Communication Lights 2

[Tomtanium]

This is not a problem, but more of a general enquiry which I assume is more to do with Modems than anything else.

On the bottom right of my Desktop, I have a taskbar with a few items in it. When I'm online, I have two computers screens lights, one above and slightly left of the one below. When data is being transferred from my PC to my ISP both light up. If I click on a link, hopefully both light up and the page changes.

My ISP, some time ago referred to LATENCY (don't know what it is but I assume that it is something to do with being hidden). At about the same time I was always getting only the top "computer" lit up and often permanently. The bottom one would occasionally flash, but nothing would happen. Eventually, whenever this happened again, I knew that I would be in for a long wait, so I would disconnect and re-connect via a different DUN.

Can anyone tell me what these two lights refer to and what's going on when the top one is permanently on without the other. Is this a common problem and part of

http://WWW (world

wide wait)or have I got a loust ISP?

Thanx
Tom

 

[jimbopalmer]

While I am not a MS Windows user, I do have an excellent article on latency to read while you wait for a Windows user to explain the blinky lights.

http://www.stuartcheshire.org/rants/Latency.html

is less technical, while this one is a little more techie

http://www.stuartcheshire.org/papers/LatencyQuest.html

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[ANFPS26]

The blinking green lights is your dial-up networking telling you you are sending and receiving data between your PC and your ISP's server. If only one blinks that means your PC is sending data (Polling), but is not receiving data(answer). This can be caused by a number of things, usually network congestion, slow connect speeds, bad telephone lines, bad modem on either end, and so on. It can be a "lousy ISP". They may be overloaded (like NetZero). They are so busy that you are bogged down.
Here is a link on Latency:

http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceedings/DDay/mogul/HTTPLatency.html

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[Tomtanium]

Thanx Jimbo; an excellent article on latency, and thanx nobrain for your explanation. However, if the top light is me receiving data, and the bottom one me sending data, when the top light goes into "permanent on mode", I should be able to double click my connection (the blinking lights) and see the transfer of data numerically.

Whenever I get this situation, and this seems to be fairly frequently, I know that I might have to wait 10 minutes or so, and during that time I see that I am receiving data but nothing happens on my screen. Generally, what happens is that my request to the server "times out" and the CANNOT FIND SERVER message appears. This is why I disconnect and get a fresh connection via the same ISP but a different DUN and usually this helps.

I am in the UK and use the cable company BLUEYONDER on dial up not broadband. I am now of the conclusion that they are either over-subscribed or running on lower resources than planned due to maintenance.

Any more info on this subject would be gratefully accepted.

Cheers
Tom

 

[pansophic]

Tomtanium,

I have done a tremendous amount of testing this type of problem. Usually it is an issue with the way that the browser renders the pages as much as anything else. If you press the stop button, you will usually find that much of the page will render immediately, and that you are waiting on a particularly large image to download.

Developers can use various techniques to have portions of their pages render prior to downloading a particular image or series of images, but because most developers have highspeed links to their servers, they don't consider the effects that images have on dial-up users.

I force my web developers to test over dialup links so that they can receive the same experience as our clients' customers. Granted, they do the vast majority of their work over highspeed links, but they know that I will test over a dialup, so they do too.

You might want to try pressing the stop and then reload buttons rather than disconnecting and reconnecting. I find that it frequently resolves those kinds of issues.

You may also find that certain sites render more quickly using different browsers. Try downloading and installing Netscape and Opera, and then test particularly troublesome sites from those browsers. You might find that they work better for particular sites. You will also find that many pages do not render correctly on different browsers (another thing that my developers have to contend with).

pansophic

 

[Tomtanium]

Panasophic

Thanx for that. Strangely, I had noticed that strange behaviour before, downloading a holiday destination page, really slow and then nothing but the top light still on, and I did click either STOP or BACK (I don't remember which)and like magic the page appeared.

Generally speaking, when the top light becomes permanently on, clicking the link again will only make the bottom light flash once. If I click BACK, normally I can return to the previous page, but clicking either the link again or FORWARD has no effect (other than to wait a few minutes and be greeted with the error message as previously advised).

I wondered whether using EASY MTU had something to do with it?

Cheers
Tom

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Hi Tomtanium

I came across your thread when searching for a minor problem I appear to have. What you describe is spot on to what I'm getting and I notice that you're on Blueyonder also.

My two lights go into "permanent on" mode but produce little if anything in terms of communication. I mean that if I double click on the two lights I get a dialogue box telling me that there is data transfer.

However, I also run Zone Alarm which shows data transfer and I've noticed that when the permanent lights are on, the Zone Alarm lights are off, which means there is no data transfer.

My question is, which one, if any, is accurately displaying activity? Regards
Phil

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