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I have been trying to get stories to load on Fictionmania, but al I get is frustration. The graphics for Glamour Boutique and the main story page will not even load up. I have been trying to read "Lasting Impressions, The Pregnancy" I have even tried other stories and they all refuse to load. Does anyone know why this could be?
Hugs,
Jen
Comments
Trying Clicking the ST link
On the page with the list of stories, each story has ST that you can click on to load the story (as opposed to clicking on the name of the story itself). That's how I view them and it seems to work fine.
Here is the link for Lasting Impressions http://www.fmstories.com/stories/bodyswap/ThePregnancy1.txt
I loved the first story in this series, excellently written. It would be nice to have it posted here as well.
Hugs
Alexis
It Absolutely Will Not Load
I have tried using the link you gave and ST and it still will not do a thing.
There May Be Something Going On With Your Browser
If you are using IE, I recommend that you load and try Firefox. If you ae using Firefox, try IE. That said, most of the Fictionmania stories are plain text (not interesting to ant-virus or spyware programs). I don't understand why the provided direct link to the file wouldn't load for you. It loaded fine and fast for me.
Not alone
There has been complaints on TG Fiction Groups about stories from FM Not Loading over the last few days. I've had no problems but others have. Not sure why some who'd no problems before would be having them now.
Hugs!
grover
No trouble
I'm not having any problems at all. The story list and message board are the slowest site on the web still, and some times things time out once or twice before they load, but that FM as usual. The stories, with either link, are loading quickly though.
It's a mystery. Here's what I would do: empty the cache, reboot, then scatter fingernail clippings from Bill Gates in a circle around the 'puter, and burn some of Steve Jobs hair under it. Then count to GFE987 in hexadecimal before trying to load. I mean, why not?
I know that sounds unsympathetic, and I'm really not. But to me these things are inexplicable magic.
A couple suggestions
In your browser, go to tools, options and clear your browser of all cookies.
You may be having problems because of the age of your computer or memory size. Over the last 6 months, my problems have gotten worse at times because, though I have a 2.6 gig processor, I only have 512 mb of memory. I am increasingly getting the "Low Virtual Memory" warning and do not know how to fix it. Mine is a Dell laptop, about 6 years old, that has been a wonderful machine.
You could also try fire fox, but I do not like it.
I NEVER do On Line Gaming. I am told that is big trouble.
I hope that this helps some.
Gwendolyn
Virtual Memory
Gwen,
Virtual memory is disk space. If you are running out of virtual memory that suggests your hard drive might be full. Windows automatically grows your virtual memory as you need more of it. There are often lots of files that you can safely delete if programs put their files where they belong. Generally most files under a temp or tmp folder are safe to delete, but you can sometimes run into problem if a program has been installed accidentally in one of these types of folders.
The other way that you can run out of virtual memory is if the upper limit has been set manually and windows needs more than this limit. If you laptop is six years old I would suspect it is a disk space problem rather that a manually set upper limit on the virtual memory.
Another place that you can lose lots of disk space to is your browser cache files. If it's set to save everything or is set to a really high number it can waste a lot of disk space. I always flush my browsers cache after I'm finished with my browser session.
Hope this helps.
Arwen
Check your browswers cache settings
A cache that is set to never refresh or set to refresh say weekly could be the cause. I ran into this a few times when doing user support calls for IE. If the browser never refreshes its cache all you see is old information, not the new stuff. If you have a high speed internet connection set your cache to update each time you start your browser and access a new page.
You can test this by clearing your browser's cache. When you go to a page since the cache is empty it has to load if from the web site.
I have Firefox set to empty my cache whenever I close Firefox.
Well I hope this helps with your problem
Arwen
FM
Its slow, but the stuff opens for me. Check your PMs jen
Downloading from Fictionmania
I have been experiencing the same problem for the past four days, so I am relieved to find out it isn't just me. I have already tried four different computers on two different networks utilizing two different ISP's. I have used both Firefox and IE on most of them. I have cleared caches and cookies, etc., all to no avail. In the hopes that they were just short on bandwidth, I even tried getting up at 0430 (EDT) this morning, hoping that would be after most west coast users would be off line (0200, PDT) and before many east coasters would be up, but it still worked ( or really it DIDN'T work) the same. Has anyone been in contact with the Webmaster there to see if they have server troubles? Thanks
Avid Reader
Works for me!
I haven't had any problems!? Everything comes right up. Try again later, it is probably just high traffic.
Mr. Ram
Ironically enough
I've actually BEEN ABLE to access FM the last few days. My PSP historically does not like FM, and I don't like all the smut, but I've about exhausted BC so tried it again, and while still uber slow it works better for me right now than it ever has before.
Melanie E.
FM being blocked by ISPs?
There is a report on StorySite that BellSouth may be blocking DNS requests for fictionmania. The proposed fix was moving from your ISP's DNS servers to those of OpenDNS.
