Hi, I would like to report a few glitches I have noticed. Could you have a look at it and see if they are related to a browser problem or to your server?

My browser is Firefox 1.5.0.3, OS Win2K on PIII 833MHz

1.- In the last days, I get the following error message when attempting to access a thread:

8notes.com Forums »

ADODB.Recordset error '800a0cc1'

Item cannot be found in the collection corresponding to the requested name or ordinal.

/f/show_forum.asp, line 101


2.- When trying to send a private message, the system requests a new logging-in. If I try to login, the message that was written is lost as there is no way to come back to the message composer. The system should,in my opinion, either not allow someone to write the message if he/she has not logged- in previously or, it should allow the user to return to the composer page after a succesful login.

3. An annoying glitch that obviously happens to several memembers of the flute forum is that sometimes we cannot see the post after it has been correctly submitted. The post is there however, as reloading the page of going out of the forum and then back to it displays the post correctly. For this reason, some of us have repeated the messages and they show duplicated.

Up to here my collaboration.

I encourage other members to report, with the ususal politeness, other problems they may encounter when using this otherwise wonderful Forum system.

They have been responsive in the past.

Posting here could help clarify how many of us are having problems and also if it is related to the browser type (I suspect it could be).

So, if anybody reports here, it could be useful to include browser type and version.

The annoying problem that I am having is when I first come to the forum, I cannot get to the current most recent threads. I have to click onto an older page, click on a thread, THEN click on "flute" at the top of the page in order to find the most recent threads! There has to be a better way!!

OK, that problem is rather new (a week or so); the page 1 of the list for the complete Flute Forum (and I think it also happens with page one of long threads) appears to be empty.
It is necessary to reload the page (Firefox and IE have buttons for that, in IE a white page with arrows in opposite directions, in FFox a couple of tailchasing fat arrows) to see the contents of page 1. Sometimes it is necessary to reload more than once.

As for the Owner Edit, normally it is not shown immediately after one posts, it is also necessary to reload the page or visit some other thread and then come back.

As the owner edit feature is sometimes very important, I post here this trick (reloading the page) so that everybody can use it until the bug is fixed.
I hope it works for everybody...

I was wondering what was going on! I bookmarked the forum page on my computer and, when I would go to this site from my bookmark, I would get an empty page! I would have to go to my profile and back to get the page to load! How frusterating... Oh, well, I just changed my bookmark, so I should have an easier time of it now!
Thanks for bringing this up, jose luis! (You work on firefox, too? How has it been working for you? Do you have thunderbird email, too? I was considering switching... )

It is also saying in my profile that I am 30 and I am only 29.
It is bad enough I am almost 30, but come on, don't push it! Lol!

Wow, they are making time go faster... this has got to be unheard of! Maybe this bug has the key to time! Heh...
So, I can handle a computer pretty well, but I hope I don't come off as uneducated if I ask what a "bug" is. This is nothing like a virus, correct? It's just a little glitch in the system the forum runs on? (I feel like such a fool asking, but it has my curiosity now and I have to know! )

I also noticed that my profile bio has been deleted. That's not necessarily a bad thing, now it gives me motivation to update it!

Celebrian,

Firefox is very good and some features are very useful, such as tab browsing (you can open different "tabs" for new pages and switch among them. No need to open several instances of IE. It is also considered to be safer than IE concerning malware. But this I cannot prove.

Thunderbid is completely different. Coming from the same open source people, I was enthusiastic and installed it some time ago, but it was a catastrophe.

After a few days using it, all the messages in the inbox simply disappeared. They were still there (somewhere), but I could not retrieve them unless I wrote the exact name and used the search function. I had to consider all the accumulated messages as lost.

It could be that they have now solved this big bug, but I consider it too dangerous to give it a second chance. If you are not happy with Outlook (not a surprise, IMO), you can try Eudora, first in the "Light" or the sponsored version and then,if you like, go to the full version (though you must pay for it) but gives good spam filtering and other features.

However, the latest version seems to require a faster processor than the one I have (PIII 833), as sometimes Eudora is not able to open the mailboxes fast enough. Also, it tries now and then to resend messages with attachments, something a little bit annoying.

So, nobody is perfect, Billy Wilder was completely right!


<Added>

A bug is the general name given to software errors. They are consider to exist by definition, if the SW is complicated enough.

Programs are gradually depurated from their bugs, until they run acceptably well.

Quite often the depuration process is driven by users complaining and security holes put in evidence by the hacker community.

Again, nobody is perfect and even the evil has its good side...

Thanks Admin. I preferred to start this thread to encurage other members to report their porblems so we could have a wider idea of what was going on. I used "report this thread" to draw your attention on this particular one.

Some of the problems reported could be originated by a faulty registering process. In fact, it is quite difficult to register and I must retry several times or even leave the forum and come back. If the memeber is not correctly registered by the system, his "owner edit" button does not show, which is correct.

<Added>

sorry: encourage, problems, "report this post"

Thank you! Everything is working now how it used to!

