Image loading problems ...

[kide]

I've lived with the image loading issues off and on for the last couple of years... Just as a comment here, I'm a 40 year IT guy, so I usually tend to look beyond what seems to be the obvious "cause" of a problem (in this case "your cache is full")...

In my case, some observations:
1: It is <u>not</u> specific to one browser or PC (and at times, we've got 4 or 5 running in different locations at our house.
2: While IE may seem more tolerant, it has displayed the same random dropping (actualy not loading) that FF, Chrome and Opera have done.
3: At one point, I was sure that the problem was after I had hacked the about:config network "network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server" settings in FF to force faster loading of pages, but currently, this is set at the default of 8 in FF and the browser is still not loading all images all of the time.
4: I hate to say this, but I only have this problem on one site.........
5: In view of ( 4: ) and making an assumption for the sake of investigation that it's not the PC, I started asking if there is either a network issue or (the gods forbid) a server issue...
5.a: I'm sure that Charlie and Bryan have heard enough b....ing about this to have looked at servers settings..
5.b: In view of the fact that the network topology is different between almost every end user PC and the Forum's server, I started wondering if it could be a network problem.... I think I may be on to something here... In laymen terms, many routers have settings to prevent various types of attacks from taking place, including something called "SYN floods", which can look like a large number of incomplete TCP or UDP sessions coming from the same host(server in this case). Keep in mind that each image in a web page that is being downloaded to your browser is considered a separate session and is incomplete until the download of that image is finished.. Many routers are configured to kill incomplete sessions over a maximum, quite often with a default setting of 10 sessions. If the page has more images and network latency is a little above average, you could start seeing dropped images. In my case, I'm going through two wireless routers and a wireless access point before my connection hits the access provider's cable.. I'm going to play this scenario out a little more, but it's something to look into.

BTW -here's some backing for my theory..

Comments???

 

[mgonitzke]

You know what's weird? I have this problem with IE, Firefox, and Chrome on my laptop, but Safari on my iPod doesn't seem to have any trouble with this at all...

 

[kide]

I'd guess that it doesn't initiate as many data streams at a time to conserve bandwidth....

 

[bbrigham]

This little issue only happens on one site for me also. I don't believe it has anything to do with the server as I'm sure Charlie and Bryan would have been all over it.
Scott N brought up a good point but me not being real computer friendly I can't be judgmental. He has no problems with IE6. I used to have IE6 last year and had no problems at all but when it upgraded<font size="-2">if you wan't to call it that</font> everything went to hell. I didn't think about it before because I was having other issues with IE7 that were much worse and eventually gave me the push to go to FF.
It is random thats for sure. If I refresh the page or hit F5 it's in the air to what's gonna show up. Sometimes multiple pics in one post, sometimes one.

Charlie told me early on to try clearing the cashe and a couple other things which I can't remember now, did it all. Oh well, I just run with it, what ever shows...shows.

Oh, I did notice if a pic isn't there but has a description mark, right click on the desc. then chose show pic and it will usually load. Some times it doesn't but if I right click then choose view pic it will load in a new window.

 

[kide]

It'll load individually, as the multiple streams are done at that point....

 

[kmcconaughey]

I have Firefox 2 on two of my PCs and Firefox 3 on two other PCs and those with Firefox 2 the photos load just fine. However on those with Firefox 3 the photos don't load properly. I tried the F5 key that Charlie suggested but it didn't have any effect. I refuse to update to Firefox 3 on the two working PCs. One of the PCs that has FF 2 is my work PC. The other PCs are my home PCs. My tower has FF3 and is wired to the router. The other 2 PCs are wireless laptops one has FF2 the other has FF3 All the PCs are running XP Professional with SP2. I hate IE.

What! There are other websites?

 

[bbrigham]

geesh...all these damn meds..Your right Kraig, FF2 was ok as well. Can't remember one day from the next sometimes

Most of the time it doesn't really bother me but when I need to <u>see</u> what someone is trying to do or explain...

 

[bbrigham]

"" 5.b: In view of the fact that the network topology is different between almost every end user PC and the Forum's server, I started wondering if it could be a network problem.... I think I may be on to something here... In laymen terms, many routers have settings to prevent various types of attacks from taking place, including something called "SYN floods", which can look like a large number of incomplete TCP or UDP sessions coming from the same host(server in this case). Keep in mind that each image in a web page that is being downloaded to your browser is considered a separate session and is incomplete until the download of that image is finished.. Many routers are configured to kill incomplete sessions over a maximum, quite often with a default setting of 10 sessions. If the page has more images and network latency is a little above average, you could start seeing dropped images. In my case, I'm going through two wireless routers and a wireless access point before my connection hits the access provider's cable.. I'm going to play this scenario out a little more, but it's something to look into.

BTW -here's some backing for my theory..

Comments??? ""

Here's where my lack of any IT education comes into play

I looked in that link you posted and reread everything 5 or 6 times then did some more Googleing to try to educate myself some more. There's a lot of chat about this. I then messed around for an hour to see if I could find where to change the settings and see what happened but could not. I thought there was talk of the settings to due with the firewall but couldn't find anything there either. Any chance you could point me in the right direction ?

 

[kide]

Brendan:
Most of the comments I read pointed towards server or router configs, IF the user end of things was healthy. Firewall misconfiguration usually would be more obvious (can't load ANYTHING from a website...), although there's always the possibility of somebody changing their firewall to block a certain port or transaction type.......

As a note, the path between my laptop and the Forum's server must be feeling better, as I haven't had an image load problem for days (and I didn't change anythin')

Hops IP Address RTT DNS Name
1 192.168.0.1 1 sandi2.mshome.net
2 192.168.4.1 11 phc.prontonetworks.com
3 10.10.10.1 8
4 *.*.*.* 24 rrcs-97-76-72-129.se.biz.rr.com
5 65.32.24.214 20 gig11-0-0-2786.tampfledc-rtr2.tampflrdc.rr.com
6 65.32.13.33 22 ge1-2-0.tampfledc-rtr4.tampflrdc.rr.com
7 65.32.13.57 26 ge2-3-0.tampfledc-rtr3.tampflrdc.rr.com
8 4.79.146.1 25 te-3-1.car2.Tampa1.Level3.net
9 4.69.133.42 20 ae-2-7.bar2.Tampa1.Level3.net
10 4.69.137.109 39 ae-0-11.bar1.Tampa1.Level3.net
11 4.69.137.114 52 ae-6-6.ebr2.Atlanta2.Level3.net
12 4.69.138.4 43 ae-63-60.ebr3.Atlanta2.Level3.net
13 4.69.132.86 68 ae-2.ebr1.Washington1.Level3.net
14 4.69.134.138 55 ae-81-81.csw3.Washington1.Level3.net
15 4.68.17.140 52 ae-3-89.edge2.Washington3.Level3.net
16 4.71.234.6 59 PEER-1-NETW.edge2.Washington3.Level3.net
17 216.187.116.253 70 10ge.ten1-1.wdc-sp2-cor-1.peer1.net
18 216.187.120.234 161
19 64.34.180.133 71 ss01.hostedweb.net