We're committed to providing the best possible online service, and we've worked hard to design services that work quickly and without problems. However Internet technologies are fairly new, and with any technology there are bound to be problems. We've collected some of the common ones here, and the solutions we've found. Please let us know if you find others, and we'll do our best to find solutions and workarounds.

Pages take too long to download
Cache problems
The IDG Web site pages seem old and out of date
Pages are incomplete
Graphics don't download
I can't use the Subscription forms for the magazines
Your site pesters me with Cookie requests
My bookmarks to areas in the IDG site don't work any more
Other problems?

Pages take too long to download
This is a common problem with all sites on the Internet. We've designed our Web pages to be small in size and rich in content, but how quickly you can download a page depends on the slowest part of the pipe between you and the Web site. During heavy traffic periods pages download slowly from all Web sites. Peak periods are typically in the morning between 9 and 11 and in the afternoon between 3 and 6.

Avoid peak times
One obvious workaround is to try to avoid these peak times.

Turn off graphics in your browser
Another aid is to turn off the graphics in your Web browser. This may speed up download considerably, because you download only the text you need.
In Netscape Navigator (versions 1 to 3), open the Options menu and uncheck Autoload images. In version 4 or above, choose Edit-Preferences, select the Advanced category and uncheck Automatically load images.
In Internet Explorer 4 or above, choose View-Internet Options, click the Advanced tab, and uncheck the options in the Multimedia section.

Report consistently slow downloads from our site
Please e-mail the Technical Manager, (Pascal_Hakim@idg.com.au), to report the problem if it happens repeatedly, not at peak times. We're monitoring the performance of our Web server, but your feedback will help us to determine when we need to upgrade.

Cache problems
Web site pages seem out of date
Our IDG Web site pages are updated regularly, but the version you see may not be the latest. This can happen when there is a cache between you and the Web page you are trying to read. Sometimes a cache doesn't update when you want it to, and gives you back an old version of the page, even though there's a newer version on the Web site.

Update your browser cache
The cache may be the one maintained by your browser on your computer.
First, try refreshing or reloading the page from the Web site.
In Netscape, click the Reload button, or choose View-Reload or View-Reload Frame from the menu.
In Internet Explorer, click the Refresh button. If the pages are within frames, right-click within the frame you want to refresh and choose Refresh from the pop-up menu.

If that doesn't work, you can manually clear this cache, forcing the browser to reload the pages from the Web site.
In Netscape 4 or above, choose Edit-Preferences in the menu. In the dialogue box, click the + box beside the Advanced menu to open it. Select the Cache option. Click the Clear Memory Cache and Clear Disk Cache buttons.
In Internet Explorer 4 or above, choose View-Options, select the General tab and click Delete Files in the Temporary Files area.

Check your proxy server
If that doesn't work, the problem may be elsewhere. Many companies or ISPs use a proxy server, essentially a large cache, to reduce Internet traffic. If you are connecting to the Internet via a proxy server, it's possible that the proxy server is serving you an old version of the file. If you think this may be the problem, you may be able to test it by connecting to the Internet in a different way that bypasses the proxy server. Alternatively, you may have to speak to the administrator of the proxy server, either within your company or at your Internet Service Provider, to see if there are problems with the way the proxy server is set up.

Pages are incomplete
If pages are incomplete, it may be simply because you've interrupted the download before they appear. If you move to another page before a page is completely downloaded, and then return to the incomplete page, you may only see the part of the page already stored in your cache. To see the rest of the page, click the Refresh or Reload button in your browser. See the section above on caches for more details.
Another possible reason is that the browser is trying to load a page element it can't find. This can happen if the element is on another server, or is delivered by an application that is not responding. Lack of response from a server or application may be because of heavy traffic, in which case you might try again later.

Graphics don't download
Graphics may not download for a number of reasons. You may have graphics turned off in your browser. See the section above on turning off graphics in your browser.
If you see broken image symbols like this one , it may be because of a problem with your access to our server. If you use a proxy server, the proxy server may be failing to serve you all the graphics files from our site. See the section on proxy servers above.

I can't use the Subscription forms for the magazines
The online subscription forms and a number of other services on the IDG site, use a Lotus Domino server on HTTP port 8008. If you are behind a firewall that prevents access to port 8008, you won't have access to these services.

Enable access to HTTP port 8008 through your firewall
To solve the problem, ask the administrator of your firewall to enable access to port 8008. This port is now in common use as an additional HTTP port for Web sites with more than one Web server.

Phone or send e-mail requesting subscription
A workaround is to send an e-mail requesting a subscription to the circulation manager (Dorothy_Adams@idg.com.au), or call our subscription department on 1800 248 811 in Australia during business hours. We'll be in touch to help your subscribe.

Cookies
A cookie is simply an item of information which is recorded on your local workstation during the course of your Web session. Your browser records it in response to a request from the Web server. The Web server may later request the browser to read it back the cookie. The purpose is usually just to keep track of where you've been and what you've done on a Web site. Cookies are used because it's so difficult to keep track of information about a specific Web site visitor on the server, especially from one session to the next. It's much easier to ask you to keep track of the information yourself.
Cookies arouse suspicion because of the fear that a remote application writing to your local hard drive may do malicious damage. However in almost every case, cookies are just there to provide you with extra services, or the managers of the Web site with more information.
We can't guarantee that cookies are incapable of causing damage, because there are people around who spend a lot of time and effort finding ways of causing damage. We can guarantee that nothing on our Web site is intended to cause damage.
Many Web applications use cookies to perform their functions, and we may find the need to use applications that employ cookies.
Cookies can be annoying if you have your browser set to notify you of every cookie request you receive. If you'd rather be annoyed than run the rather small risk that cookies represent, you can turn this on.
In Netscape Navigator 3, choose Options-Network Preferences and choose the Protocols tab. Click the Show an alert before accepting a cookie checkbox. In Netscape 4 or above, choose Edit-Preferences and select the Advanced category. Check the Warn me before accepting a cookie checkbox.
In Internet Explorer 4 or above, choose View-Internet Options, select the Advanced tab and, in the Cookies section, check Prompt before accepting cookies.

Turn cookie notification off
If you'd rather not be pestered and don't mind the risk, turn cookie notification off, by following the steps above and unchecking the Warn before accepting cookies checkbox.

Bookmarks to areas in IDG site don't work
We regularly rearrange our site as we identify problems and find more efficient solutions to presenting information. If you've made a bookmark to part of our site some time ago, that bookmark may no longer point to the correct place.

Come in via the front page and find the place again
The solution is to enter the site through the IDG Communications home page at www.idg.com.au and use our search and navigation features to find your preferred place again. You can find everything on the IDG site by starting at the IDG Communications home page.

Other problems?
Please send us an e-mail with the following details:

Send to the Technical Manager (Pascal_Hakim@idg.com.au)