Site issue while running MSIE6

[cbrookhart]

Can anyone tell me why it is that everytime I go to the Neowin site, that I have to wait for the computer to process 150+ "items" before I can do anything on the site, like scrolling through the posts or clicking on a thread to view? In some instances, I have to wait for these "items" to process before I can open a thread and then I have to wait again for the "items" to be processed before I can scroll through the posts for the thread. In other instances, these "items" that are trying to be processed end up locking up the web browser. I am currently experiencing this problem when I try to view the desktop thread.

I'm accessing Neowin on a work computer which still has IE 6 on it.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I'm unofficially prepared to blame MSIE6 but we'll see what the NeoDevs say.

[Thread Moved from GD to S&FI]

[cbrookhart]

I'm unofficially prepared to blame MSIE6 but we'll see what the NeoDevs say.

[Thread Moved from GD to S&FI]

Any new information as to the source of the problem?

There is definately something about page 1 of the desktop thread that is consistently causing IE to stop responding.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I renamed the thread to draw more interest to what I think may be the problem. Hopefully somebody more involved in the backend will have something more to tell you.

[Rob Veteran]

I'm at work right now and so took a look at your problem on IE6 here. While performance is degraded on this browser, the site is still functional and I don't see any of the specific slowdowns you've mentioned. It could be that your company is throttling connection attempts through its proxy, such that the site is stalling as it waits to load certain JS/CSS/images. This could explain why the desktop pictures thread, given its image-heavy nature, produces the effects you're seeing.

In short, yes IE6 performance is degraded but not by the amount you're experiencing, at least here: I suspect it's an internal IT issue, but I will look into this some more just in case there's an easy optimisation we've missed.

[cbrookhart]

I'm at work right now and so took a look at your problem on IE6 here. While performance is degraded on this browser, the site is still functional and I don't see any of the specific slowdowns you've mentioned. It could be that your company is throttling connection attempts through its proxy, such that the site is stalling as it waits to load certain JS/CSS/images. This could explain why the desktop pictures thread, given its image-heavy nature, produces the effects you're seeing.

In short, yes IE6 performance is degraded but not by the amount you're experiencing, at least here: I suspect it's an internal IT issue, but I will look into this some more just in case there's an easy optimisation we've missed.

That would make sense for that particular thread, but yesterday and today when I tried to access that thread, it consistently locked up on page one. If I managed to get the thread to load and then look at any page other than 1, it would work. It isn't just that thread though, it's basically the whole site. I could be trying to look at a particularly long thread in say the 'general discussion' forum, and have the same performance issues.

I suppose the browser will be updated to at least IE7 at some point, but in the mean time, I guess I just have to keep closing the browser window when it locks up and then start over again.

[kinetix63 Veteran]

That would make sense for that particular thread, but yesterday and today when I tried to access that thread, it consistently locked up on page one. If I managed to get the thread to load and then look at any page other than 1, it would work. It isn't just that thread though, it's basically the whole site. I could be trying to look at a particularly long thread in say the 'general discussion' forum, and have the same performance issues.

I suppose the browser will be updated to at least IE7 at some point, but in the mean time, I guess I just have to keep closing the browser window when it locks up and then start over again.

Having had to use IE6 in a work environment before, what caused page lockups for me was the fact that we use transparent PNG's which IE6 doesn't have support for. In order to use them, we have to employ some clever Javascript which then processes through each transparent PNG on the page - which could be causing your issue.

To see if that's the problem, you could temporarily disable javascript, and see if that allows you to load the page?