I used to use Eudora, but that was for about a week before my system took a dive and I was left without a computer for about a year! I use Outlook, but I don't like it one bit. I generally use hotmail for emails where I need attachments... You don't like Thunderbird at all? I have people who will swear by that program! I was considering getting firefox, but, seeing as this is computer is shared by others than myself and they don't like firefox, Explorer it is!

Oh, so that is what a bug is... thank you again!

Celebrian, IExplorer and Firefox can co-exist in the same machine and in fact this is mandatory, as MS IE comes embedded in Windows and cannot be uninstalled.

So there is no problem at all to install Firefox and you can use (or just try it) it while other users can start their faithful IE. FF was designed by a wide community and they keep on adding additional features and free plugins and gadgets. I use a few of them, for example the ability to zomm in/out of any image shown on a web page. But there are hundreds of free "contributions" and very probably there is at least one for each taste.

Now, sometimes it is necessary to use IE because a few sites have sloppy coding (or do this intentionally, such as used to be the MS website) so that Firefox does not display the page properly. But these cases are relatively rare and the advantages compensate (IMO) this occasional problem.

Thunderbird failed miserably for me. But as in anything, other people coud be 100% satisfied. I am a relatively "heavy user" of Email and I keep most of the messages for years. I have a few thousands of them stored, in Eudora format.

It could be that Thunder was not designed to deal with high volumes of data.

The "import" feature (from Eudora to Thunderbird) was also defective and did not respect fully the File system I had in Eudora. It was a big mess but I could deal with it and I got it fixed.

The biggest problem was that it hide my messages and I lost them as a result. That is unacceptable and had never happened to me before. Even with Outlook Express.

If you check the Thunderbird forum, you will notice that I was not the only victim. And the cure seemed so complicated (guru style) that I preferred to consider my messages lost for ever and returned to Eudora.

I see what you are saying about the Thunderbird, now! I also save emails from what seems to be years and years ago and I even back up the important emails by putting them onto a spare floppy disk.

I know that the Firefox can be added or, rather, must be added along with the IE and OE, but the other users of this computer do not understand past how to send an email with guided help and, since I was not the sole financial provider for this system, I think it's best if I just respect their demands to keep everything as "simple" as possible. As it is, they are upset that I had to install two new spyware blockers, although they were needed!!!

Computers and myself were just recently introduced fully the past few weeks! I have had to learn about things really fast after my antivirus went down and darn near crashed the system. I don't know how, I don't know why, I don't think I even care; all I know is that I have to learn how to fix things! Speaking of, what would you recommend in terms of an antivirus program that is either cheap or free, seeing as I have little $$$ and you seem to be very knowledgeable when it comes to computers!

To me, a computer is like a giant puzzle where things go wrong. After the puzzle table is shook and the peices fly everywhere, you have to find the peices again and put the puzzle together, doing this in very little time and with very little assistance (I don't see how money would fit into a puzzle, but, if I was given enough time, I could fit it in!)

(Excuse my little metaphore (sp?). I just got done with a short story and I still feel like writing...)

Celebrian, sorry taht I have seen your question several days after it was posted.

I am not a computer expert or technician, but I have been using these machines since they became affordable, some 25 years ago.

I have had so many problems that finally I think I know a little about solving some of them.

It is difficult to recommend an Antivirus, cheap and reliable at the same time. The best I can do is suggest the one I use: Norman Antivirus v5.


You can download a free trial version, identical to the full version but that only works for 30 days. Then you have to pay for the licence (55 US$ for one year or 122$ for 3 years).

http://www.norman.com/Download/Trial_versions/en-us

I am fully satisfied with the product; I have been using it for 4 years and currently I have a 3 years license as it is cheaper per year.

I suggest, however, that you give it a trial. Eventually you could buy a one year license, if within your budget.

Norman is not the biggest, such as are Norton or Panda, but it is well updated, use a good sandbox technology (it allows to catch unknown virus... well sometimes) and you get a personalized custom service, or at least so it is in Spain.

By far, the most important feature (IMO) of an AV is the continuous updating of the signature files (these are data files that inform the AV how to find a virus hidden deep in a file). The best AV worths nothing if it is not up to date.

The package comes with an optional Firewall. In case you are not using one, my suggestion is to install one as soonest as possible. You can download the free Zone Alarm version from Zonelabs, for example (or use the one from Norman, if you buy the product).

Please note that you should have just one (good) AV and one FW installed in your computer. If you have others, I'm afraid there could be conflicts and it should be better to uninstall the others.

In any case, the Firewalls are a headache because they keep asking you misterious things one normally does not know how to respond. Zonelab's is specially a nuisance. But FW are important and necessary. However I fear your fellow user colleagues might not get used to it.

But the AV is transparent to practically all effects and there should be no problem.

I update my AV manually each time I receive an Email fron Norman telling me to do so.

During active "virus wars" periods, this can happen as often as 4 times ... a day!

Good luck!




<Added>

sorry, this was not correct: "...full version but that only works for 30 days"
The free trial version will not stop working after 30 days, but you will not be able to update it without a valid license after this period expires.
Without updating, the AV will protect your PC less and less until it becomes useless.