This is the buggiest web site that I've ever seen

I agree. For months it crashed here only once bout every three weeks, but here lately it has gotten pretty bad. Friday it crashed the browser three times within a couple of hours. I think it has something to do with the increased traffic from the beta testing, since the crash count really jumped right about the time it came out.

I don't seem to be having these issues as much as you guys but I usually browse this browse through SDC.

Never had an issue on the ship either. And my garbage gov't pc has to be about the worst thing around.

I use IE6 to surf here and Ive never once had it crash my pc. The only issue Ive had with the site is sometimes I need to hit the back button 2-3 times to get out of a thread and back to the forums. Heh I was actually surprised to hear that the elitist Mumble uses IE   all those rants about MS bloatware...

I haven't had any trouble yet. I'm using Firefox 2.0.

forums.galciv2.com and forums.stardock.com are the same site but with different CSS.

If a website is crashing your browser, you need to check your browser. The sites don't use any ActiveX or anything like that. It's actually pretty basic stuff.

I've never had a problem with this website while using any version of Firefox. Strange.

No crashing problems, and using IE on a $1000 machine.

2nd the amusement at Mumble using IE

Seriously, though, trying a different browser would be an interesting test. I use Opera for personal stuff. The latest version has evolved some "slugabed" thing where it takes several minutes after loading to be actually usable, but otherwise it has a pretty modest footprint and is not very popular with hackers.

The buggiest website I've ever seen is the official website of North Korea, which I got to check out for a school project. Sometimes it just doesn't work, so you have to manually enter url's to navigate the site.

It's an absolute joke.

It's possible my IE is damaged in some way. When I tried to upgrade to IE7 it got to the end of the install and failed. Did this to me three times. Since this IE works fine for the most part and I'm lazy  , I haven't tried real hard to find the problem. It still only crashes here though, so it must be some instruction this forum uses. I also rarely go to any other forums, so it could crash there too. I just don't hang out at any others long enough to see it.

I've never had any problems using firefox.

forums.galciv2.com and forums.stardock.com are the same site but with different CSS.

It's the display of the medals that's the issue. Medals are not displayed when viewed from stardock, they are displayed when viewed from galciv2.

I'm pretty sure it's a combination of performance issues related to a 5 year old 900MHz Celeron with a GeForce 5500 and alpha transparency of the png medal icons.

As far as frequency, I'm not talking about 2 or 3 times a day, I'm talking about 2 or 3 times a minute.

The sites don't use any ActiveX or anything like that.

In Internet Options Security Settings if "Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting" is set to enable than I can login at forums.stardock.com but I cannot create or reply to posts. If "Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting" is set to disable than I can login at forums.stardock.com and I can create and reply to posts. One works, the other doesn't, seems pretty clear to me.

I usually browse this through SDC.

I actualy tried this and it came the closest to working. I do invariably get the following error report. If I press no it usually works, but sometimes it still crashes pointing to pngfilt.dll as the offending file.



Other than that using SDC works fine except that I cannot enter a carriage return in any post or reply that I make. Given how long my posts tend to be, this makes them even more unreadable than normal.

the elitist Mumble uses IE all those rants about MS bloatware...

I don't know about *all* those rants, perhaps there's been 2 or 3 at most. Anyway, I don't think of myself an elitist, I consider myself a minimalist. Why should I install another browser when even if I do I can't uninstall IE. Plus probably 98% of the planet uses IE, one would think that websites would be concerned that they work well with both the latest and not so latest IE. I should pay money to get another browser?

In some sense the point is moot, because I should have my new PC within the week. It's a Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 with a GeForce 7900GS. If this doesn't work than I really will have an issue.

However, I can reliably accesses literally hundreds of other sites with no problem whatsoever, zero, zed, ziltch. What's so special about the GalCiv2 site (other than the fact that it's the most important site I visit) that only it fails miserably?

Never had a problem with this site, and im using Firefox 2.0.

Fellas, dump IE 6.0 and go with Firefox it is a far more stable browser. And if you like IE that much, update to IE 7.0. They copied all the good bit's from Firefox and put them in there!

Happy Browsing!

Why do people always answer the question you don't ask instead of the one that you do. Never ceases to amaze me. I guess it shouldn't.

Why do people always answer the question you don't ask instead of the one that you do. Never ceases to amaze me. I guess it shouldn't.

Hehe perhaps you are asking the wrong questions?   

I'm with Mumblefratz on the minimalist thing. If IE is going to be on your computer no matter what, then I'll use it. Besides 95% of websites are designed with IE in mind. I have tried alternative browsers in the past and have not had the greatest experience with them. Some don't display all sites correctly and some have crash issues. I can't say that I've tried Firefox or any of the newer ones, but there's only one way to read the html code properly as far as I know, but I'm not an expert mind you. So if they are working right, then aren't they just copies of IE with a few interface enhancements and that. I don't really care about the tab browsing thing, since multiwindows don't bother me in the least. Hell, I got three open now and GCII minimized .