Posting on Crystal's CyberBoard about FM being blocked: http://www.storysite.org/cgi-bin/crysboard/crysboard.cgi?action=display&num=31586
Link to OpenDNS and how to set it up: https://www.opendns.com/start
Link to corroborating evidence: -NONE-
Please reply if this works for you as I'd like to know if ISPs have really started blocking FM and other sites.
-Piper
I actually LIKE image SIGs!
Should be possible...
...to force a public utility like BellSouth into allowing a non-porno site like FM to do its business. Some mid-level bureaucrat in the phone company is making moral decisions for other people; he or she has no authority or right to do that, not while enjoying the protections in law that landline phone companies enjoy.
I said should be, not it is.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Should be.....
Just think how bad this will get if the ISPs get their way with Net Neutrality and such. "well you can access that site, but you have to pay us extra if you want to access it faster than dialup"
-sighs-
-Piper - The one whose glad she's no longer part of a large isp :)
I actually LIKE image SIGs!
Doing away with Net Neutrality ...
... is just an excuse to make it difficult to break into the big boys club. Without net neutrality, services like Google would not exist. For that matter, the net as we know it might not exist because governments and universities would have reserved all bandwidth for their own uses, not allowing the commercial web to grow. Now that the industry has become gigantic, it's time to close the doors to keep the peasants out.
This is a losing fight. The big money has the money to influence the political process and it will, eventually. We just have to hold them off as long as we can because, what else can we do?
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Unlimited doesn't mean ...
... Unlimited, it means "always on" remember... And "High Speed" only means a high speed connection to your provider's network... There is no promise about being able to access other networks.... -sigh- The thing I never understood... If ALL the providers do away with Net Nuetrality, then what happens to all these private and public peering contracts... I mean I know it will change, and all peering will be on a PAID premium basis (that's the point) but it will set back the internet 10 years minimum. It'll be like when AOL had an internet gateway, to which all you could do is FTP and Gopher, not HTTP... -sighs- Big Business loves to shoot themselves in the foot...
-P
P.S. I just wish they'd aim for their heads....
I actually LIKE image SIGs!
AT&T, Censorship, -sighs-
Sadly, this seems to be AT&T overstepping boundries. A 2nd person @ storysite has reported success bypassing AT&T (former bellsouth) blocking. I've not found anything on any of the usual places about AT&T adding new content filters, but I have found a whole lot of reports of AT&T skirting the terms of their BellSouth buyout agreement, and a report of AT&T censoring a pearl jam song that was critical of George Bush. Pearl Jam/AT&T Censorship Story
-P
I actually LIKE image SIGs!
AT&T, Fictionmania and Our Rights as Citizens.
Well, as I had stated above, I had tried several computers, browsers and had tried to find a low traffic time slot (four thirty am. on the east coast), but still couldn't get a story to open on FM. I tried the direct link that was mentioned, and the ST link, all with the same non-results. Strangely, I could open the comments, even the really long list of up to 25 comments, but not the actual story itself. So, I decided to try switching the DNS addresses, as was suggested, and managed to screw the modem up so badly that I had to call the old BellSouth.net Tech Support number to get help getting back on line. I was assisted by a gentlemen in India who was a great help, and got me back on line with the new DNS servers. During our conversations, I explained the problem and he claimed that there was NO WAY that AT&T either could or would install a block or filter like that, and that it had to be a problem on the web pages. Then he tried to access FM from his computer and guess what? He actually said, "I have a notice on my screen that my company has blocked my access to that URL!". So I asked if he hadn't just said that they couldn't or wouldn't, and he said that up till then, he didn;t realize that they could and would, and had!
The good news is that the new DNS addresses worked, and I got the standard FM slow load results as I expected on several files. Thats all I have. Thanks for listening.
Avid Reader
DNS is not the problem!!!
DNS is not the problem!!! AT&T is blocking the IP number of fmstories.com of 81.169.145.88. Does anyone know why? Changing DNS won't fix the problem, only using a non-AT&T ISP or getting FictionMania to change to a non-blocked IP. Try tracerouting to the IP to prove it!
When I traceroute to the IP within 4 hops I get "...reports: Destination host unreachable." Both IP numbers (87 and 89) on either side of this one can be traced to. The hop that is being blocked is the hop from my ISP to ATT.net
There may be good reason for this IP to be blocked....
When I googled for the FM stories IP, I found several listings of PHISING sites and bogus company sites hosted on this same IP address. I'm assuming this is a shared not a dedicated server? Right now, I feel the need to give AT&T the benifit of the doubt, and am going to assume the were responding to a complaint, or maybee they subscribe to a blocklist or such sites? And here I was all prepared to lynch ATT :( I think I'll goto sleep now...
-P
I actually LIKE image SIGs!
Don't use the ATT DNS
Using a different DNS server keeps ATT from blocking the IP. Well, keeps them from blocking it easily.
Yes, ATT is blocking FM and has no legitimate reason for doing so. Complain. Write nasty letters. Tell your congresscritter. It may not help but it couldn't hurt.
For a short while, AOL blocked the old BC server but they stopped after someone complained, so it can be effective.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.