Safari not loading page (and the troubleshooting thereof)

[Sjodan]

I have a problem that I have a hard time getting to grips with. This is going to be a bit long-winded i fear. Partly because english is not my native language and partly because I simply have *no* idea what the problem is, just that there acctually is one.

I am a programmer of bussiness applications and my company has a program that lets our clients view/alter/attest invoices. It is a part of a larger bussiness application suite with an html gui working against a Progress database and it is all running on the cilents server.

This application suite has been running for a number of years for other clients all of which have been using IE to run it, but we have recently gotten a few clients that want to run it through Safari on their Macbooks and for some reason the program that handles invoices seems to "stall".

The program usually opens up the base-gui and then runs a calculation frame (works sort of like a ajax call, only a bit older/simpler inhouse version) that collects the data from the database and then inserts data in the various iframes, displaying tables, enabeling buttons, that sort of thing. As far as I can tell from the screenshots that our client has sent us the basic layout opens up, but then nothing else happens. No tables get displayed and no buttons gets enabled, so it seems that the calculation frame is not running for some reason or other. This problem however only occurs on this and one other users computers that i am aware of.

I have confirmed that the program in itself is written according to standard and it runs just fine through Firefox and Safari on both PC and Mac when I have tested it on a couple of different locations. We have ofc tested it in our own enviroments and also by logging in to our problem-experiencing-clients own account and installation through both Safari (3.2.1) and Firefox (3.0.4) on both PC's and Macs opening up the exact same programs with exactly the same invoices and we never encounter any problems whatsoever. All the tests that we have done leads me to conclude that the acctual programming of the application is solid and that the trouble must be with the clients own setup seeing as how it only ever seems to occur there.

The problem is ofc that I don't know my hand from my elbow when it comes to Mac and Safari and as such I don't have any idea *how* to troubleshoot it or where the problem might occur. It could be anything from her internet connection/firewall/browser setup/internet options or whatever as far as I know.

Unfortunately the Client is quite a far away, so it is quite difficult for me to check her setup first hand and she is not very computer literate so it is also difficult to get much useful information out of her.

What I know about about her setup so far is this:
- She is using a Macbook Air that she bought last spring (2008) and it is her own personal computer.
- She updated the Safari installation at her local apple store a week ago.
- She has tried installing Firefox and got the same problem there.
- She was unable to find a version of IE that works with her OSX so she has been unable to test it with that browser.
- She says that her internet connection is "wireless broadband" and she hasn't really said anything more about it than that (I doubt she knows or cares about the specifics about such things unfortunately).
- As far as firewalls go I have no idea what she is using, but I doubt very much that she would use anything that wasn't pre-installed on the box when she got it.

I have searched around on the web for similar problems and I found quite a few instances where people seem to have had problems with getting Safari to load some web-pages correctly. Unfortunately I have found no comprihensive answers as to the cause of said problems.

Does anyone have any idea what might cause this problem or how to troubleshoot it? Any idea on how I could test/recreate this problem on my side? Anything I could ask her to do or check on her side?

[Sjodan]

Oh yes, I am not Mac-savvy btw (stating the bleeding obvious), so if anyone has any suggestions please use VERY simple language. I don't even have a Mac or really know how to work with one :/

[Satcomer]

Originally Posted by Sjodan

What I know about about her setup so far is this: -

- She updated the Safari installation at her local apple store a week ago.

Well sometimes in the folder /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ are plugins that are older that can cause Safari Problems. Plus if she takes all of the plugins out (to test) she can always reset Safari (or any application) by going to the folder /HerHardDrive/Users/HerUserName/Library/Preferences/ and find the file com.apple.Safari.plist and move it to the Trash can.

- She has tried installing Firefox and got the same problem there.
- She was unable to find a version of IE that works with her OSX so she has been unable to test it with that browser.

That is strange.

- She says that her internet connection is "wireless broadband" and she hasn't really said anything more about it than that (I doubt she knows or cares about the specifics about such things unfortunately).

Well Apple Wireless (with a N capable card) kind of dislikes older B networks. It is hit or miss. I could go into more about trouble shooting wireless peoblenms but that is a whole other ball of wax.

- As far as firewalls go I have no idea what she is using, but I doubt very much that she would use anything that wasn't pre-installed on the box when she got it.

Well in Leopard the built in firewall GUI is weak at best. If she really wants a firewall then point her go to the built in Firewall (System Preferences->Security) and tell her to set it to allow all incoming messages.
Then point her to the free NoobProof. This program uses the built in Unix ipfw firewall that is much stronger (than the built in GUI firewall).

Does anyone have any idea what might cause this problem or how to troubleshoot it? Any idea on how I could test/recreate this problem on my side? Anything I could ask her to do or check on her side?

Well it sounds as if the web site is using ActiveX or some Windows only language. Test the problem in Firefox on the Windows XP box to see if it works there.

