Problems viewing the graphics?

Go direct to Broadband options

If you are finding it difficult to see the pictures on this web site, there are some relatively easy steps to solve the problem.

[1] Do some pages load only some of the thumbnails, and some pages don't load at all?

I had these problems only in NetscapeŽ Communicator 4.77 but they not only disappeared on upgrading to Netscape 6.01 but all the graphics load much faster (although it takes longer to start, but less than version 6). Netscape 4.x and IE 3.x do not support some of the HTML tags used on my site, and are less tolerant of HTML errors, very long file names etc. IE 6 seems faster to load than IE 4.x.

MORAL = UPGRADE NETSCAPE to 6.01 or use MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER 6.0 (both available on-line or on the latest computer magazine free CDs)

[2] Do your thumbnails display, but the pictures take forever to load?

This means the picture size is too big for your system. You could:

• e-mail me and I will post lower resolution pictures, which will load faster but be less clear, or
• try at 4am (local sites and your ISP are not usually busy then), or
• buy a faster modem, a faster computer and install Windows 2000 (my office machine is 800Mhz running Win2K and surfs relatively quickly), or
• look at accessing a Broadband option:
  1. upgrade your telephone line to ADSL to take advantage of telecom's Jetstream (or Jetstart) service. This can give 50 times the 56k modem speed of 2.8Mbits.sec (1.5 - 8 Mbits/sec) with 128 kbits/sec for the cheaper Jetstart, BUT is expensive ($64.90 a month for JetStart, $80 - $300+/month for JetStream), limited traffic (500MB for cheapest JetStream option, but JetStart allows 10GB international and unlimited local). Taranaki residents have a special deal available until Sept 15. Please remember that the access speed is given in bits/second, divide this by 8 to get bytes, so 128kbps is "only" 16kBytes/sec, or
  2. buy a satellite dish from IHUG (I have one at home and it usually fair hums along at 80kBytes/sec [ranging from 0-150KBps depending on the weather], which is 640kbits/sec and no limit on download at a similar cost to JetStart). I use a Satnet account, but there are very cheap Ultra options if one doesn't mind a limit on download traffic quantity. Can't afford a satellite dish I hear? Absolute BS! Most of you have a similarly priced Sky satellite dish which you probably rarely use, I just thought the IHUG dish would be more useful -which it is.

Enjoy.

Keith Blayney [last udated 10th August 2002]

 Send me spam or junkmail at your peril!!