Is ebay grinding to a halt?

[Rob]

Is it only me or has anybody else noted that the time taken to refresh ebay pages is getting longer and longer? I'm in danger of abandoning ebay altogether if it continues to take well over 30 seconds to register a bid. This only seems to have been a problem since they have added the promo page. The number of spyware cookies has increased as well. Auctiva listings add a cookie which slows things down dramatically after you have looked at 20 or 30 items. When you have to run a spyware check after every visit, looking for items to buy becomes less attractive by the day irrespective of the bargains to be had. I think it is becoming impossible to use the site effectively.

The world badly needs an alternative to ebay because they won't do anything as long as their business plan is met.

[scottishmoney]

Seems to work just fine for me, might try it somewhere else and see how it loads.

[Guest MRCOINSJR]

Is it only me or has anybody else noted that the time taken to refresh ebay pages is getting longer and longer? I'm in danger of abandoning ebay altogether if it continues to take well over 30 seconds to register a bid. This only seems to have been a problem since they have added the promo page. The number of spyware cookies has increased as well. Auctiva listings add a cookie which slows things down dramatically after you have looked at 20 or 30 items. When you have to run a spyware check after every visit, looking for items to buy becomes less attractive by the day irrespective of the bargains to be had. I think it is becoming impossible to use the site effectively.

The world badly needs an alternative to ebay because they won't do anything as long as their business plan is met.

Hi you might want to try a couple of different sites and see if the problem persists..sites that have alot of flash and video and audio can really take a long time to load...stores can become very overloaded..

Jmho

Mark

[Rob]

Hi you might want to try a couple of different sites and see if the problem persists..sites that have alot of flash and video and audio can really take a long time to load...stores can become very overloaded..

Jmho

Mark

Thanks Mark. It's only really noticeable on ebay where a screen refresh happens reasonably quickly, but then after it says done there is a delay which is followed by more activity which says promo and ebay somewhere in the address which appears in place of the word Done. It then shows more download activity. Until this is finished, you can't use the slides or mouse thumbwheel and more importantly can't bid on anything.

If I go to other sites, most refresh quickly with the notable exceptions being where they have always had a tendency to be slow eg. Royal Mail or DNW which seems a bit unstable with the images which frequently don't load. I've always put the RM site slowness down to overload because a lot of people must use it to calculate postage costs and DNW I've assumed is just not very well programmed.

[scottishmoney]

Are you using FF or IE? IE is slow and not very good with pop-ups etc. Now the only time I use IE is for downloading .pdf files.

[Emperor Oli]

Now the only time I use IE is for downloading .pdf files.

Firefox can still open pdfs.

[Rob]

Are you using FF or IE?

Windows XP.

[scottishmoney]

I was asking what you are using as an internet browser, if you use IE - Internet Explorer it is often slow. I would recommend using FF - Mozilla Firefox, it is much quicker and easier to use. And it blocks 99% of popups.

[DaveG38]

Are you using FF or IE?

Windows XP.

I would highly recommend 'dumping' IE as a browser, and opting for Mozilla Firefox. This is a free download, is much less likely to be targeted by hackers, phishers etc. and for me has been quick and reliable for the 5 years or so I have used it. The only thing you have to watch for are the odd sites where some functionality is lost, but these are so few I don't really notice.

Daveg38

[scottishmoney]

The only thing you have to watch for are the odd sites where some functionality is lost, but these are so few I don't really notice.

Daveg38

As I noted above the only negative for FF is that PDF files do not open easily. Otherwise I cannot imagine why someone would sado-masochistically torture themselves by using IE. I tried out IE7 recently, it acts like a knockoff of FF, but there is still some stuff that is completely lost in it.

[Rob]

I was asking what you are using as an internet browser, if you use IE - Internet Explorer it is often slow. I would recommend using FF - Mozilla Firefox, it is much quicker and easier to use. And it blocks 99% of popups.

It is internet explorer. If I changed to Firefox, how easy is it to remove the IE & replace it with Firefox? Bear in mind that I'm not very computer savvy. At present, all I have to do is click on the icon and I get to Google pretty much instantaneously, so I can't see how it can be much easier or quicker to use than that. It just seems to be ebay that is causing a problem by getting progressively slower. Also, I must already have a pop-up blocker because I often see pop-up blocked messages, but don't know how it was activated as my son did it and I can't get hold of him at present to find out.

[scottishmoney]

I would not recommend removing IE, because as I noted above, there are certain things like PDF files that FF seems to constipate on. I would keep it, so if you have a problem with FF you can fall back on IE. I use IE for stuff like downloads of PDF files, this evening read a PDF file from Freedomhouse.org that I could not load in FF.

But with the exception of the PDF issue I have not had any other issues with FF. In fact it is so much better at blocking pop-ups etc. and quicker loading etc. It is also much more secure and is less likely to be compromised like IE. Hackers, spammers, etc target IE because it is more popular not by being a better performer, but because it is what is already packaged on your PC when you bought it and you automatically use it.

I used to think the FF people were nuts, so then I tried it, and unless IE performs an unlikely miracle I will not go back.