Changes made to the site are not showing in my browser. Why?

In the majority of cases this is due to your browser reading the site from cache. Caching is a function of the browser whereby site content is downloaded to a special part of your hard disk. When the site is opened again, the browser retrieves this content and displays it instead of loading the entire page again from scratch. Caching is intended to make previously visited sites quicker to load.

To see changes made to your site, hit the refresh button on your browser and hold down the shift key. This will force the browser to load the page from the internet and not from the cache.

In some cases, even this may not work and so you will need to completely purge your internet cache. For more information on how to do this, click here.

Instead of an image on my site, my browser is displaying a box containing a red X

Under Internet Explorer, a box containing a red X instead of an image indicates that the image does not exist on the server. Under Netscape, the red X is replaced by a small image with a tear through it.

To remedy this, try refreshing the page (see above). If this doesn't solve the problem then contact Ghostlight Designs so that the site can be re-uploaded.

An image on my site is distorted or "pixelated"

When loading images, a web page defines the dimensions of an image using height and width parameters. If the target image has been resized during a site change then it could be that a cached version of the page is still referring to the image using these old parameters, forcing the browser to resize the image. This can lead to image distortion and a pixelated appearance.

Try refreshing the page, as in the above example. The new page should have the corrected image height and width information, allowing the image to be displayed at it's correct size.

An image on my site has horizontal lines running through it. What's wrong?

When creating a site, Ghostlight Designs breaks larger images down into smaller pieces. This allows sites to be optimised for quicker load times. A bug exists in Internet Explorer that sometimes shows these images with horizontal lines running through them where the constituent images are joined together.

To remedy this, try refreshing the page. Resizing the browser window will also get rid of them.

My site doesn't look the same under Netscape as it does under Internet Explorer. Why is this?

Although both Netscape and Explorer can display web pages, there are a few differences in which these applications construct the page layout. A site developed for Netscape may not look the same under Explorer and vice versa.

Because 90% of internet connected PCs run Explorer, Ghostlight Designs creates sites that are compatible with Explorer and which may look and act differently under Netscape.

If your site requires both Explorer and Netscape compatibility then contact us to discuss the issue further.

The left hand side of my site is cut off and I need to scroll across to see it. How can I display the entire width of the page?

Depending on the layout of the site, you may need to alter the resolution of your monitor so that all of the content is visible. The standard resolution of most PCs is 1024 pixels horizontal by 768 pixels vertical and Ghostlight Designs creates sites to within this size.

Many new PCs have their resolution set lower by default and in many cases users are not aware that they can achieve more screen "real estate". As well as displaying more information on a web page the other, major benefit is being able to see more workspace on the screen, such as a word processing document or spreadsheet.

To check or change your monitor's resolution, click here.

You refer to my site as a "Framed" layout. What does this mean?

There are two ways of displaying a web site in a browser window. The first is to display just a single page. Scrolling up and down through the page scrolls the entire page content. Another method is to display more than one page simultaneously. This is done using a technique known as "frames". A "frameset" is a collection of horizontal or vertical panes that each display a different page and which allows the behaviour of each pane to be controlled individually.

For example, a common layout is a three frame frameset which comprises of a top frame to display your company information, a left frame to display navigation buttons and links and a main frame to display the site content. In this scenario, the main frame content can be set to scroll independently, leaving the top and left frames remaining static. Here, you are guaranteed that your company logo and navigation links are visible at all times and don't scroll off out of the browser window as is the case in a non-framed site.

For an example of a frame layout site, visit www.garydaygolf.com.

I get a "CGI Timeout Error" when trying to access a page on my site

CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is a method of running small programs on the host's server that allow greater flexibility to your site. If Ghostlight Designs has created an ecommerce site for you then some pages will be CGI-powered.

When a CGI program is run, it is allocated a slice of server processing time. However, if it takes longer than 10 seconds for the CGI to commence processing then a timeout error will occur and the CGI process allocation will be cancelled. This function is put in place to allow every hosted site to have an equal share of processing time. If no such restrictions were put in place then CGI intensive sites would cause many other sites to fail.

If you receive a timeout error, try refreshing the page or clicking the "Back" button on your browser and trying the link again.

Remember, the amount of traffic on the internet can affect page performance.

If your site is throwing out a lot of timeout errors then you may need to consider upgrading it to one of our enhanced services.

What is "Bandwidth"?

Imagine that all the sites on the host are delivered to the internet through a very large pipe. Bandwidth is the term given to the amount of data travelling through this pipe at any one time. The bigger the pipe, the more bandwidth the host offers.

Sites taking up an excessive amount of bandwidth can cause other sites using the same pipe to fail. Such sites can be disconnected without notice from the pipe if bandwidth becomes an issue.

High bandwidth sites are those that need to deliver a constant large stream of data, for example streaming video. If video streaming is a requirement of your site then contact Ghostlight Designs for further information.

What is Flash?

Flash is the name given to a Macromedia technology that allows sound, motion and enhanced interactivity to be added to a web site in a highly compressed format. Ghostlight Designs can add a simple Flash animation showing your company logo and mission statement, etc. but full Flash powered sites are not yet offered.