Trying to make changes to my site, but not reflected on the server?

[OO7girl]

Just wondering if anyone else has come across this problem before. My host is 1and1, and whenever I make changes to my pages and upload them to see the results, I don't see the changes right away - sometimes not for HOURS! It seems like the amount of time it takes for changes to show up on my site is completely random, too. Occasionally it's immediate, and other times it takes forever. Unfortunately this makes it very difficult to troubleshoot anything in a reasonable amount of time.

Sometimes I can see the changes I've made if I type the filepath into my address bar without the .html extension (e.g. http://www.example.com/newpage as opposed to http://www.example.com/newpage.html), but not always.

Is this common? Does this have to do with my host, or with my computer? And is there some way I can get around it?

Thanks!

[edited by: encyclo at 5:46 pm (utc) on Oct. 7, 2006]
[edit reason] switched to example.com [/edit]

[benevolent001]

hi 007 girl , hope you wont shoot...

thats very strange the pages should change as you upload new pages , did you tried clearing your local cache?

just see if it works

[OO7girl]

Yeah, I've tried clearing my cache, and it doesn't seem to make a difference. It's like there's a delay on my host's end. I've dealt with this for about six months now, but I'm getting fed up.

[kaled]

This is a caching issue.

I don't seem to encounter it anymore but I used to get around it using Opera. When you hit F5 in Opera, it really does refresh everything - or at least it used to, I haven't tried this with the current version.

Kaled.

[rocknbil]

As for caching, in Internet Destroyer, select Tools->Internet Options -> General -> Settings, make sure that "On every visit to the page" is selected.

IE may still give you grief even if that's set right, but for most people that fixes it.

It could also be your 'net connection, to your knowledge are you accessing the internet through a proxy server of some sort? If you're working from an office network, this is entirely possible. A proxy server is like a big cache - it stores most frequently visited pages so give a perceived impression of faster browsing - sattelite connections are like this sometimes. If the settings on a proxy server are incorrect, it may not actually be getting the latest version until it re-downloads it.

[penders]

Sometimes I can see the changes I've made if I type the filepath into my address bar without the .html extension (e.g. http://www.example.com/newpage as opposed to http://www.example.com/newpage.html), but not always.

You could also try your URL with some random querystring on the end to try and stop it from using the cache.

http://www.example.com/newpage.html?abc123etc

Like rocknbil suggests, it does sound as if your 'net connection is caching pages, maybe even your ISP - proxy server style?!

[OO7girl]

I'm not using a proxy server to my knowledge...hmm. It's my home internet connection, and I'm with a pretty major ISP.

I didn't have that box checked in my IE settings - hopefully that will help! And I'll try adding the random string to the end of my URLs to see if that makes a difference, too.

Thanks all :)