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Guys, I'm hoping you can help me figure out a rather vexing problem... On this and other forums, I'm often unable to see the photos that members post. When the photos are linked instead of just attaching them within the forum software, 9 times out of 10 the links don't work for me. I just get the red Xs in boxes.
I've noticed that I can NEVER get photobucket.com links to work, so I'm wondering if this is the main problem.
Any suggestions? I'm running IE 7 on Vista.
Josh
Well there's your problem right there :)Quote:
Originally Posted by JoshEarl
Seriously, though, make sure active content is enabled for photobucket. sometimes by default it is not. you may have to make photobucket a trusted site. Vista in general and ie7 in particular are very bad about having a lot of useful things blocked/turned off by default.
Generally the red x's in IE mean that the URL pointed to (ie, where the picture is supposed to be) doesn't exist. That usually occurs because the person who posted the link (or if it was a link on another site, the site owner) moved or renamed the picture. (That's why we STRONGLY encourage members here to attach pictures... the names won't get changed and they won't get moved). Firefox, BTW, doesn't bother to display an X... it just leaves a blank space.
As jockeys said, it's also possible that you have security settings set in a manner that the "firewall" features embedded in IE and Vista are blocking the address. If you post a couple examples we can tell you whether the poster moved the pics or it's your settings.
IE 7 is pretty cool--love the tabbed browsing--but Vista is a drag. XP was so stable, but my Vista machine crashes multiple times per week. Grrr.
Here's a link where the photo won't show up: http://straightrazorpalace.com/showt...524#post165524
I know other people can see the photos, because they comment on them. :) If I try to follow a link with photobucket in the URL, the photos never load.
A lot of guys on this site attach photos, but some other forums have disabled that function to save server space. On those ones I can usually only see like 20 percent of the photos people post. Really annoying.
I'll try adding photobucket to my list of okey-dokey sites.
Thanks for the suggestions,
Josh
OK, that's weird. For some reason I can't even get to the photobucket.com site--period.
As I think back, I've had this problem with a lot of different computers. I've used about six different PCs in the last year, and I think I encountered this issue with several of them.
Josh
Hmm,
I never have problems with photos, but I use Firefox...I like it much better than IE7 and the support and add ons are fantastic.
Perhaps you'll give it a try, I find Firefox's tabbed browsing to be far superior to IE.
Best,
Neale
Perhaps the site is being blocked on your firewall or the IE settings?Quote:
Originally Posted by JoshEarl
yeah, i can see those pix fine, and i'm at work with a crazy it staff that blocks all kinds of stuff.
are you at work? it may be that your employer blocks that site.
Josh,
The easiest way to tell if it's your security settings is to temporarily turn them off (or set them as low as possible) and then see if you can see the pics.
After spending some time with Josh on the computer. I think the culprit might be either the modem or the ISP service. I was able to access the photobucket website through proxy service. But when I typed the photobucket url into the address line of IE7 it times out.
Another way to determine if it's the laptop or the modem, is to bring the laptop to another physical location and see if photobucket can be accessed.
I think starbucks and mcdonalds offers free wifi. You can try it there...
Josh, what has changed since you were able to see pictures... new ISP? new modem? new PC? what?
FWIW, if my ISP ever blocked my access to anything I'd quickly have another ISP... I think it's a relatively high probability that is not your problem.
If your DSL modem/router has a built in firewall (mine does) that could be the issue, but unless you specifically told it to block photobucket I'd suspect that is not the problem either. Since the problem started, have you changed any settings on the modem/router?
Did you try turning off the security in the browser and OS? If you're reluctant to do that, you can make photobucket a "trusted" site in IE7... just go to tools/internet options/security/trusted sites and enter the photobucket url (ie, http://www.photobucket.com). (Sorry, I can't help you with Vista... XP works just fine for me so I'd rather use the $250 upgrade price to buy things I really need... like razors;)).
This has been a problem for quite a while, but I'm just now figuring out what's going on. I can see 99 percent of photos and graphics just fine. It's photos in the forums that are hosted from photobucket.com that seem to be the issue. Most guys here just attach them, and they work great.
Other forums seem to charge for the ability to attach photos, so a lot of guys will post the photos on photobucket and then just link to them.
I am actually unable to even go to the photobucket.com site by typing the URL in my browsers. After working with justchillin, I'm positive that the problem is something on the ISP side. Thinking back, I've also tried accessing these photos from other laptops that I had connected to my home network, and I had the same problem.
My broadband service is otherwise great, so I will either try to work it out with them or just live with the relatively minor inconvenience.
Thanks for all the help, guys! It's nice to at least know what the problem is.
Josh
Josh, I'm thinking may be try replacing www.photobucket.com with 209.17.74.21 and see if it works. May be there's something wrong with the DNS service of your ISP.
Josh, try accessing the internet from a different location with the laptop(beauty of portability) first before trying to call the ISP. Chances are you won't be able to "convince" the ISP there's a problem without "proving" you can access photobucket via another ISP.