Problems with access to my website... can anyone help?

Q17 · Aug 15, 2006

I thought this would be the best place to post this question. If the moderators feel it would be better placed elsewhere, please feel free to move it.

I have the opportunity to show my work the the Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and possibly sell a few for the permanent collection. He has asked me to send him URL's to my website. (I am told he is not very computer-savvy.)

When I email him several URL's to pages on my site, he cannot access them, and writes that they look "incomplete." He tells me he is using a Mac (though I doubt that is the problem, I've had a Mac-using friend check them and he has no problem loading the pages).

If anyone has thoughts why he cannot access the following URL's, I would surely appreciate any input.

I am at a total loss. This is a HUGE opportunity for me and I've been pulling my hair out for the last two days trying to get to the bottom of it.

The URL's I send him are as follows:

http://www.visi.com/~q/page2
http://www.visi.com/~q/page3

Is anyone out there having trouble accessing these pages, or is he just completely computer illiterate?

Help is immensely appreciated!!

=michelle=

David A. Goldfarb · Aug 15, 2006

They work for me.

wfwhitaker · Aug 15, 2006

No problems here; worked fine. Dell laptop (PC), IE 6.0.

copake_ham · Aug 15, 2006

David A. Goldfarb said:
They work for me.

Ditto

EDIT: BTW - I like your work!

Dave Parker · Aug 15, 2006

Well if the links you are providing in this posting is the same ones you have provided, they don't go to the first page of the website, I had no trouble getting to them, but it dropped me into the heart of the website and not the front page, which might be what he is talking about, with these links it seems as if it is a fractured gallery, and not a website..the link that I found the home page on is:

http://www.visi.com/~q/index.htm

Which anytime your showing someone your website, should be what you provide to them that way they know they are starting at the beginning, but as far as the images displaying, I didn't have any problems with it and was able to go through the website without any problems, one thing that might be interfering with your person is his firewall may be blocking access for him.

Dave

naturephoto1 · Aug 15, 2006

Hi Michelle,

No problem accessing the pages either.

Rich

MurrayMinchin · Aug 15, 2006

Worked right away for me, on a Mac. I found your first page by taking a guess and clicking the square between the < and the >.

Murray

Q17 · Aug 15, 2006

Dave Parker said:
Well if the links you are providing in this posting is the same ones you have provided, they don't go to the first page of the website, I had no trouble getting to them, but it dropped me into the heart of the website and not the front page, which might be what he is talking about, with these links it seems as if it is a fractured gallery, and not a website..the link that I found the home page on is:

http://www.visi.com/~q/index.htm

Which anytime your showing someone your website, should be what you provide to them that way they know they are starting at the beginning, but as far as the images displaying, I didn't have any problems with it and was able to go through the website without any problems, one thing that might be interfering with your person is his firewall may be blocking access for him.

Dave

Dave,

I did send him http://www.visi.com/~q/ (my front page) initially and told him to click on the "Q" to access the site. I also provided him with these pages separately, since I have been told he's not much of a fan of "abstract" images.

Thanks for the firewall info... that may be helpful.

John Simmons · Aug 15, 2006

Works just fine for me too. What does he mean they look incomplete. If he was not able to access them at all it seems he would just say that. To say they look incomplete suggests that he was able to access and look at something. BTW, I like you photographs.

John

Dave Parker · Aug 15, 2006

MurrayMinchin said:
Worked right away for me, on a Mac. I found your first page by taking a guess and clicking the square between the < and the >.

Murray

Got to remember Murray,

Not everyone has common sense, sometimes it is a scarce commodity!

Dave

Q17 · Aug 15, 2006

No, he is saying the actual address itself looks "incomplete"... he cannot access the pages at all. I have to wonder if he is used to looking at addresses on an inTRAnet and doesn't really have outside access to the InTERnet. Is that at all possible?

Perhaps it's understandable why I'm tearing my hair out here.

Dave Parker · Aug 15, 2006

Your address uses a older format that was used several years ago in the internet world, there have been some access providers that have blocked this type of address because they can't read the entire address and to be on the safe side they don't allow the ~ could be causing the problem.

Dave

Bruce Osgood · Aug 15, 2006

I think you're just trying to build traffic.

Q17 · Aug 15, 2006

Bruce (Camclicker) said:
I think you're just trying to build traffic.

I wish that were the case. Instead, I'm just wondering WTF??!!??

It's pretty frustrating, considering this is perhaps my sole opportunity to have work located a few flat files away from the greatest photographs in history...

=michelle=

Q17 · Aug 15, 2006

Dave Parker said:
Your address uses a older format that was used several years ago in the internet world, there have been some access providers that have blocked this type of address because they can't read the entire address and to be on the safe side they don't allow the ~ could be causing the problem.

Dave

That's interesting. Is there any way to get around that, short of acquiring a new site or getting my own domain?

Monophoto · Aug 15, 2006

Michelle -

Like the others, I also don't have any difficulty accessing your pages.

