http://news.bbc.co.uk/ problem

[Victor]

When I visit this site from my home pc there is a blank section near the top
of the screen. After the page loads, the entire bottom of the page rises up
to fill this blank section. This takes about 1 second and is very annoying.
I have identical settings and applications on my office pc and it doesn't do
this. The page loads without this blank section.

It's almost as if there is a banner ad in this position that my browser has
eliminated by leaving a blank space in it's place and then after a second it
covers this space with the rest of the page. I have tried turning off all
startup items etc. and using three different browsers and the same thing
happens.

The only other difference between my home and office pc is different isp's.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[HeyBub]

When I visit this site from my home pc there is a blank section near
the top of the screen. After the page loads, the entire bottom of
the page rises up to fill this blank section. This takes about 1
second and is very annoying. I have identical settings and
applications on my office pc and it doesn't do this. The page loads
without this blank section.

It's almost as if there is a banner ad in this position that my
browser has eliminated by leaving a blank space in it's place and
then after a second it covers this space with the rest of the page.
I have tried turning off all startup items etc. and using three
different browsers and the same thing happens.

The only other difference between my home and office pc is different
isp's.

Any suggestions?

I get the same blank spot. Odd.

 

[Gerry]

Not here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Which version have you selected?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[mayayana]

That section of the page has only this:

<div id="ad1" class="ad1"></div>

I'd guess that the DIV is supposed to get
filled with an ad via script. (It's a fairly primitive
page design without auto-sizing. Notice that the
toolbar is full width while the actual page content
is a static 700px.)

I'm using Firefox with script disabled and 3rd-party
images blocked. I see the white section permanently.
If you see the white section
as a temporary area then maybe either the script,
when allowed to run, takes care of that, or maybe
it's a matter of browser version.

Whatever the case, I would think there are more
important things to be "annoyed" by.

 

[Onsokumaru]

That section of the page has only this:

<div id="ad1" class="ad1"></div>

I'd guess that the DIV is supposed to get
filled with an ad via script. (It's a fairly primitive
page design without auto-sizing. Notice that the
toolbar is full width while the actual page content
is a static 700px.)

I'm using Firefox with script disabled and 3rd-party
images blocked. I see the white section permanently.
If you see the white section
as a temporary area then maybe either the script,
when allowed to run, takes care of that, or maybe
it's a matter of browser version.

Whatever the case, I would think there are more
important things to be "annoyed" by.

Some people have too much time on their hands, or maybe they just don't
realise how good they have it.

 

[Victor]

There is no need to be arrogant and smarmy here. I thought that this forum
was where I could get an informed and professional solution.

As I stated, this happens when I use any browser, not just Firefox, so it's
not browser related. When I visit the page I'm using the International
version and have changed back and forth between versions and that's not it
either. And as has been indicated, other people are having the same
problem.

 

[Gerry]

Victor

Note also the Low Graphics option.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/help/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/help/help_tech.shtml

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[mayayana]

I thought that this forum

was where I could get an informed and professional solution.

This particular group is for XP questions. What
you're dealing with is a browser rendering question.
And no one else seems to think it's a problem.

You didn't mention whether all browsers you're
using have script enabled, so I'm assuming they do.
It also wasn't clear whether you've got different firewalls,
ad blockers, etc.

Beyond that, if you really want to figure it out you
could try downloading the whole webpage In Firefox
that's File -> Save Page As... and select the "complete"
option in the Save window. (I don't know about how it
works in IE. I assume Microsoft has copycatted Mozilla by
now.) You'll end up with a folder that contains all files for
the site. The HTML code that relates to the box is:

<div id="ad1" class="ad1"></div>

So you'd need to look in the main webpage as well as
all .css and .js files for references to "ad1". If you have
some experience with CSS and javascript you may be
able to figure out what is supposed to happen with the
box. ... I don't know any easier way to figure it out.

Another possible factor is different HOSTS files on the different
PCs. Working on the theory that script may close up the
hole if an ad is not available, you could have a HOSTS file
on one PC that's blocking the ad. but unless you put the
HOSTS file there yourself then that's very unlikely to affect
things.

If you don't know about HOSTS files, that *is* worth the
research. It's fairly easy to block nearly all ads with a HOSTS
file. In Firefox you can also block the IFRAMES that many ads
are now currently displayed in. With many people blocking
3rd-party images, ad companies started putting ads into
IFRAMES. The IFRAME is a sub-window, so it's in a different
domain but the browser treats it as being on the same
page. That means it gets around 3rd-party image blocking.
It also gets around 3rd-party cookie blocking, so that
Doubleclick can follow you all over the Web. Even worse,
IFRAMES are the source of a lot of browser attacks that use
"cross site scripting". So there are lots of reasons to block
them. (One caveat: There is no need to ever use IFRAMES
in webpage code, but a few website designers use them
"honestly" to render scrolling text, because they don't know
any better. If you block IFRAMES you'll end up blocking those
uses, too.)

Blocking IFRAMES in Firefox, after blocking ads with a
HOSTS file, will make all the left-over, empty ad windows
disappear. To do that, create a file userContent.css in the
chrome folder, which is usually something like:

C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxx.default\chrome

where the "xxxxxx" is random. In that file put this line:

IFRAME {display: none !important;}

Voila! No more IFRAMES. Unfortunately, I don't think
IE can do anything like that, short of writing a browser
extension.

That all may be more than you want to know, but
hopefully it's useful info. If you really want to figure
out webpage rendering issues then you don't have
much choice but to learn about HTML, CSS, script,
etc.

 

[Victor]

Thank you, this is exactly what I needed. I created the userContent.css file
as you suggested and it works perfectly.

Thanks again.