Time out problems with PHP website and vodafone 3G card

[Kalemanzi]

I am busy developing a site for a client. The site works fine up to a certain point where a little editor (much like the one used on this forum) has to pop up where the user is supposed to write a description of a product.

It works fine on my ADSL at home and office but as soon as I try to demonstrate the process to the client on his laptop with 3G connection, it times out on that specific page. It browses other websites happily, connects to skype etc. but somehow both firefox and IE says that the server takes too long to respond.

I then installed the client's 3G card on my laptop and attempted to do the same thing. Same problem. My conclusion is that it is definitely a 3G thing, but it could be that my particular website triggers it or takes too long to process the variables that was posted from the previous page or something for the 3G card's liking? What worries me is that if the site is finished and other people use the site with a similar 3G connection they might run into the same problems.

Like I said, what really gets to me is the fact that it does not work on the 3G but as soon as I get to the office and do the same thing it works fine on the DSL.

Any genius out there with an idea or an answer?! Maybe there is a setting where I can tell a page to hang on a bit longer before timeout or something.

 

[ic]

I am busy developing a site for a client. The site works fine up to a certain point where a little editor (much like the one used on this forum) has to pop up where the user is supposed to write a description of a product.

It works fine on my ADSL at home and office but as soon as I try to demonstrate the process to the client on his laptop with 3G connection, it times out on that specific page. It browses other websites happily, connects to skype etc. but somehow both firefox and IE says that the server takes too long to respond.

I then installed the client's 3G card on my laptop and attempted to do the same thing. Same problem. My conclusion is that it is definitely a 3G thing, but it could be that my particular website triggers it or takes too long to process the variables that was posted from the previous page or something for the 3G card's liking? What worries me is that if the site is finished and other people use the site with a similar 3G connection they might run into the same problems.

Like I said, what really gets to me is the fact that it does not work on the 3G but as soon as I get to the office and do the same thing it works fine on the DSL.

Any genius out there with an idea or an answer?! Maybe there is a setting where I can tell a page to hang on a bit longer before timeout or something.

First run your site through http://validator.w3.org/, fix any errors, and then try again.

PS: Welcome to MyBroadband .

 

[Kalemanzi]

Thanks for the reply. It shows a bunch of errors so I am going through them at the moment. The site is part commercial script and part customization on my side so there are definitely chances for non compliance. Interesting though that it would work from an ADSL but not from GPRS and 3G. Thanks again.

 

[ic]

Thanks for the reply. It shows a bunch of errors so I am going through them at the moment. The site is part commercial script and part customization on my side so there are definitely chances for non compliance. Interesting though that it would work from an ADSL but not from GPRS and 3G. Thanks again.

Vodacom has some inline "engines" that do not like pages that do not conform to standards, let us know what happens when you retest using a Vodacom connection.

 

[Kalemanzi]

Since I started the thread, just some interesting info with regards to W3C validation tested through www.validator.w3c.org. I tested some of my other websites and they all returned at least four errors and a bunch of warnings. Then I tried a few other well known sites and this was what they returned:
http://web.sourceforge.com/ Failed validation, 36 Errors
http://www.cnn.com/ Failed validation, 31 Errors
http://www.google.com /Failed validation, 47 Errors
http://www.w3.org/ Passed validation
http://slashdot.org/ Failed validation, 5 Errors - mmm, they declared the doc type "strict."
I looked at many of the attributes that returned errors and in most cases they are some things to make IE happy. We all know IE is not a standards compliant browser but unfortunately a large portion of the ignorant masses still use it and don't care about the browser wars.
I am still curious to understand why a W3C standards issue would make browsers behave differently if you connect through 3G instead of ADSL.

 

[reech]

Vodacom has some inline "engines" that do not like pages that do not conform to standards, let us know what happens when you retest using a Vodacom connection.

...so vodacom 'filter' the content!?

 

[ic]

...so vodacom 'filter' the content!?

AFAIK it has a lot to do with the NAT'ting on the internet APN, in some cases switching to the [searchforum]internetvpn APN[/searchforum] will bypass whatever the engines don't like on the internet APN, but not always.

 

[reech]

AFAIK it has a lot to do with the NAT'ting on the internet APN, in some cases switching to the [searchforum]internetvpn APN[/searchforum] will bypass whatever the engines don't like on the internet APN, but not always.

Crazy stuff indeed. why not simply push the data straight through?

 

[ic]

Crazy stuff indeed. why not simply push the data straight through?

The whole NAT'ted thing is a managed solution - by CISCO - IIRC from what v3g posted recently, with a whole lot of complexities as a result of the NAT'ting, this should become a lot simpler in the next month or so when the internet APN will effectively be simplified by removing the NAT'ting of IP addresses and will then do what the internetvpn APN currently does.

 

[reech]

I still don't see how NAT can affect page delivery/rendering but hey - I'm sure it's a pain to administer.

 

[ic]

I still don't see how NAT can affect page delivery/rendering but hey - I'm sure it's a pain to administer.

Yep, I get the impression it is a major headache for Vodacom.

 

[vodacom3g]

With NATing the proxy/NAT engine must maintain your session on the 'legal IP' side, so it expects the server to respond in a predictable way. If it sees behaviour that it does not expect (such as from a non-compliant site) it assumes someone is trying to spoof a session (i.e. a security attack) and will terminate the session.

So, the inline systems actually ADDS a layer of security but because of the poor compliance to standards, it seems to be adding more problems than not.

To bypass these engines, you could try the internetvpn APN in the mean time.