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-   -   Is it me, my PC or this site? (https://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/is-it-me-my-pc-or-this-site-758303/)

RandyK Dec 27th, 2008 06:35 AM

Is it me, my PC or this site?
 
Am I the only one who has had trouble logging on to Fodor's lately? When I open the site within seconds I get a fatal error message and am denied access. None of my other web sites are doing this and I can't find where I've accidently canceled the cookie for Fodor's or otherwise programmed things to deny access to Fodor's. Since I don't do personal stuff at work, I wasn't able to check this until just today when I got access to a family member's computer. Anybody else had this problem????

TDudette Dec 27th, 2008 07:23 AM

Randy, I think they work on the site on some Saturday mornings. This a.m. it wouldn't "come up" at all.
Try getting to Fodor's from scratch and then, when it's come up successfully, save the site with your favorites.
Also, try refreshing (reload if a mac) the page.
Anyone else having this problem?

DalaiLlama Dec 27th, 2008 07:25 AM

Clear out your cookies, empty your cache, clear out your history, and log in from afresh.

kodi Dec 27th, 2008 08:22 AM

Randy, I haven't been able to log on for a couple of weeks. Just now I tried again, and bingo, I got in.
I was able to get to Fodor's and read everything. I just couldn't log in to post.
A message would pop up saying Internet Explorer could not open site... Operation aborted.

DL, perhaps my computer did the scheduled clean out of cookies and cache.

Andrew Dec 27th, 2008 09:17 AM

Cookies expire automatically at a set time determined by the website that set them. They could expire in hours, days, weeks, or years after you first visit a website - all up to the site you visit. Of course you can always clear a cookie manually.

I just checked out the Fodors cookies that are set on my computer. There are almost 20 of them! Some expire as soon as I close my web browser; some expire in 24 hours, some in a week. One is set to expire in 2038 (i.e. never). So after a set period, many of your cookies will expire on their own if that causes you trouble. Again, it you are having trouble with Fodors, clear your cookies first, then your cache and try again.

DalaiLlama Dec 27th, 2008 09:31 AM

Internet Explorer is evil. Get a safer and better browser and do due diligence on your computer, weekly, IE is a leaky sieve. Your computer may be more in trouble than you know. Have you had an expert climb all over it? You may be surprised at what he finds.

Andrew Dec 27th, 2008 11:26 AM

On every computer I've encountered that was infected with spyware, the user had been using Internet Explorer - although I imagine even users of Firefox can fall victim.

But no browser is perfect. Firefox, while favorite browser, has plenty of problems. It still has terrible memory leak problems, meaning that the longer you leave it open and open new windows/tabs, the more memory it consumes on your computer and won't give back. To the average user that means eventually Firefox will get slower and slower until you quit the browser and re-start it.

I've played with Safari in Windows. Seems to work fairly well but I still like the feel of Firefox better.

Bill_H Dec 27th, 2008 12:21 PM

Randy, I have the same problem starting about 10 days ago, after I did an upgrade on my virus protection.

Only happens on Fodors, and only when I click on 'go to Forums' ... I can outsmart the bug by clicking on one of the 'hot topics' instead of 'go to forums'. This always works, it opens up the thread I clicked on and then I can access other forums.

So it's something on the Fodor's site that's trying to load and gets nailed by my virus checker. Combination of poor coding by Fodors and something in your (and my) browser or virus software.

Rich Dec 27th, 2008 12:30 PM

Be sure to upgrade to IE7 and Serice Pack 3 for XP . . then download all windoes updates that are available

mclaurie Dec 27th, 2008 12:58 PM

I haven't had log on problems but have had some posting problems (you type and the post doesn't appear) and it's the only website that's incredibly slow at loading pages. I use AOL or Firefox as a browser.

FainaAgain Dec 27th, 2008 04:12 PM

Happened to me Thursday or Friday. Couldn't open Fodor's website in the morning, then 1/2 hour later was signed off. No trouble today.

5alive Dec 27th, 2008 09:27 PM

I also had this problem repeatedly when my husband and son insisted I switch browsers--went with Google Chrome.

Explorer has been in the news recently about having major problems. But Dalai is right; there are many other obnoxious bugs etc out there. Just having McAfee or Norton isn't enough anymore.

Jed Dec 28th, 2008 05:48 AM

I'm not a computer maven, but I think that the problem is Fodors. Katie has said that they are doing work on it, and periodically they give it a tune-up to remove the dust in the gears, which slows things down. Maybe that was it.

I have had IE forever, and just a few days ago I had to log in again, for the first time this year. Also, it has seemed to be running slow.

Temporary problems with Fodors have been recurrent for many years. Keep the faith! ((*))

ncounty Dec 28th, 2008 08:32 AM

what do you guys think of Chrome vs Firefox vs IE? eating up your memory with Firefox doesn't sound good either? I currently use IE and not having problems.

kodi Dec 28th, 2008 09:13 AM

Because I'm so dumb when it comes to computers, I'm nervous to change anything. But going to Firefox sounds like the thing I need to do.

Andrew, how then do I get back the memory firefox takes and won't give back? Is it something I should do often?

With me it's fear of the unknown with Firefox. I'm used to IE , even if it isn't the best. But I still think I need to do it.

ncounty Dec 28th, 2008 10:22 AM

YUp, I'm with you, kodi...I'm just the same way. No problems yet with IE and yet I do hear from those who know better that I should switch to Firefox. That memory drain sounds AWFUL though!

Andrew Dec 28th, 2008 11:00 AM

If your computer has a lot of memory, you may not notice an issue with Firefox hogging memory so much. Maybe once a week or so, depending on how often you are online, etc. I tend to open a lot of windows and tabs at one time and keep them open; that might have something to do with it. Suffice to say, it's not a huge thing to shut down Firefox and re-start it once a week. Just kind of a pain. I still prefer to do that than to use Internet Explorer.


suze Dec 28th, 2008 11:07 AM

Nope, I haven't had any problems recently.

but have in the past when Fodor's was doing upgrades.

Andrew Dec 28th, 2008 11:20 AM

I haven't had any issues with Fodors for a few weeks at least. Sometimes their database server crashes and no threads are displayed - and I may need to re-login after that but that's usually routine. If I ever have trouble logging in, in Firefox I just clear my Fodors cookies and sometimes the cache and I'm good, unless they are doing a lot of disruptive work. (Once in a while, not often.)

kodi Dec 28th, 2008 04:06 PM

Andrew, so what do you mean about shutting down Firefox and starting again? Do you mean just turning my computer off and on again? Or something more involved? I don't normally have too many windows open at once. See I told you I wasn't very bright when it comes to computers.

Ncounty, it's nice to know I'm not the only one!!!


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