Hi, I go to a webpage that I constantly want to keep updated with the
newest posts.  However, I don't have time nor the patience to sit
there and press the refresh button all the time even though I am near
the computer usually.  This webpage has an automatic log-out time of
about 2/3 mins. for security purposes and requires a password to log
in every time.  What is a way for me to automatically refresh the site
with new posts without me doing it manually everytime?

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Request for Question Clarification by livioflores-ga on 17 Aug 2005 20:53 PDT

Hi!!

Can you tell us which browser and operative system are you using?

Thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 17 Aug 2005 22:18 PDT

qijuns...

If you use IE, or have it installed, MyIE2, now Maxthon,
which is essentially a shell that sits atop IE, is a 
tabbed browser that has a built-in function which allows
you to set any autorefresh period you want, and turn it
on for any tab you like.

Let me know what you think...

sublime1-ga

Hello!

Interesting question! Following are some webpages and software which
you can try out:

1. http://www.lazywebtools.co.uk/cycler.html (also at
http://www.scott.liddell.com/refresh.html)
This page lets you specify upto 10 URL and the refresh interval (in
seconds). It opens the URLs specified in the new window serially (one
URL opens after the next after the interval you specify). You can also
open each URL in a new window.

2. WatchEm: 
This software available at http://www.softempire.com/watchem.html

3. Auto URL Refresher 2.0
Software available at http://www.autourlrefresher.com/

Other ways to refresh the page (as my fellow researcher sublime-ga
pointed out in his clarification) is to get any of the 'skins' of
Internet Explorer. These software let you open pages in tabs; you can
specify the refresh rate for each tab.

Comments by rudyru-ga are also worth considering. You can create a
Frame-set and specify the URL and interval.

The easiest way is to point your browser at
http://www.scott.liddell.com/refresh.html specify the url & interval,
and enjoy watching "fresh" pages served to you.

Happy Browsing!

muhammad-ga,
Google Answers Researcher

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Request for Answer Clarification by qijuns-ga on 18 Aug 2005 08:17 PDT

Do any of these softwares allow use with a site that is password
protected?  I had found one program that did allow this but it was
just the extrememly easy password encryption where they had assumed
that the address contained the login and password.  The site I use is
"kind of" like hotmail and yahoo and other sites where you can't
really give it an address directly and signs you out in minutes w/ no
activity.  Also, I'm looking for something that makes a sound when it
finds an update so I can get to the messages right away.  I appreciate
your answers.  Right now I'm not at home so I can't really check out
the programs personally.

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Clarification of Answer by muhammad-ga on 18 Aug 2005 13:19 PDT

Please test the website that I mentioned and also the softwares.

Regarding something that makes a sound after a page is refreshed, I
could not find anything of that sort and I guess you have to write a
custom software for that.

It would be helpful if you could provide me with the URL of the
website that you are trying to refresh.

Thanks,
muhammad-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by qijuns-ga on 18 Aug 2005 22:36 PDT

Muhammad,
Hmm.. I have tried the sites and the programs but they all can not
refresh w/o the url.  Since the site I'm trying to check for updates
is password protected I will give you another URL which has the same
circumstances.  All of the financial website have this...for example
Discover <https://www.novusnet.com/cardmembersvcs/achome/homepage>
where you see the url but it cannot be refreshed without the password
and login in the same window.  I'm probably not making much sense. 
Let me know if you get what I mean.  Thanks.

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Clarification of Answer by muhammad-ga on 19 Aug 2005 04:30 PDT

Hello!

The website you mentioned uses SSL (Secure Socket Layer). As a
precaution to avoid fraud, many online payment websites and bank
website which use SSL do not allow refreshing of pages. This is true
in case of the online banks that I hold account with. I could not,
however, check the same for Discover Cards website mentioned by you,
since I don't have an account for that.

If you are looking for getting updates about the  latest account
transactions, you can use their "E-mail Reminders" option which emails
the latest updates to you. See
https://www.novusnet.com/discover/data/account/disc_interactive.shtml.

Hope that clarifies.

