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Q: For sublime 1-ga: erroneous error message ( Answered 4 out of 5 stars,   0 Comments )
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Subject: For sublime 1-ga: erroneous error message
Category: Computers > Internet
Asked by: monreale-ga
List Price: $10.00
Posted: 17 Dec 2005 16:05 PST
Expires: 16 Jan 2006 16:05 PST
Question ID: 606935
Lately I've been dealing with an erroneous error message that keeps
appearing. For example, let's say I go to my Outlook Express and open
a message from "Opinion Journal", excerpts from The Wall Street
Journal editorial page, to which I subscribe. If I then click on a
link to a story or item, the item appears in full but any substantial
block of white space is taken up with the standard error message,
"This page cannot be displayed. The page you are looking for is
currently unavailable..." and so forth. I could cite other examples of
the same erroneous message when I go to a website apart from Outlook
Express, for example when I just went to Edmunds.com, but you get the
picture. How can I fix this?

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 17 Dec 2005 22:41 PST
Hi monreale...

You may not want to fix it. If I'm understanding you correctly,
you're saying that the desired story or item is appearing in 
full, and that there's just a portion of the page that is 
showing up blank, or whited out, with the error message, "This
page cannot be displayed, etc". 

I use a technique for blocking unwanted ads on news sites such
as this, involving the use of the HOSTS file. You can read more
about this by looking at that section of my answer on Bulletproof
security for computers, here:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=568868

A little more than halfway down, read the section and explore
the links on the 'HOSTS file'.

When I use this technique to block certain advertising servers,
I will see the phenomenon you describe, in which the blocked
ad sites deliver the "page cannot be displayed" message, as
though they were separate web pages contained within the main
page, which, in a sense, they are.

Clicking on a link in Outlook Express (OE) is no different
than clicking on a link in a browser window. The source of
the link will have no impact on how well it loads.

It's quite possible that, for whatever reason, these are
simply ads that are not showing. The ad servers could be 
down, or you may have a customized HOSTS file (though how
that would come to be without your knowledge, I can't say).


However, in spite of active ad-blocking, when I visit the
Edmunds site, there are no sections whited out, missing, 
or failing to load, so this makes me wonder.

Another possibility is that your network connection is 
flakey, so that part of the page is loading, and part
is not.

I'd recommend testing the speed of your connection during
times when you experience these glitches, and seeing if
your download speed matches the advertised speed of the
interet connection you're subscribing to.

Two good sites for testing your connection speed are:

Cox Las Vegas (very reliable, for me):
http://test.lvcm.com/

DSL Reports speed tests:
http://www.dslreports.com/stest

Let me know where this takes you...

sublime1-ga

Clarification of Question by monreale-ga on 20 Dec 2005 10:11 PST
Hmmm. Looks like I may just choose to ignore the "problem," such as it
is. But I went ahead and ran three speed tests on my Comcast cable
modem connection, using lvcm, with the following results: download
(mbps): 7.92; 8.24; 6.73, and upload(kbps): 362; 374; 363. How would
you interpret these numbers?

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 20 Dec 2005 11:57 PST
Hi monreale...

The numbers you posted are excellent. Now you've got ME
curious, since the scale at lvcm.com only goes up to 5Mbps.
Did the graphics change scale, or just peg out at the top?

So it's not your download speed, and it may just be that
the ad servers are down for some reason.

Let me know what else you might need in connection with 
your original question before I post an official answer.

sublime1-ga

Clarification of Question by monreale-ga on 21 Dec 2005 15:51 PST
My results on lvcm.com simply appear at the top of the graph. I just
got 8.38 Mbps download.

Feel free to post your final answer.
Answer  
Subject: Re: For sublime 1-ga: erroneous error message
Answered By: sublime1-ga on 21 Dec 2005 22:25 PST
Rated:4 out of 5 stars
 
Thanks for asking for me and letting me know to post
the answer. I'll repeat what I gave you here for the
sake of future readers:

----------------------------------------------------

You may not want to fix it. If I'm understanding you correctly,
you're saying that the desired story or item is appearing in 
full, and that there's just a portion of the page that is 
showing up blank, or whited out, with the error message, "This
page cannot be displayed, etc". 

I use a technique for blocking unwanted ads on news sites such
as this, involving the use of the HOSTS file. You can read more
about this by looking at that section of my answer on Bulletproof
security for computers, here:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=568868

A little more than halfway down, read the section and explore
the links on the 'HOSTS file'.

When I use this technique to block certain advertising servers,
I will see the phenomenon you describe, in which the blocked
ad sites deliver the "page cannot be displayed" message, as
though they were separate web pages contained within the main
page, which, in a sense, they are.

Clicking on a link in Outlook Express (OE) is no different
than clicking on a link in a browser window. The source of
the link will have no impact on how well it loads.

It's quite possible that, for whatever reason, these are
simply ads that are not showing. The ad servers could be 
down, or you may have a customized HOSTS file (though how
that would come to be without your knowledge, I can't say).


However, in spite of active ad-blocking, when I visit the
Edmunds site, there are no sections whited out, missing, 
or failing to load, so this makes me wonder.

Another possibility is that your network connection is 
flakey, so that part of the page is loading, and part
is not.

I'd recommend testing the speed of your connection during
times when you experience these glitches, and seeing if
your download speed matches the advertised speed of the
interet connection you're subscribing to.

Two good sites for testing your connection speed are:

Cox Las Vegas (very reliable, for me):
http://test.lvcm.com/

DSL Reports speed tests:
http://www.dslreports.com/stest

---

The numbers you posted are excellent. Now you've got ME
curious, since the scale at lvcm.com only goes up to 5Mbps.
Did the graphics change scale, or just peg out at the top?

So it's not your download speed, and it may just be that
the ad servers are down for some reason.

Best regards, and happy holidays...

sublime1-ga
monreale-ga rated this answer:4 out of 5 stars
It's a comfort to have sublime-ga on tap.

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