route.

Well, lets see if this sends OK. Time to put my morning coffee on anyway!

Geoff

[Ed]

Thanks for letting me know, Geoff. I'm still having trouble this morning, and it doesn't matter whether I'm using Opera or IE. This comp is a little slow anyway - the hard drive is 75% full, which is never good for virtual memory, etc. Funny that I can connect through a proxy alright, though, eh? I've had Opera on a proxy and IE without, side by side trying to connect to this site, and I absolutely cannot get on using IE without a proxy.

I think maybe I should get on and change hosts, once and for all, just so I can rule something else out of the equation.

[delph_ambi]

I use a very basic Dell pc and IE, on a slow broadband connection, and never have problems connecting to the site - nor does it ever freeze, so maybe... errr... I dunno. I do use a much simpler whatjamacallit (babylon) than most of you though. Doubt if that has anything to do with anything, but you never know.

delph_ambi, computer ignoramus

[Ed]

Thanks for letting me know, Delph. Who is your internet service provider? I'm wondering if the fault lies with BT's broadband network.

[delph_ambi]

My ISP is Vispa.

[Geoff_N]

My PC is a Dell too. A Dell Dimension 5000.
CD is working fine at present    don't you just love these Crimbo ones? 

I wonder if its cos I've just come in from a very blustery bike ride (its not nice going sideways ) and CD was the first thing I went into after booting up. Maybe this Dell needs more memory. Also I wonder if the Crit weeks messages take longer to load cos they're getting longer? 

Walking to town now, but I've printed Derek's Silver and a red pen while I wait for Mrs N in a cafe 

Geoff

[starktheground]

I have had zero problems with the site and I'm on (gasp) dial-up. I know, Iknow. We're moving in a couple of months though and plan to switch to broadband, than.

[Ed]

My ISP is Vispa.

Thanks  I haven't heard of them before.

I have had zero problems with the site and I'm on (gasp) dial-up. I know, Iknow. We're moving in a couple of months though and plan to switch to broadband, than.

Oh wow - I couldn't go back to using dialup now. I've only got a slow broadband connection, because that's all my local exchange can handle, but the internet became a completely different thing for me after I got it. You will love it when you make the switch.

Geoff - I'm getting myself a new laptop soon, maybe even this weekend, so I'll see if a fresh hard drive and tons of RAM make any difference. I still think a big part of the problem lies with the BT Internet network not liking the connection to our server, though.

[SamLeeFreak]

Every so often I have trouble getting onto the site, same goes for the Message Board of Madness and Graveside Tales. Maybe because I use a Mac? 

[Ed]

Every so often I have trouble getting onto the site, same goes for the Message Board of Madness and Graveside Tales. Maybe because I use a Mac? 

I very much doubt it has anything to do with your Mac - your connection problems are more likely to be because of a full browser cache or hardware problems. Speaking of which...

I couldn't connect here again, earlier, so I tried closing my broadband connection and restarting it, hoping to get another IP address where the contention ratio wasn't full up - sometimes that seems to work quite well. Anyhow, when I tried to reconnect to the internet I couldn't get a damn thing. An error message kept coming up saying I couldn't connect to the remote computer (my ISP) and the ppp link was down. So I ran a few diagnostic checks that led me to the modem, which my wife (or la saboteur, as I like to call her  ) had covered with a stack of crap and the dust cover from her dictaphone - it was pretty warm. So I unplugged both the leads to it, left it unplugged for five minutes, plugged it back in and restarted the computer. Established a connection straight away, and it's like a new machine. Everything is loading much faster and working like a dream now

So, yeah - try unplugging your modem for five minutes and then restarting

[starktheground]

Ugh. I hate being sick. I'm a relatively healthy person, but when I do get sick I am so whiny! It (finally) got cold here, and when the wetaher changed, both my son and I got a cold. I'm miserable, and my vitamins and echinacea tea and electric blanket just aren't helping. I was just wondering if anyone had any home remedies they like to use (for a chest cold)? And DONT' say go to the doctor; I'll take my son to see his doctor, but I refuse to go!

[delph_ambi]

Honey. Recently scientifically proven to be far more effective than any over-the-counter remedies, whether by sucking it off a teaspoon, adding to hot water, or any other preferred method of consumption. Tastes nice too.

Also, eat the hottest curries you can stand. Works a treat.

[Walker]

If your chest-cold brings a cough then I know an incredible remedy that sounds crazy and works like a charm. Put a generous amount of Vicks Vap-rub on the bottoms of your feet just before bedtime then put on a heavy pair of woolen socks and go to bed. This isn't a joke, it really works!
The mention of honey is a good one too. Mom always gave us honey when we had a cold, and even if the cold doesn't go away you still get to have lots of honey and it doesn't get much better than that.

[SamLeeFreak]

That makes sense to me! When my feet get cold my nose gets all barfy 

[Ed]

Apparently, the only thing proven to quicken your recovery is chicken soup. Can't say I've ever tried it myself, though, not as a cold remedy anyway

I find that if I take two ibuprofen every four hours or so, I feel a lot better. It makes sense, really, because it's made to reduce swelling, and I guess most of the discomfort of a sore throat is caused by inflammation. Hope you're feeling better soon, Angela