That said. After seeing your thing about the medals Mumblefratz, I'm pretty sure that's my problem too. Whenever it crashes. it's right after a thread loads and all but the medals will load, then our old friend the "This Program needs to close" box shows up. I just close the browser and open it right back up and come right back. Usually without issues the second time. I guess I just need to find a way to get it to upgrade to IE7. Hate dealing with Microsoft support though  . Well this has been my real long post for the night(didn't intend it that way   ). Later folks.

This Program needs to close" box shows up. I just close the browser

If you click on the details or more info or whatever, it says that pngfilt.dll (png filter?) is the cause. Anyway I do think this is a performance issue that will be cleared up once I get a new PC, which will be soon. The purpose of my initial post was half venting and half some concern that others may have similar issues. It's still a mystery to me why someone should need more than a basic PC and video to access the forums. As I mentioned, I don't have this issue on any other site, but I do have to admit that I didn't try the official website of North Korea.   

perhaps you are asking the wrong questions?

From the answers I got I would have guessed that the question I asked was what browser should I use instead of IE. Firefox appears to be the answer to the question that I didn't ask. If I need this answer sometime in the future, at least I now know what question to ask.   

it says that pngfilt.dll (png filter?) is the cause

Your right, I check my event viewer in admin. tools and sure enough exactly as you said
Faulting module pngfilt.dll

I'll check the Microsoft knowledge base and see if I can fix it. If I get it I let you and anyone else having this problem know.

I usually have to (temporarly) disable my firewall to post.
If I dont do that once I click the 'Post Comment' box,,I'll get a timed out msg.

Faulty settings? Perhaps,,but this is the only forum I've had this problem with.
Also,,ports 80-83 and 443 (http and https) are opened,so I'm kinda confused of the source for it.

I usually have to (temporarly) disable my firewall to post.

Tried this and it didn't help.

Faulty settings? Perhaps, but this is the only forum I've had this problem with.

Same with me, my current machine is heavily tweaked, with large handfuls of services disabled and only essential processes started on boot. Anytime I have a problem I have to consider this as the most likely cause. But then again, I have problems *nowhere* else, just here. There must be something unique to this site.

Also,,ports 80-83 and 443 (http and https) are opened,so I'm kinda confused of the source for it.

How do you tell this?

I'll check the Microsoft knowledge base and see if I can fix it. If I get it I let you and anyone else having this problem know.

Don't make any extra effort on my part, because as I said my new PC will probably eliminate the problem. I'll be sure to check this out before, during and after any customization I do on my new PC. I'm currently on XP Home SP2. I'll be getting XP Pro SP2 with the new PC, this may make a difference as well.

How do you tell this?

I use the Agnitum Outpost firewall since I do not fancy the one built into WinXP (proSP2).
There are some other rules governing FireFox (FTP,,SOCKS,,Proxy etc) but these does not interfere with the above ports.

I don't think it is strictly browsers, or firewall settings, or buggy machines.

I often get the Server Application Unavailable error, or other errors on this site.

It does not happen with any other site I visit, either, just GalCiv's site. And it is usually with the forum pages only for me. And it is always the same error pages popping up.

It seems like the site is updating, or backing up, or something. Because it happens periodically, lasts for a few minutes, then works normally for quite a while.

I am using IE7 by the way.

I haven't found this exact error described, but I did find a hotfix related to other png errors. I installed it, but only time will tell if it will stop the problem.

Now to go berate Microsoft about why IE won't update to 7.0.  

The fact that this thread was possible is one of the reasons I despise the power IE has over the HTTP and HTTPS parts of the Internet.

I'm especially bitter about my "position" because I have deep sympathy for the minimalist argument about core PC functionality. Something like the form-follows-function thing for the physical designers, only about software.

At risk of pissing off possibly everyone I like to read around here, I must admit I'd rather have a few year's less upgrade-for-its-own-sake and a bit more economic respect for the client side in a client-server world. If we treated core networking and data processing more like utilities, we'd be on a track that might have GCII looking much more like GCI but still having the AI strengths so many of us appreciate.

Same basic complaint goes for this browser chaos. If we were not at the mercy of competing commercial standards, we might "reduce innovation" but we would also reduce complaints such as the OP.

Acually, still fumbling around with this. PC is currently in Fort Worth, TX on it's way to Concord, MA. In the meantime, I used to be able to access these forums from forums.stardock.com but that stopped working (I could log in but it still treated me as a guest that couldn't post).

I then came back to forums.galciv2.com but I had to disable all active scripting before it became stable. Otherwise nothing is changed on my PC.

I still hope my new PC with XP Pro SP2 won't have these issues, but who really knows.

I absolutely agree with the complaint on planned obsolesence of both hardware and OS. To most of these kids I guess it's fun to go through these upgrade cycles, but when you get to the tenth time you've done this it gets a bit old.