Need help testing our site pages

[annathepiper]

Okay folks, this one has me stumped.

We're getting user reports of people visiting our our site and having Internet Explorer up and die on them for no apparent reason. So far this has gotten reported on a couple different flavors of IE 6--the one that shipped with XP (which is version 6.0.2600) and the one that went out with XP SP2 (6.0.2900). I've got 2900 on my box here at work and I cannot repro this problem. At all.

The symptom is simply trying to visit article pages on our site and having Internet Explorer throw up the standard message about encountering a problem and needing to close. That's all I know.

Anybody out there able to consistently repro this? If so, wing me a comment so I can pick your brains.

Comments

[angelina-zooma.livejournal.com]

I tried it out on mine.. IE 6.0.2900 and I'm not getting any errors. Is it just when you click on any article?

This may actually be the first time I've used the IE on this computer *L*

[annathepiper]

Yeah, from what the users are telling us, they're just clicking on different article links, and IE up and dies for no apparent reason. Thanks for giving it a shot!

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

No crashing here, though the abundance of popups may be problematic to older computer systems or people who can't turn on blockers.

[solarbird]

I kinda sense a popup-related issue here, too. Not seeing anything on IE 6.0.2800.1106 on Windows 2000 - with Google popup blocker, which came up to tell me about a blocked popup at the same point in the repro sequence that the bug is supposedly appearing. Hmmmmm.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, one of the popups or popunders would be the likely suspect, since that's the only content that randomizes on any of our pages.

[annathepiper]

Thanks for chiming in! Re: the popups, unfortunately there's little I can do about that. Since they're a source of revenue for the site and all. (Though yeah, I'm totally with you on their general annoying-ness.)

[firni.livejournal.com]

6.9.2600 on this machine gives no problems.

Maybe they need to clear their cache and/or cookies?

[annathepiper]

I can't even begin to guess what the problem here is until I can repro it. So far my only guess is that it might be getting caused by one of our ads, since those are the only bits of content that really change on any given page--they randomize each time a page is loaded. Which would explain why this only repros occasionally.

But without knowing that for sure, or knowing which ad might be the problem, damned if I can figure this one out yet. Grf.

[firni.livejournal.com]

Ah. I have ads blocked on all my browsers, so...

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I need to try to play with this some with the IE popup blocker turned off. (But even where I do that have turned off, so far I haven't been able to repro the problem. Aigh.)

P.S.

[firni.livejournal.com]

You should let your employer know that pop-ups are really fucking annoying. Not that I see them, of course.

Re: P.S.

[annathepiper]

Oh, I think the ad guys know the popups are really annoying, yeah. But there's little we can do about it, unfortunately. :( I mean, revenue for the site and all.

[urbanbluesky.livejournal.com]

It's working fine for me - no crashing, no changes. I'm on Windows XP using IE.

[annathepiper]

Thanks for chiming in! Appreciated. :)

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

IE 7 on one of my machines, I hit an error on the front page-

Line: 46
Char: 2
Error: Object expected
Code: 0
URL: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/index.html

Not a crash, but in navigating to other pages from it, I also see the following:
Line: 2
Char: 7
Error: Invalid Character

Doesn't seem to matter what page it is, so I'm guessing it's something in the ad code perhaps- I see an ad block in the source of the page, but aside from getting the word Advertising at the top of all pages, I never load any content into it- so maybe the errors are in the JavaScript for it which make some browser versions choke?

[annathepiper]

I know of at least one known issue on the main page in IE7--but it's third-party code we're loading in an iframe, and it's reporting different line numbers and error messages than what you're seeing. Thanks for the data, though!

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

I've got XP SP2 and am using the 6.0.2900 of IE. I went all through the site clicking on articles. I had my pop up blocker on, then I turned it off. In neither case could I reproduce the problem. Sorry.

[annathepiper]

Grf. Many thanks for giving it a shot!

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

I was able to click on two articles without any problems. I'm on a public terminal at the library, so I'm not sure exactly what version is being used. Sorry I couldn't be of more use.

[annathepiper]

Thanks for giving it a shot anyway! Much appreciated. :)

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

Without the ability to test this (I can't, on a Mac), I'd still say this: twenty bucks says it's an ad. We got that a lot at the Site I Used to Work For That I Shan't Name. You might want to figure out how recently the reports have been coming in and then see what's been added to the rotation since, so you could test those a bit more specifically....

just a guess, but hopefully not useless. ;)

[annathepiper]

Oh, I'm almost certain it's an ad--the only problem is, since the ads randomize on the pages, I'd have to hit various pages over and over again to try to figure out which ad it might be. Which takes time that I don't have, with significant projects competing for my attention during my work hours.

What makes this additionally vexing is that between me and the contractor dude who's working on our team until the end of February, we generally hit most of the pages between us on a daily basis anyway just skimming for anything that looks broken. Neither of us have been able to repro this at all. So even if it is an ad, I'm wondering whether there's also something involved here with funky settings we don't have.