I normally use IE, in Windows XP. Two days ago, I got up one morning and tried to go to CNN.com, which is one of the favorites on my toolbar, and got the message that the page couldn’t be found. I didn’t think much of it at first – I was able to go to all my other regular sites, and I figured they were just having server issues. When the problem persisted throughout the day, and on into the next day, however, I realized the problem had to be at my end. My husband suggested I try using Firefox (my secondary browser), and it went to CNN just fine (though with all the video-viewing problems that caused me to switch my main browser to IE in the first place).
Clearly something got reset somehow with IE, but I can’t think of what it might be, especially as I’m not having any trouble going to any other site. I’ve tried directly typing the URL in rather than using my shortcut, with the same result. I’ve tried waiting until I get the “page not found” message and doing a shift-reload, but that’s not helping a thing.
Has anyone out there ever had this happen before? Any suggestions as to how to track down the problem?
Short answer: No and no. I’m not looking to change platforms and I’ve neither the money nor the inclination to buy a new computer. I’m just trying to work out what might have changed so I can fix it.
That was it! We searched, and evidently Google toolbar had piggybacked on something else (most likely Skype, which I just installed on Thursday). We deleted it, and now CNN is working, no problem.
I don’t mean to be a PITA either - but the dogs got me up a 5:30am and I’m sleepy and bored…
Some of us have NO CHOICE when it comes to OS or browsers. This is my work computer. I’m actually on a beta program that lets me dictate a lot more of what I have on my computer, updates, etc. - but I still don’t have a choice of OS or browser. And for some of the systems I need to do on the computer, I must have certain settings (I can’t enable pop up blockers, for instance, because one of the systems uses pop ups extensively).
I think most of us “get” that Microsoft isn’t the be all and end all. But when someone asks for help, it really isn’t help to say “buy a Mac” of “use Linux”. Some of us just don’t have that choice.
I have Safari on my machine. My Windows machine. It is cross-platform, these days. I have to say, I prefer …actually, I prefer Firefox. Which I also have. Safari seems to like small typefaces squeezed into big expanses of blue screen. I could get used to it, but don’t see any need to make the effort.
Yeah, those toolbars added on to other downloads. They are pernicious. Especially when you have to click some tiny box to say you DON’T want them. Load slow, and read carefully.
I actually like Seamonkey, which is Mozilla based, better than Firefox. It also has a whole suite with mail reader and other stuff, which I don’t use, but I prefer that browser to IE and Firefox. the functionality just suites me better.
I still have to use IE for my work Outlook webmail.
For a long time, I used both Firefox and IE…Firefox for day-to-day browsing and IE to watch shows on TG4 (which, for some reason, suddenly stopped working with Firefox). I switched to IE exclusively because Firefox was eating up tremendous amounts of memory.
Perhaps just as a former drinker and/or a former smoker could then become among the loudest of critics about such things, as a former Microsoft user myself, who switched over to Mac computers in recent years, and who has had such a relatively good experience with them, I admit to excessive zeal when it comes to Mac computers.
Macs are infuraiting in their own way. If you want to do something with your Mac that Steve Jobs doesn’t think you should want to do, you’re largely SOL.
Being pushed around by your computer is just as annoying as being patronised by it.
