AOL/Compuserve's caching servers control the Refresh/Reload process. Changes to the Web pages may not be reflected immediately if accessed via AOL/Compuserve and the standard browser Refresh/Reload sequences will not retrieve the updatedpages. According to AOL's webmaster information page, this updating may take up to 24 hours.
What this means is, when webmasters update web pages, the change is updated immediately, except for systems like AOL/Compuserve that store Cache. Cache is temporary storage of Web pages on your hard disk. The first time you view a page, the page is retrieved from the Web. If you request this same page again, the browser checks to see if this page is available in cache. So you may not see the most updated information until AOL updates the system every 24 hours.
Here is a Q&A I got from AOL
Q. I am still getting old pages and I am certain that the site has been updated, how do I clear my BROWSER CACHE ?
A. Even though AOL's Proxy cache is updated every 24 hours, a member can clear their Browser Cache and force the reload of a page. This is done by either reducing the browser History to "0" and manually clearing all pages in history by deleting the files in the temporaty internet files folder located in the Windows Directory or PC users can force a refresh by holding down the CONTROL key on their keyboard and mouse clicking on the AOL browser reload icon. The latter will completely clear all items in history.
This is a problem that all web pages are having, not just ours. It is recommended that if you use AOL to be familiar with CACHE and how to refresh your pages with the version of AOL that you use. If all this is confusing to you, just think how frustrating it is for webmasters trying to get information out to the members.
AOL and Graphics
The AOL web browser is a version of MSIE. It is a version that has been modified in ways, and one of the ways is that it "compresses" graphics to an .ART format so that they will load marginally faster. The problem is that this compression happens by default. You can turn it off but people seldom do because they see no reason not to, or they don't even KNOW about it!
You may not even know that the quality is diminished and that you are not seeing the artwork as intended by the web designers, who have spent a lot of time and effort creating their images. The problem appears to be only with AOL and is easy to fix.
The good news is that you can disable AOL graphics compression, after which you will have access to the same quality of art enjoyed by the non AOL world, but it may take a few seconds more for the images to load.
If after disabling AOL compression, you feel the wait for the images to load is now too long, you may re-enable AOL graphics compression at any time. |
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