Facebook Problems

[Murgatroyd]

I use a Dell Dimension desktop computer with a True (Zyxel wi fi) modem. I use the LAN connection and my wife uses the wi fi to her ASUS laptop. We use True Broadband.

Recently, (For about the last three weeks), we've been having problems with Facebook. All other websites load fine. Facebook seems to go offline for days at a time. Instead of getting our usual Facebook pages that load properly and immediately we (Eventually) get a page which lists Facebook options down the left hand side of the screen. These options start someway off the left hand side of the screen and only part of them are even visible. Clicking on these options only takes me to more of the same, (Equally off the left hand side of the screen). Occasionally the proper Facebook pages come back, but only for a few hours at a time.

Now I can more or less take or leave Facebook... it's not a major issue for me, but my wife and stepdaughter have begun to play a number of games on Facebook, (Zynga games mostly: Castleville, Hidden Chronicles, Indiana Jones Adventure world etc... I play a couple of them too, but only to share bonuses) and when they don't work the house is full of gloom and despondency. Now this problem only started after we started to play Facebook games. We also used a couple of Apps to collect the game bonuses.

We've tried contacting True, but after a remote session, the tech was unable to suggest anything other than re-loading Google Chrome... a total waste of time as the same problem happens with Internet explorer and with Firefox. (And yes, I uninstalled the program that he used to access my computer as soon as the session was over, I don't want some tech I don't know to be able to access my computer at will!)

Has anyone else experienced similar problems? If so have you been able to resolve them?

I don't know much about how the internet really works and find it difficult to try and answer my wife's questions in any meaningful way when she asks me what's wrong with Facebook. It has occurred to me that it might be a server issue, or a problem with True bandwidth.

HELP!

[jpc8685]

I had the same thing since last week. Only with Facebook and Itunes App Store.

I changed my DNS settings back from the google DNS 8.8.8.8 I used to true DNS again... and everything is ok.

Hope this helps

[Murgatroyd]

Thanks very much... As soon as I can find out how to do that I'll give it a try... As I said I'm not very good with tech stuff.

[welo]

A distorted web page is often the sign of a partially loaded page. In Thailand, most often that is due to the browser not being able to download required additional files that are part of the website, e.g. images or CSS stylesheets.

My experience with Facebook (in Thailand) is that every now and then one of the additional Facebook domains/servers where those resources are located (hosted) are not being able to load and time out. These resources are not located on the main domain/servers (www.facebook.com) but on content delivery networks, having URLs like static.ak.fbcdn.net.

The reason for these servers not being accessible could be a DNS issue (in that case jpc's fix would help), but my personal experience is that more often it is a routing issue somewhere on the line between your computer and the target server. I had success reporting issues like that to the TRUE support but you would have to track down technical specifics of the problem (specific domain that is not reachable with tracert log) beforehand.

Usually these problems get sorted out within a day or so even without reporting it yourself.

In the case of Facebook, it might help to use a secure connection (https://www.facebook.com) to avoid the problems with FB's content delivery network. The website might load slightly slower, but at least it will load