[Satcomer]

Originally Posted by Sjodan

Oh yes, I am not Mac-savvy btw (stating the bleeding obvious), so if anyone has any suggestions please use VERY simple language. I don't even have a Mac or really know how to work with one :/

Then point her to the book (or buy her one for Christmas) Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition. I almost think that any switcher who reads this book will become almost a Mac veteran.

[Sjodan]

Thank you for your reply.

Originally Posted by Satcomer

Well sometimes in the folder /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ are plugins that are older that can cause Safari Problems. Plus if she takes all of the plugins out (to test) she can always reset Safari (or any application) by going to the folder /HerHardDrive/Users/HerUserName/Library/Preferences/ and find the file com.apple.Safari.plist and move it to the Trash can.

This is definately a suggestion I will forward to the user. I have read that resetting Safari might be worth doing, but i really had no idea on how to do that unfortunately.

Originally Posted by Satcomer

That is strange.

Agree... I think it's more of a question of her being reluctant to install IE on her Mac tbh. It is a position that I can certanly understand even if it is rather unhelpful for my troubleshooting purposes I'm afraid.

Originally Posted by Satcomer

Well Apple Wireless (with a N capable card) kind of dislikes older B networks. It is hit or miss. I could go into more about trouble shooting wireless peoblenms but that is a whole other ball of wax.

Well in Leopard the built in firewall GUI is weak at best. If she really wants a firewall then point her go to the built in Firewall (System Preferences->Security) and tell her to set it to allow all incoming messages.
Then point her to the free NoobProof. This program uses the built in Unix ipfw firewall that is much stronger (than the built in GUI firewall).

Also good to know. I'll have to look that up some more and make sure I question her a bit more on exactly what her setup might be. Gives me a bit more to go on anyway.

Originally Posted by Satcomer

Well it sounds as if the web site is using ActiveX or some Windows only language. Test the problem in Firefox on the Windows XP box to see if it works there.

Actually there is no ActiveX components in it, just straight up html and javascript for the gui and Progress with Webspeed for the business logic against a Progress database.

I have tested the site on Firefox and Safari installed on both my own Windows XP workmachine and on a Mac that I was able to borrow and it works just fine. So far I have had no luck in recreating the problem and it works perfectly for me nomatter which browser or operating system I run it on. That is what makes it so infuriating... If i could only recreate the problem I am confident i could solve it, but as it is right now I feel I have no legs to stand on.

Originally Posted by Satcomer

Then point her to the book (or buy her one for Christmas) Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition. I almost think that any switcher who reads this book will become almost a Mac veteran.

I think that sounds like a good book for me to read rather then her acctually. With these new mac users in our userfold I suspect there might be more Mac related issues that I would do best to read up on. I might be a programmer, but I often have to help end users set up their internet security settings and such in Windows and I guess it will probably turn out to be the same way for the Mac.

[Satcomer]

Originally Posted by Sjodan

I think that sounds like a good book for me to read rather then her acctually. With these new mac users in our userfold I suspect there might be more Mac related issues that I would do best to read up on. I might be a programmer, but I often have to help end users set up their internet security settings and such in Windows and I guess it will probably turn out to be the same way for the Mac.

Well if you are going to be diving and helping with Mac people, get the book. Also bookmark the trouble shooting pages MacFixIt.com (take it with a grain of salt), MacOSXHints.com, MacWindows.co (along with the simple but informative Sharing files between a Windows Vista Home Edition PC and a Mac running OS X Leopard 10.5) and Accelerate Your Macintosh with their excellent Drive search lasso (think less is more when searching reader reports).

If you have anymore questions for websites ask back and I'll try to think of some. Oh i almost forgot, the Mac server administrators talking site is AFP548.com. They have some good ideas there for Mac servers.

[Sjodan]

Originally Posted by Satcomer

Well if you are going to be diving and helping with Mac people, get the book. Also bookmark the trouble shooting pages MacFixIt.com (take it with a grain of salt), MacOSXHints.com, MacWindows.co (along with the simple but informative Sharing files between a Windows Vista Home Edition PC and a Mac running OS X Leopard 10.5) and Accelerate Your Macintosh with their excellent Drive search lasso (think less is more when searching reader reports).

If you have anymore questions for websites ask back and I'll try to think of some. Oh i almost forgot, the Mac server administrators talking site is AFP548.com. They have some good ideas there for Mac servers.

Thank you, those looks like excelent resourses and I'll be sure to check them out Any resourses with information about things like user settings (as it relates to web usage) and/or issues with Safari will definately be of great interest to me.

I won't be needing to be a expert or anything, but if a Safari user for instance finds he/she has a problem with running our webpages or downloading pdf's from them or something like that I would like to be able to have an answer for them. Or at least know where I might go to find that answer.