Regards,
muhammmad-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by qijuns-ga on 19 Aug 2005 09:42 PDT

Sorry to bother you again, but is there some way to tell if a site
uses ssl?  The discover site is only an example because I could not
give you the site of the place i'm using since you can't get into it
anyways.  I just want to make sure that it would not be able to be
kept updated.  Then i'll just give up in trying.  Thanks.

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Clarification of Answer by muhammad-ga on 20 Aug 2005 05:00 PDT

If a website uses SSL, you will see the icon of a small locked golden
padlock at the bottom of your browser window (statusbar). Double
clicking on the Padlock will open the information about the SSL
Certificate.

If you are using Internet Explorer you can check this by going to File
Menu and selecting Properties sub-menu. In the Dialog Box which opens
go to "Certificates".
In Mozilla Firefox go to "Tools > Page Info > Secutiry" to see the SSL
certificate of the webpage.

"The SSL protocol is used by millions of e-Business providers to
protect their customers ensuring their online transactions remain
confidential. In order to be able to use the SSL protocol, a web
server requires the use of an SSL certificate. Certificates are
provided by Certification Authorities (CA) who in most cases also
offer additional products and services to aid e-Businesses to
demonstrate that they are trustworthy. Consumers have grown to
associate the 'golden padlock', that appears within their browser
display, as an indication of trust in the web site. This simple fact
allows e-Business providers an opportunity to leverage that increased
trust level to turn visitors into paying customers - so long as you
know which type to choose."....
See http://www.whichssl.com/what_is_ssl.html

For basic information about SSL please go through:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SSL.html
http://www.darwinmag.com/learn/curve/column.html?ArticleID=585

Regards,
muhammad-ga

Thank you so much for your help.

Try creating a simple web page with a frame setting the source of your
url, and set refresh within the page with a meta tag

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1">

I guess I really don't know the exact source of my url because it is
password protected.  How can I get around that?  The visual url is
almost always the same in most pages.  I think it's because of the
frames the site is in.

Hi,
Been thinking about this problem and there is perhaps a way to do it
but it is a little tricky and is reliant on the back-end server
allowing it. The thing to bear in mind is that the pages served are
all generated and sometimes don't like being refreshed.

I'll try and have a go and if I can get it to work I'll post the URL
for you to give it a go.

Cheers

Tried a quick experiment, don't think its gonna work. You come up
against cross-domain scripting issues that prevent you from getting
the URL to refresh. I'll have another go but its not looking possible.

Sorry about that!

It's O.K. thanks for trying.  I was just trying to get some things
done easier and wanted to ask people for help.  I didn't think I was
going to open a Pandora's box or anything.  I had tried a lot of
things myself, but so far nothing has worked.  Well if anyone figures
it out, it would be great for people to refer to in the future. 
Thanks guys for your effort.

Not sure how much help I can be, but since I'm working on a similar
problem I thought I'd try to help a little.

Firefox has an auto refresh plugin, setting it to refresh every minute
might keep you logged in if you don't need the password unless you are
timed out. If not I can't offer any more help with the password sorry.

As for the notification if anything changes, there is a program called
snagit which you can set to capture screenshots at timed intervals. It
can be set to capture just the text from the screen, and discard
duplicate shots, and then email any new screenshots to whatever
address you tell it to. If you have an email program that notifies you
of new messages you will hear a sound every time the information on
the screen changes. You could set up a new email address just for
snagit, and hear you got mail every time the information on the screen
changes. The snagit comes with a free 30 day trial so you can play
with it and see how it works, which is what I'm doing. It's found here
http://www.techsmith.com/products/snagit/default.asp

I'm having issues getting firefox and snagit to work together and this
still doesn't help with your password issue, but I thought it still
might be worth posting.

Good Luck, I hope you find a solution

Wow...thanks for that.  It's completely solved the problem of
refreshing.  Some tweeking was involved but it has a last solved the
refreshing issue...only thing is the sound notification...  Well I
guess I can't ask for EVERYTHING now can I?  If I just keep this on
the computer and keep on refreshing it then I can at least take a look
every so often for updates.  If you get any ideas about sound let me
know.  I wish I was smart enough to write an extension for firefox to
get this down (hint, hint).  Thanks guys.