IN GENERAL, websites (TER, walmart.com, etc.) often have code that "talks" to the requesting device (mrfisher's phone, mrfisher's PC) and sends it the appropriate or optimized version of the page info which can be VERY different. Some websites have a "regular" version www.website.com and a "mobile" version m.website.com and "website.com" knows which code to send to your device. Mobile versions are usually "smaller" and faster than the full webpage version.
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I.e., mrfisher's phone and PC are not necessarily receiving the same CODE to display the same PAGE. (Does that make sense?) The phone code (commands) might be just fine but the PC code might be encountering (or sending) glitchy commands.
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OR, maybe mrfisher has to adjust some settings on his PC browser? I.e., the website (TER) sends general commands to be interpreted by the receiving device. "Display 'Welcome to TER' in medium bold Arial font in a box at the top of the page." (all of that in HTML). The receiving computer and program has to INTERPRET that to display it.
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mrfisher's phone: "Welcome to TER." Ta-da!
mrfisher's PC: "Hmmm, this computer doesn't have Arial bold installed. I'll try to substitute Helvetica and hope that it's still readable." "Uh oh ... the HTML wants me to draw a box with a specific size but I can only do proportional sizes (0.5 of the frame width or 0.9 x frame width). Oh crap, mrfisher is going to be pissed." Uh oh.
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I use an onion VPN which connects to the host (TER) through a series of random servers before I get anything displayed. If one of those servers is running slow for some reason (lots of signal passing through it), that can slow down the entire feed: the weakest (slowest) link in the chain. TER-fast-fast-fast-slow-fast-fast- is no faster than the slowest connecting server. If I am using different devices, they are using different paths to process the info.
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I'll skip the part about using various internet tools (ping, traceroute, etc.) to check on the TER server itself without actually trying to view any pages. Since there are few complaints, I'll guess that the TER servers are working OK with no slowdowns or lost packets.
Posted By: mrfisher
Re: Hell's bells, both my laptop and PC are only a few months old....
and otherwise work well enough, though the updated Outlook on my PC is a POS, but that's another story.
In the meantime, the iPhone which is about 3 years old has none of the issues I am finding.
Does TER do some kind of technical upgrades everyday at that time, perhaps?
http://news.slashdot.org/story/99/01/31/1246212/reviewthe-story-about-ping "Using deft allegory, the authors have provided an insightful and intuitive explanation of one of Unix's most venerable networking utilities. Even more stunning is that they were clearly working with a very early beta of the program, as their book first appeared in 1933, years (decades!) before the operating system and network infrastructure were finalized.
The book describes networking in terms even a child could understand, choosing to anthropomorphize the underlying packet structure. The ping packet is described as a duck, who, with other packets (more ducks), spends a certain period of time on the host machine (the wise-eyed boat). At the same time each day (I suspect this is scheduled under cron), the little packets (ducks) exit the host (boat) by way of a bridge (a bridge). From the bridge, the packets travel onto the internet (here embodied by the Yangtze River).
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"The title character -- er, packet, is called Ping. Ping meanders around the river before being received by another host (another boat). He spends a brief time on the other boat, but eventually returns to his original host machine (the wise-eyed boat) somewhat the worse for wear.
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"The book avoids many of the cliches one might expect. For example, with a story set on a river, the authors might have sunk to using that tired old plot device: the flood ping. The authors deftly avoid this. ... ... "