No images in IE - Random!

[oldhasbeen]

Hi All

Just launched our new website last week - everything chugging along nicely, really pleased with it, all teething problems seemingly resolved.

Sent out a newsletter yesterday evening announcing the new website which has resulted in a surge of traffic, and we're now receiving messages from customers saying they can't see any images, and on some pages it just hangs completely. Obviously this is a worry, if not a little embarrasing - we've had a handful of complaints, but you don't know how many will just leave the site and say nothing. I have emailed them back asking what browser/version they are using - our stats show the vast majority are using IE.

Orders are coming in OK. No problems with Firefox or Chrome. We've viewed the site on multiple computers, various OS and IE versions 6,7,8, and 9 and can replicate the issue, but it's totally random and seems to mainly affect 6 and 8 (one customer has replied who is on 7.05). One of our PCs on 8 is fine, another one on 8 has the problem. One PC on 6 has minor issues - next door on 6 has none.

We've taken the addthis coding out thinking that might be the problem - no change - so have put it back on. As it is so random, we can't pin it down any further.

If any kind soul is able to shed any light on this, it would be most appreciated (my lightbulb has gone out, and Steve has no more hair to pull out).

Thanks all

Helen

[Darren B]

add all you external linked scripts to the bottom of your page, let these load last. Your get page hangs from google, facebook, twitter and just about any other external site that can experience high demand

[feemish]

your website does seem to be slow.. some pages are taking quite a while to load.
Where is your website hosted?
It looks like a server speed/bandwidth issue to me.

[NormanRouxel]

If one customer isn't seeing an image and another is, then this is most likely server related. I found the site very slow and now occasionally Firefox wouldn't even connect to it.

You have a lot of off-site JavaScripts being loaded. Seventeen on your home page and twelve on product pages. Only one of these was put there by Actinic, the rest must have been added at your end.

[Artisan]

Loaded quickly in IE8 and Firefox here.

[oldhasbeen]

Hi all

Thanks for your valuable input - we're not sure what on earth is going on right now. The only things added that we didn't have on v9 is the addthis function and the facebook feed on the home page, but millions of sites use these, so I don't understand why these should cause an issue. We've tried taking the addthis code off, and it made no difference to the PCs having problems with IE.

Since uploading the new site, we're rocking through disc space and bandwidth like there's no tomorrow (exceeding limits in days that we would never come close to in a normal month). We don't know what's happening - all we did was upload our new site

We're going round in circles with our hosting company - they're saying there is nothing wrong with the server, but you can see our log files growing before your very eyes so I have no idea. The only thing I can think to do at this point is to get them to wipe the site and do a complete refresh

Thanks all
Helen

[Mike Hughes]

I'd suspect the facebook feed (there are a lot of css images in your iframes).

Run your webpage through the page checker here: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

Among the things it complains of are:

Warning! The total number of objects on this page is 80 which by their number will dominate web page delay. Consider reducing this to a more reasonable number. Above 20 objects per page the overhead from dealing with the actual objects (description time and wait time) accounts for more than 80% of whole page latency.

Warning! The total number of images on this page is 66 , consider reducing this to a more reasonable number.

Warning! The total size of your images is 179860 bytes, which is over 100K.

Warning! The total size of this page is 442157 bytes.

Warning! The total size of external your scripts is 104449 bytes, which is over 20K.

Warning! The total size of your external CSS is 45414 bytes, which is over 20K.

Mike

[oldhasbeen]

Took the plunge - ditched the addthis code, wiped the server and did a web refresh - touch wood, cross everything - that seems to have done the trick. All our versions of IE are now displaying fine and the site seems to be loading very quickly. The FB code seems to be OK.

Thanks for all the pointers/suggestions - Mike, I'll certainly take a look at the points you raise and see if I can improve things further.

Cheers all

Helen

[meden]

Thanks for all the pointers/suggestions

Cheers all

I had to laugh at myself for jumping to conclusions but I got really angry at this on first read through - I thought it said pointless

I think I should start taking those anger management 'cigarettes' again!

[oldhasbeen]

I think I should start taking those anger management 'cigarettes' again!

What, you mean you don't have a substantial budget allowance for this? I think all small business owners should campaign for the government to make tax free allowances for stress/anger management tools - considering they are the cause of most of it anyway. I have an Anger Management Cigarette Fund myself (dipped into this considerably yesterday!), I know some who have a Stress Allieviating Alcoholic Beverage Allowance or a Depression Avoidance Chocolate Food Product Expense Account. There are others, but I'm too polite to mention them