Lo fi Wi-Fi

piper1 · May 5, 2009

Hi Folks,

Is there any option other than disabling pics and signatures that can make the web site a bit more palatable for the "high" speed internet service found at the major alphabetical truckstops?

Is there a BlackBerry version of the site or a low res/low feature version?

If there isn't.....what would you think of offering a pay version of the site that might have a few less adds or animations, fully realizing that the adds are your bread and butter...

Submitted respectfully...................(I'm Canadian, can't do it any other way

)

Lawrence · May 5, 2009

We have a few long-term projects in the works - but this will be at least a year away.

What web browser are you using now?

piper1 · May 5, 2009

FireFox 3. something. No real probs at Pilot, just J's. This reply page took 4 min to completely load. At home it would be less than 1 sec so your end works great. FYI, the add to my immediate right is the last thing to load and seems to take a while.

Jack_Berry · May 6, 2009

i use firefox at the j and find it acceptably slow since i figure there are lots of unseen folks logging in watching who knows what. usually i go into the j and plug in hoping for a faster connection. i haven't had a 4 min response time.

xiggi · May 6, 2009

There is an add on for firefox that will block chosen columns in forums like this. I cannot think of the name of it off hand but you might find it with a search. Another forum I use changed and began displaying more advertising so many people began using that add on and seemed to have good luck with it.

Lawrence · May 6, 2009

Ad blocking = bandwidth theft. IMHO

pjjjjj · May 6, 2009

Someone recommended to me, 'Ad Muncher'..
It lets you choose a bunch of settings for which things you see, and apparently it blocks stuff up front, so doesn't make it stall and search, etc. (I don't know the correct lingo).

Lawrence · May 6, 2009

pjjjjj said:
Someone recommended to me, 'Ad Muncher'..
It lets you choose a bunch of settings for which things you see, and apparently it blocks stuff up front, so doesn't make it stall and search, etc. (I don't know the correct lingo).

Ad blocking = bandwidth theft

pelicn · May 6, 2009

I use Firefox and unless I am on a "dial up" I have no trouble with pages loading. I wonder what the difference is.

piper1 · May 9, 2009

Back at home now. The problem is the equipment at the flying J. I phoned in to the "tech" support and here is what they told me. At the time of my call, 3pm, there were currently 12 people on line at the J in Montreal and that was "putting a severe strain" on the equipment.

FYI, most J's are running 802.11 b not g or the new super fast n. The Montreal location has huge problem maintaining it's connection to the internet as well. perhaps all the stupid video slot machines in the 2 bars (ya, 2 bars in a truckstop how professional is that?) are using the same connection to connect to the Quebec Lotto system that runs them.

I tried an Ad blocker and it was no better (breathe Lawrence, I am currently reading ads

".

I am thinking since I usually end up at the same truckstops (there is a Pilot in MI that has big issues as well) there may be an air card in my future.

Thanks all for your help and advice.

pjjjjj · May 9, 2009

Lawrence said:
Ad blocking = bandwidth theft

No comprende

piper1 · May 9, 2009

The ads support the site and its ability to have enough bandwidth to be quick.

When you block the ads, the advertisers go away, and the site suffers. Web Capitalism!!

OntarioVanMan · May 10, 2009

just go to the upper left to User CP.....click on "edit option"

And uncheck show sigs and avatars....sped mine up...

Opps I see you've done that,,,,

maybe one of them wi-fi signal boosters the J sells....

pjjjjj · May 10, 2009

I don't particularly mind seeing the ads, but if the ads are causing each page to take way too much time to bother opening, it's a problem for me.
No offence Lawrence, love your sit, but compared to other sites, it is one of the slowest ones I visit.

Lawrence · May 10, 2009

Pjjj,

There can be dozens of reasons why the site load times can be slow for you. My hunch is if it's *persistently* slow (say from the house) it could simply be a matter of your ISP. You connect through dozens of services before reaching our site. Some providers take the "long way" and one of their connections may be at it's peak/overloaded...all the time.

Also as we preach here...to everyone...please, please....move away from Internet Explorer! Use Firefox...for a real awesome web experience - try Safari.

greg334 · May 10, 2009

Lawrence,
I have asked when will you have a lite version of EO. I think for many of us it is a good idea to offer it. It seems that you can get one without sacrificing the 'bandwidth" by using text ad in place of the graphic ads (which you are doing as alt text but doesn't show up in Lynx at all) or highly optimized (meaning thin) graphics. The use of Java is also a mobile user killer but that is for another time.