I wonder if it is possible that when he writes that they look "incomplete", is is making an inscruitable, artsy comment about your photographs rather than a comment on his ability to access the web pages themselves? Perhaps talking to him on the phone might clear up what is going on.

Q17 · Aug 15, 2006

He wrote: "Sorry to say that the links in your email still don't work."

Nothing to do with the photographs... I'm sure he would tell me if he just didn't find them appealing. He just can't get to them.

Incidentally, I just got off the phone with a friend who works in security at MIA... she has accessed these pages many times from their breakroom. I may have her take him down the hallway if I can't figure it out any other way...

=m=

pentaxuser · Aug 16, 2006

Both these URL's are coming up quicker than I can change APUG pages i.e. about a tenth of a second. Homing in on each shot is equally quick and on any other site my nickname would be Ned Ludd.

pentaxuser

Q17 · Aug 16, 2006

pentaxuser said:
Both these URL's are coming up quicker than I can change APUG pages i.e. about a tenth of a second. Homing in on each shot is equally quick and on any other site my nickname would be Ned Ludd.

pentaxuser

Thanks. I work in graphic design and space is always an issue on our server, so they've trained me to get things to load quickly.

I think the main problem -- getting him to see my pictures -- has been solved. As suggested earlier, I suspect the tilde (~) in my URL is the culprit on his computer. I have a friend who works security for the museum and she has accessed my site from their breakroom computer. He's told me to have her take him there and navigate for him...

To all those who helped and complimented the pictures, Thank You!

=m=

Bob F. · Aug 16, 2006

As Dave said: some systems (firewalls and web caches etc) are configured to block URLs with a tilde in them - partly because it is a hallmark of a private site, rather than a commercial one. It may be worth asking your host for an alternate path to your site - the use of a tilde is a unix convention to mean the user's home directory. Sometimes www.somedomain.com/~username/somefile.html translates to something like Dead Link Removed - worth asking.

Good luck - Bob.

Paul Sorensen · Aug 16, 2006

Is it possible that the url broke in the email due to text wrapping? This happens often with very long urls, and yours is not terribly long, but it is an idea. I think you should have your friend go there and help the guy. The more time you spend helping the computer illiterate via email, the better the chance that he gets frustrated with you. I wouldn't want to have this guy frustrated with you.

By the way, I think you should get your own domain. Sean's hosting is cheap and now he is on an absolutely state of the art server from an incredible well run outfit, so for $5 per month you can get hosting, and he will even help you with getting a domain and get everything on the new server. (Or there are tons of us here who would help you out as well, including myself)

Q17 · Aug 16, 2006

Bob F. said:
As Dave said: some systems (firewalls and web caches etc) are configured to block URLs with a tilde in them - partly because it is a hallmark of a private site, rather than a commercial one. It may be worth asking your host for an alternate path to your site - the use of a tilde is a unix convention to mean the user's home directory. Sometimes www.somedomain.com/~username/somefile.html translates to something like Dead Link Removed - worth asking.

Good luck - Bob.

Thanks, Bob.

I poked around on my ISP's site and they don't allow getting rid of the tilde. The only way around it is to register and host a domain name for you... $90 for the first year, $60 each consecutive year.

I'm looking into alternatives, including obtaining a domain name and having my site hosted here... My current ISP only offers 5 megs of space unless I pay additional fees, so it's pretty small there. I would rather give my dollars to Sean for additional space than to them.

This is the first time I've encountered any problem and, to be honest, I'm not all that enthusiastic about spending more money on my web-presence, but I'm keeping alternatives in the back of my mind.

=michelle=

Q17 · Aug 16, 2006

Paul Sorensen said:
Is it possible that the url broke in the email due to text wrapping? This happens often with very long urls, and yours is not terribly long, but it is an idea. I think you should have your friend go there and help the guy. The more time you spend helping the computer illiterate via email, the better the chance that he gets frustrated with you. I wouldn't want to have this guy frustrated with you.

By the way, I think you should get your own domain. Sean's hosting is cheap and now he is on an absolutely state of the art server from an incredible well run outfit, so for $5 per month you can get hosting, and he will even help you with getting a domain and get everything on the new server. (Or there are tons of us here who would help you out as well, including myself)

You beat me to it, Paul! Having an APUG hosted site is something I'm definitely considering.

As for the curator, he's going to track down my friend and have her show him my work on their breakroom computer. There's still hope.

=m=

Problems with access to my website... can anyone help?

Q17

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator

wfwhitaker

copake_ham

Dave Parker

naturephoto1

MurrayMinchin

Membership Council

Q17

John Simmons

Dave Parker

Q17

Dave Parker

Bruce Osgood

Membership Council

Q17

Q17

Monophoto

Q17

pentaxuser

Q17

Bob F.

Paul Sorensen

Q17

Q17

Problems with access to my website... can anyone help?

Moderator

Membership Council

Membership Council

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Privacy & Transparency