I am getting a complaint that a website i created is not accessible for AOL users. Anyone have any idea what would be wrong?

Can you define "not accessible?" E.g. a potential user pastes your URL into the browser address bar. What happens then? Error page, scrambled page, or what?

Also, can you post the URL to your site?

They say when they go to the website they get an error message saying the webpage cannot be found. Both people complaining about it have AOL as there internet provider. It works fine for me so i am a little puzzled.

Website with the problem

The web site is opening fine for me, but then I'm smart enough to not use AOL.

Do you know if they are using dial-up, Wi-Fi, or broadband (cable/DSL)? Also what browser are they using? If they are on AOL, it is possible they are using the AOL browser which has always had problems.

Since the web site can be found, the problem may be with AOL. Have them verify it is not their computer by having them open a DOS command window and executing the following command:

ping www.meganreitenour.com

This command will ping your site and it will respond telling them it is there. They should get 5 ping replies. If they do not get them or get an error message saying the host is unreachable, then they have a problem with their communications drivers in their computer.

Its the AOL browser that they are having problems with.

As Larry implies, smart people don't use the AOL browser, LOL! I've been with AOL since the Mercury days, almost before the www properly started, LOL

No problems with AOL for a few years now (loads before!)....but I don't have AOL installed and wouldn't dream of using their browser when there are so many better ones. I just use the AOL connection (and a Virgin one too).

As AOL is now web-based, perhaps your friends could move to alternative browsers and disregard the AOL software, which is geared towards kids anyway IMHO?

My kids believed that AOL was the life-blood of the www.....until I introduced them to other browsers and it suddenly clicked that although our provider (for 1 BB connection) is AOL, there's no need to run/install the AOL software any more to be able to access the www/email.

They now use IE, Firefox, Chrome etc and have far more understanding of how the www works.

mccifa

I appreciate all the help everyone and will advise them.

OK they are still being a pain. They are still complaining that it doesnt work with the AOL browser. So obviously they want it to work with it. Why would it work then stop working? Anything i can do from my end?

Do you know the exact error they are getting? Is it a 404 (page not found) error, or some other error indicating that the site is being blocked?

Did you have them run the ping test I listed above? What were the results?

Are these your clients or just visitors?
What version of the AOL browser are they using? It may be possible to install it without signing up for AOL and test it.

They are clients and that is why i am asking if theres anything i can do. If i cant well then they cant blame me for not trying.

I am waiting to hear back on the version and the ping test. I believe the ping test will come back ok because they are able to use IE and get the site to work. Plus on a second computer it has the same issue.

Works fine for me. (UK, IE8, Win XP)

For browser compatability tests, try submitting your url to www.browsershots.org, multiple OS/browser tests. While I was writing this, I got your home page tested on 44 browser/os combinations and it loaded fine on all of them.

I would suspect that the problem has to do with the ISP rather than the website and personally I have zero sympathy for AOL. Tell them to get a proper browser sych as FF, Opera or Chrome, or even an out of the box version of IE.
Your visitors may have a bad connection or a cached bad page that they keep seeing when they return. If a bad page is cached due to a spurious bad connection, then if they return in about I'd guess 8 hours or so, the ISP page cache should have cleared and they should see a good page.

FYI, cacheing is where an ISP will locally hold a copy of a popular page to speed up the re-delivery of that page rather than having to go back to the origin server every time someone wants it. You never know how long these can get held on to, can be 6, 12 - 48 hours, in my experience, generally 6-8 hours.

One minor issue I spotted, on the megan.html page, there is something that is making the page rather longer than the content suggests it should be.

If you can't immediately see anything, right click below the real content and then click
Select/Select all below to find that strug content.

Best of luck

g-u-l

What browser were you using when you noticed the page was longer then it should have been?

I don't know what browser Geek-u-like uses but I see the same in both IE8 and FF.

I'm on IE8 latest patch.

I also checked on Opera V10, same deal.

If you have difficulty finding this problem, upload your .ims and I'll be happy to take a look.

BR

G-u-l

I think the "problem" is object obj1462. I see it in the HTML code, but it is not visible on the page until you click on the heart link; then the text becomes visible filling in the blank area at the bottom of the page.

Oh yeah its ment to be like that. For some reason thats what they wanted. Thanks!!!

okaaaaaay........

Never would have occurred to me but the feature works just fine.

I have to say, to be doing this at the age of 18, impressive, and I guess thats how future champions are made.

She is very talented. The problem with young people is they need to stay level headed the whole time. Only time will tell if shes able to do that.

Just an update they can now view the website, no idea what fixed it but thanks for all the help!