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Hosted images timing out and giving errors.

vershner
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎15-12-2007

Hosted images timing out and giving errors.

Recently I've been noticing that images hosted on my web space have been very slow to download and frequently time-out before loading. Often an image will stop halfway through displaying, and give an error. (not a useful error - just 'Image contains an error'). Seems to occur randomly, but more commonly with larger images.
The images are png, gif, and jpg. Sizes from 2Mb to a few k.
Tried IE7, Firefox and Opera - all seem to show the same thing.
Is anyone else experiencing this issue?  Anyone know why this is happening?
7 REPLIES 7
Peter_Vaughan
Grafter
Posts: 14,469
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Hosted images timing out and giving errors.

Have you tried rebooting PC AND router?
Can you post a URL so others can check to see if its just you or if it is a server problem.
vershner
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎15-12-2007

Re: Hosted images timing out and giving errors.

The best URL to try would be http://z6.invisionfree.com/TestingEngland
The forum itself is not hosted here, but all the images are. Usually one or more images fails to load on a full refresh.
I've rebooted the PC and that made no difference. Just tried rebooting the router now, so I'll see if that makes a difference.
mikeb
Rising Star
Posts: 463
Thanks: 15
Registered: ‎10-06-2007

Re: Hosted images timing out and giving errors.

I get this intermittently but relatively frequently as well although I've not seen it happening very often just recently I must add. I also use my webspace to host lots of (generally quite small but occasionally larger) image files and suchlike used on message boards various.  What I generally see is if a post contains several hotlinked images for instance, one or more will often fail to load or not load fully. The browser status line usually halts on "waiting for ..." and to me it indicates dropped connections / packet loss somewhere, almost certainly on the PN network. I even see the problem when posting hotlinked files on the PUG message board.  Any missing images appear immediately if the page is refreshed however but it is not a browser or local cache problem.
Other users have reported similar strangeness in the past and there is at least one other relatively recent thread on Usenet I think (possibly in  PN.S.C-F but I can't remember exactly where TBH) started by one other user having this problem. His report from memory was near identical to yours - 1 or more images from a collection of large(ish) images on a page randomly displaying very slowly, not displaying at all or halting part way through but appearing after a refresh. When I tried browsing the relevant page(s) containing his linked images I too saw the problem randomly and intermittently but other users apparently didn't.  There was no solution or official comment from PN that I can remember and the thread died so I guess the problem just went away as usually happens for me.
What I generally find is that the 'problem' suddenly appears, lasts for a few days or very occasionally weeks but then disappears just as mysteriously as it started. For me, it's been going on for many years and I've long since given up reporting it ! although I do trend to add an [aol]Me Too[/aol] to any other similar reports I stumble across Smiley  In the past when the 'problem' has been very obvious and quite persistent, it often appears to go away just as soon as a PN BW increase or Ellacoya scheduled maintenance period has been announced/completed. No hard evidence on that but feel free to draw your own conclusions.
Edited To Add:
Ah-ha ... perhaps the merest hint of finger trouble here also methinks Wink  I've just browsed your forum to This Page and guess what, all the images in the first post on that page fail to load.  However, the reason is that the url contained between the [image] tags is cooky !  They all tend to look like this:
"http://127.0.0.1/images/flags/uploads/red-neck_in-breds.jpg"
rather than a valid link to an external site somewhere.  However, one of the images (#8) in the second (presumably) corrected post also failed to load. None responded to a refresh obviously.
Are these the images you are referring to ?  I couldn't see anything else apparently missing or whatever.  If not then which images in particular are you seeing the problem with ?
Further Edited To Add:
OK, just checked the page source to see which images appear to be hosted by you then repeatedly cleared the local cache and reloaded the page several times.  Some of your images do indeed fail to load which is exactly the same problem as I (and others) intermittently see.  In most cases, certain parts of the page background images failed to load for me unless refreshed.  The banner image(s) were also particularly slow to respond on several occasions but did eventually load. 
Welcome to the "mucho unexplained strangeness when hosting images" club  Grin


B T Plusnet, a bit kinda like P T Barnum ...

... but quite often appears to feature more clowns Tongue
vershner
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎15-12-2007

Re: Hosted images timing out and giving errors.

It's the background and banner images that are hosted here at plusnet, don't worry about those others in the posts you mentioned, that was just testing something.
I rebooted the router earlier and since then there does seem to have been an improvement. Still getting occasional timeouts and delays, but not as bad. I'll keep testing it and see how it goes.
Thanks for having a look.
mikeb
Rising Star
Posts: 463
Thanks: 15
Registered: ‎10-06-2007

Re: Hosted images timing out and giving errors.

A dozen or so attempts at reloading the main forum page resulted in no problems at all just now but when I tried before, some images failed to load on around 30% of the attempts.
Previous limited evidence suggests that the only benefit in rebooting the router etc. is that you are likely to end up on a different gateway, assuming that there isn't some weird problem with the router of course. There is no evidence that changing gateway resolves the problem completely although it is often apparent that connecting via certain gateways results in the problem appearing less frequently. When the problem is occurring it is of an intermittent and random nature but it is often worse on some gateways than others. My money is on you finding that the problem will suddenly disappear but it is likely to recur at some time in the future.
BTW, I've never seen any error messages come up at any time, just missing images due to no apparent response but maybe that's a function of the browser you're using. 


B T Plusnet, a bit kinda like P T Barnum ...

... but quite often appears to feature more clowns Tongue
Peter_Vaughan
Grafter
Posts: 14,469
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Hosted images timing out and giving errors.

Routers can and do go funny manifesting itself as issues to certain sites. The same can happen with PCs and especially software firewalls which is why rebooting both can often fix problems such as this. Its nothing to do the the gateway you are on but the hardware/software used locally going funny.
I've not had a problem loading any of the images in question so far.
mikeb
Rising Star
Posts: 463
Thanks: 15
Registered: ‎10-06-2007

Re: Hosted images timing out and giving errors.

I totally agree with that. All I was saying is that for me (and a few other users who have seen this problem before) it has never apparently been a router, PC or firewall problem to date but changing gateway often makes a subtle difference.


B T Plusnet, a bit kinda like P T Barnum ...

... but quite often appears to feature more clowns Tongue