Just recently my computer at home has been behaving badly on certain threads. As I enter certain pages of certain threads, Internet Explorer just closes unexpectedly without explanation. This doesn’t happen with every page nor with every thread, but once a page gets troublesome it seems to stay that way. Unfortunately, this has been happening a lot with threads I want to follow closely. I have been having no trouble at all with C&F at work. I use the same internet account at home and at work.
At home, I use Explorer on an eMac with a slow telephone connection.
At work, I mainly use Firefox on an iMac with a fast connection.
Can someone help me diagnose where the problem is likely to lie, please? Although I’ve sometimes had problems before both at home and at work, this seems more persistent and it is the first time this particular problem has occurred. Is the cause most likely:
Explorer
The speed of the connection
A problem at C&F
4 A problem with my home eMac.
or is it likely to be due to the interaction of some or all of the above?
I’d be grateful to hear from anybody who can help or who has had a similar problem.
I’ve got to admit, having told you I have exclusive access to two recent Macs whenever I’m close to home or work, I wasn’t expecting a flood of sympathy. I hope you rectify your much more serious problem soon, Loren.
Thanks too, FC. Cache doesn’t seem to be Mac speak—I couldn’t find any mention under help—but the tech support at work will no doubt have an opinion when I can track them down.
Cache in IE for Mac (at least for version 5.2.2) is in Explorer → Preferences → Web Browser → Advanced. There’s an “Empty Now” button. I wouldn’t venture a guess as to whether it will help.
A couple of years ago I was having a similar problem with just certain threads on C&F with some browser on my Mac, but unfortunately I don’t remember which one. It’s possible it was IE though.
Is there some reason not to use Firefox on your home computer? Or Safari? I know IE has a few features that Firefox and Safari don’t include so I can understand if you don’t want to switch, but if you’re not using those that might be a good excuse to change browsers.
Otherwise, you might consider reinstalling IE. That’ll sometimes fix problems of that sort.
Thanks for the help, John. At work I have access to IE, Firefox and Safari but I only ever seem to use Firefox or Safari. The only reason I wouldn’t just go ahead and change without asking one of our tech advisers is that when they changed my browsers at work they had to remove all my files and reinstall them and in the process actually lost a couple of important folders. (Fortunely I had up-to-date back up but it was a bit frightening.) I suppose I’d like to check on why they did that; it might have had nothing to do with installing the new browsers.
I’m on Mac OSX, and can use Firefox, Safari, or IE. Any of the above may close unexpectedly on certain (different) pages. Usually there’s a pic of some sort involved. Generally if I must get to that page I can do so on a different browser.
I agree that it sounds like IE is whacked and needs a new download/install. I’ve got 5.2.3 here at work. M$ hasn’t updated the sucker since…what?..2001? I really doubt the browser cache is at fault - I can’t remember the last time I emptied mine. (Although I use a RAM Disk at home for the browser cache so I know I always get fresh files…just a silly old practice.) Personally, I’d dump IE altogether if weren’t for the increasing number of websites which don’t render well on anything but IE. What a pain!!
You might try Opera as well. I’ve also heard good things about Camino but really haven’t tried it. I guess I’m an old Netscape/Mozilla die hard…or just too lazy to use separate e-mail and web browser programs.
Good luck & keep the (Mac’) faith,
Joe <-around computers since '78=loathe M$ & love Macs.
