Internet Explorer being duff?

[Anon.]

When I try to access the thread about Question Time, Internet Explorer comes up with an error box saying "IE cannot open the page [blah], operation aborted". So I have to view that single thread in Firefox instead.

Can any of you computer-knowledgeable-types explain why this might be? Have I got some anti-racist setting on Internet Explorer that I need to remove?

(And yes, I know I should be using Firefox all the time, but I don't want to)

[Fawksie]

There are embedded Youtube videos on every page of that thread, could it be that IE is choking on them?

[Anon.]

Don't think so, they were always fine previously. And besides, the same thing's just happened on "let them eat cake" and then this one when I went to post this post. And they don't have embedded files.

(via Firefox)

[Power Metal Dom]

(And yes, I know I should be using Firefox all the time, but I don't want to)

Oh no no, as a proponent of Chrome I'd advise differently.

[Kegrad]

have you tried clearing the cache? Click on tools, internet options, then delete in browsing history.

[the Empress]

I have the same prob as Anon using IE, altho I can sometimes access sinner messageboards if I go from 'Articles'. I'd try Firefox but, erm, I deleted it the other day (trying to uninstall as much as I can in attempt to work out what was causing fatal errors). I thought this was a problem I'd caused in an attempt to fix my computer, but since someonelse is experiencing it - any advice? Other than using a different browser (I've already checked my settings, as per the advice of the error message, and it's all fine). . . . or is this an issue to do with the sinner itself? Thanks.

[careba2010]

I have the same problem as well. If I try to access the Sinner through IE it crashes but works fine in Firefox

[Anon.]

I can't access a single Sinner page with Internet Explorer now. And just today everything with Firefox is looking misshapen and green. What's going on? Will the Sinner-powers-that-be worry about those of us who still use outdated browsers and investigate this problem?

[RedCelt69]

I can't access a single Sinner page with Internet Explorer now. And just today everything with Firefox is looking misshapen and green. What's going on? Will the Sinner-powers-that-be worry about those of us who still use outdated browsers and investigate this problem?

Hmmm... just tried IE under Win XP and got an error viewing this thread:
HTML Parsing Error: Unable to modify the parent container element before the child element is closed (KB927917)
viewtopic.php

Possibly some on-the-fly site maintenance this evening?

It is, however, working fine in Firefox (on a Mac). Misshapen and green? Now I'm curious... are you able to upload a screenshot?

[Anon.]

Not so much this evening as this month(s) (v.i.).

I'll try and upload a screenshot of the misshapen greenness shortly.

[Fawksie]

Will the Sinner-powers-that-be worry about those of us who still use outdated browsers and investigate this problem?

I have tested The Sinner on Firefox back to version 2, IE back to version 7 (and possibly 6, I can't recall), Opera, Konqueror, Safari and Chrome, and it renders immaculately on them all.

A small number of people have reported intermittent problems accessing the website (they usually say they can access everything except the message boards), and some of those have tried it with multiple browsers, multiple computers and multiple internet connections. I have also got them to try clearing their cache and cookies, and I have done likewise on the server.

I can find no immediately apparent problems with the website code which has not massively changed since the relaunch, and the markup is valid XHTML in its entirety. As such I am at a complete loss as to what is causing the issue.

The next stage in troubleshooting would be to get such a user to provide me with the output of

Code: Select all

curl -v http://www.thesinner.net/index.php

and probably

Code: Select all

curl -v http://www.thesinner.net/mb/index.php

so that I can examine what they are receiving from the webserver, and compare with what the webserver served to them. Since none of them have stayed online long enough for me to broach the subject, investigations are currently at a standstill.

[RedCelt69]

The next stage in troubleshooting would be to get such a user to provide me with the output of

I would, but IE8 is working fine for me today

[RedCelt69]

Any update/thoughts on the problems with the site wrt various browsers? If they were unusual browsers running on obscure operating systems I could understand the occasional glitch... but the most recent version of the widest-used browser (IE8) on the latest MS operating system (64bit Win 7) shouldn't be having problems.

Surely?

[the Empress]

I've tried logging into the sinner using IE on several different computers, but it doesn't work. Currently using Firefox. Slight tangent - haven't been on until the last few days for a while, but the Sinner seems really quiet? Maybe this is related to IE probs?

[Delts]

I had an issue logging on a few days back. First time actually. I was using elinks though on crunchbang which would probably explain it. But I've never once had a problem logging in on any other OS/browser. Even when I tried 7 it was fine (but that didn't last long, 7 was shit).

[Fawksie]

All my thoughts are outlined in the post above, and unfortunately there can be no further updates until someone who's experiencing the problem provides me with the output of those commands. Ideally whilst talking to me on IRC so I can compare them with logs from the server at the same time.

[the Empress]

I literally get the same operation aborted message stated by the OP, and then
Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.

What you can try:
Diagnose Connection Problems

More information

This problem can be caused by a variety of issues, including:

Internet connectivity has been lost.
The website is temporarily unavailable.
The Domain Name Server (DNS) is not reachable.
The Domain Name Server (DNS) does not have a listing for the website's domain.
If this is an HTTPS (secure) address, click Tools, click Internet Options, click Advanced, and check to be sure the SSL and TLS protocols are enabled under the security section.

and I did that at 12.41. But I'm pretty rubbish with computer speak, so I can't really help further.

[Fawksie]

Problem found and fixed, I think.

Not to bore you with too many technical details, it was a minor issue to do with the placement of the script that resizes and displays large images on the messageboards, and it only resulted in complete loading failure with Internet Explorer 6 and 7, which are intolerant of that particular mistake.

If any of you are still having issues, especially if you're having them with Internet Explorer 8, please post again.

Apologies for the few months of disrupted service.

[Wonderboy]

I think some kind of advertising campaign needs to be launched to let people know that the Sinner is now working properly again.