Safari and Firefox are good but when I have serious problems with EO using Opera, I know it is not the browser.

Piper, I had a long conversation with the 'tech support' at J and there is a lot more that they don't tell a customer, like the fact that they are piggybacking the bandwidth onto the store's systems to save money and that the sat connections in remote locations are highly compressed and has filters to strip graphics from sites that are not cached locally. Pilot has a worst system but alas they have better cache on site, or did.

pjjjjj · May 10, 2009

Don't know what it is, I have highspeed cable. Other sites are generally fine. Sometimes EO is much slower than other times, but it's always generally slow, compared to others. Some others are also always generally slow, generally the ones with lots of popup ads, like EO.
I tried Firefox, but then I tried AdMuncher, and now I can't use Firefox with EO cuz half the stuff is missing. I screwed up with whatever settings I chose.
What I'm not understanding tho, cuz it's over my head at this point, is how blocking ads is stealing bandwidth. I really had no idea.. can you please enlighten me?
Thanks
PS I didn't know that you and/or EO did not recommend using IE with your site. If you think another browser is better, how about putting it up on the top somewhere, so people will know this.. ie This site is best used with Firefox (or whatever), and perhaps add a link where people can go to download it for free?

hz909 · May 11, 2009

Lawrence said:
My hunch is if it's *persistently* slow (say from the house) it could simply be a matter of your ISP. .

My hunch is that it takes longer than some would like for your site to load regardless of location, device, or browser type. "Ad Munching" software is less a function of thievery as it is a function of capitalism. I shudder to think what the internet would be like without such self-correcting measures.

Re: Lo fi Wi-Fi We have a few long-term projects in the works - but this will be at least a year away.

It's understood that many of your customers are mobile individuals by nature, and therefore, are relying on mobile devices and/or mobile internet connections to access your site. An implementation of a mobile or low bandwidth site that exists alongside of your regular site could be had in under a year, surely, (same site, lesser graphics).

Or, under a month, actually.

Well, under a week, really.

Or, really, in a couple of minutes, for sure...right?

Thanks.

hz

ps The same people that would access your mobile site sans ads, are the same that would access it when they were at home with higher bandwidth.

pps Something that google, among others, figured out a while back.

Lawrence · May 12, 2009

pjjjjj said:
Don't know what it is, I have highspeed cable. Other sites are generally fine. Sometimes EO is much slower than other times, but it's always generally slow, compared to others. Some others are also always generally slow, generally the ones with lots of popup ads, like EO.
I tried Firefox, but then I tried AdMuncher, and now I can't use Firefox with EO cuz half the stuff is missing. I screwed up with whatever settings I chose.
What I'm not understanding tho, cuz it's over my head at this point, is how blocking ads is stealing bandwidth. I really had no idea.. can you please enlighten me?
Thanks
PS I didn't know that you and/or EO did not recommend using IE with your site. If you think another browser is better, how about putting it up on the top somewhere, so people will know this.. ie This site is best used with Firefox (or whatever), and perhaps add a link where people can go to download it for free?

Well I personally recommend Firefox or Safari over IE. It is not an official position of the site as our team optimizes for all the major browsers - I guess I should have clarified that.

On the bandwidth theft - it would be very similar to a shipper adding an extra skid on your truck and asking for an extra stop...without paying for it. Your business is hauling time critical freight. You depend on your customers to pay for freight hauled. By blocking our ads - we're hauling freight for free.

Okay, I think we could better trouble-shoot your slow loading if you were to call the office 888-862-9831 ext 104.

Lawrence · May 12, 2009

hz909 said:
It's understood that many of your customers are mobile individuals by nature, and therefore, are relying on mobile devices and/or mobile internet connections to access your site. An implementation of a mobile or low bandwidth site that exists alongside of your regular site could be had in under a year, surely, (same site, lesser graphics).

Or, under a month, actually.

Well, under a week, really.

Or, really, in a couple of minutes, for sure...right?

Thanks.

hz

ps The same people that would access your mobile site sans ads, are the same that would access it when they were at home with higher bandwidth.

pps Something that google, among others, figured out a while back.