Monday, May 24, 2010

Safari and the Spinning Wheel of Pain... pt.2

At this point, power off your DSL or cable modem for 1 minute. Also power off your router if using one. Now power everything back on and check eBay or Yahoo.

As a note, sites can get overcrowded with visitors so try another site before blaming your computer or service. Another good tip is to reboot your modem at least every two weeks. Your IPS provider probably does small upgrades to services and fixes which can’t be realized by your connected computers until the modem is rebooted on your end. If you have continued slow downs call your provider for a line test.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Safari and the Spinning Wheel of Pain... pt1

Q: I often will be online and either the spinning wheel appears for a long time or Safari will crash all together. Surfing the internet seems painfully slow and I have broadband DSL. What am I doing wrong?

A: You are probably doing nothing wrong. People are quick to blame their computers first because that’s the technology staring them in the face when the trouble happens. The truth is, many smaller non-pro websites are built wrong, have compatibility issues and sometimes just poorly coded. This causes browser problems with some applications whether it’s Safari, Firefox or even on Windows using Explorer.

If using Safari, the first thing is to quit it, (if you haven’t been forced to already) and relaunch it. Under the Safari menu select “Empty Cache”. Now go to a site that’s known to be reliable such as eBay. Click on any auction and see if it comes up. Or click on a news story link on Yahoo.com. If the browser is very sluggish, it’s your broadband service. (cont'd)