Local News: Site redesign; More on Forums postings issue

Site redesign As you have undoubtedly noticed we have made some changes to the look and feel of the MacFixIt site. There are no new features added. It was primarily done to give MacFixIt a cleaner and more consistent look. In addition, we will be converting at least some older Reports, Extras and Archives pages to the new look over the next several weeks. We will also continue to tinker with the details of the layout.

Problem seeing Forums recent postings: a follow-up Several readers suggested that the problem with not seeing newly posted replies in the MacFixIt Forums when using one ISP but not others (see yesterday's item) is due to an old issue: proxy caching by some ISPs. For example, Michael Jelks writes: "What is most likely happening, if the ISP is big enough, is that that particular ISP is most likely using proxy caching to speed up access/reduce bandwidth usage. Therefore, clearing one's browser cache may or may not work, because the proxy may give the user the version of the page that resides on the proxy server, not the web site."

Kevin van Haaren similarly notes: "Many cable companies implement upstream proxy servers that automatically cache data from web pages requested. This is done by routing TCP/IP traffic on the standard web port (80) to a special server. If the proxy server is configured for a long caching time or doesn't refresh frequently enough, you'll see problems with recently updated pages. Some proxy servers will refresh their internal cache if they see frequent requests for a page - so repeated refreshing of the page (or doing a super-reload if you browser has this feature) may bypass the cache.

As regards Adelphia in particular (an ISP cited yesterday as one that has this symptom), Jeffrey Johnson confirms: "Adelphia requests that all users access the web via their proxy servers which cache many gigabytes of data in an attempt to conserve bandwidth and keep the cable modem connection fast for users." You may be able to avoid problems here by getting your browser to bypass proxy access. For example, you can do this in Explorer via the Proxy settings in Preferences.