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New icon for newsgroup

Just noticed the new icon (a naturaled note) for the newsgroup.  Looks good!
Since 1998

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #1 –
Maybe it'll migrate to the forum?
Please?

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #2 –
On my XP machine at work the Forum icon has changed to a maroon natural note, but not on my W2000 home computer!

But the effect is rather spoiled by the shortcut arrow obscuring most of the natural. Perhaps the whole icon could be shifted a bit to the right.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #3 –
Your home computer is probably using its own cached copy of a standard icon.

I don't know what you mean by a shortcut arrow. The new icon should show up in the browser's tab page list, as well as in the address bar to the left of the URL. The browser should not a shortcut arrow to the icon.

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #4 –
Peter may have a URL-shortcut on his desktop, to bring up the browser with the forum in the window/tab.  The answer then is to use tweakUI (which is somewhere on the µ$ site -- use Google) to eliminate the little arrow.  I say this with some reservations, because it doesn't seem to work in all cases, and I haven't figured out the whys and wherefores.

Cyril

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #5 –
Yes, I do have a desktop shortcut to the forum. but I can't tell from where it is picking up the new icon.

And, sadly, this icon is failing to appear in the tabs and address bar for the forum. How do I turn this on?

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #6 –
I assume we're actually talking about the FORUM here and not the newsgroup - in any case, I'm not gettin' the new icon :(
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #7 –
Just so there is no confusion, here is a picture of the forum icon in use. If you do not see this (IE7/Firefox), then your browser cache is probably using an old "stock" icon for the site. Clearing your browser cache will likely fix this.

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #8 –
Hmm,
2 different machines, IE 6 on one and IE7 on the other - 2 different LANs, 2 different internet connections - local caches cleared on both - no new icon...

Don't have a current Firefox installation to check it with...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #9 –
Make sure that you close all IE7 windows. You can also try to force the issue by temporarily adding a forum page to your favorites. IE likes to use that action to retrieve the icon.

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #11 –
Then suddenly the icon appears (IE7). Very strange!

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #12 –
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
I thought it was a natural sign so that we would no longer need to type "C# to B natural..."
You fooled me!

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #13 –
What I'm finding REALLY frustrating is that on 3 machines now, all running IE - I can't see it - been through everything I can find, clearing caches etc. and it don't work.

Another irritating aspect is that I have similar things working for other sites!

I guess it's not really a big deal, but I hate it when things don't work as they should.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #14 –
I just tested IE7 while watching the server logs. Here is what I did:

1) Tools->Internet Options, Delete->Delete Files (top button)

2) While the files were deleting, I closed all IE7 windows

3) After delete completion, I opened IE7 to this site, which now showed a generic icon. However, I could see from the server logs that a request for the icon file on the server had been made by IE7.

At this point, IE7 had successfully retrieved the icon, but it still was not showing it.

4) I closed IE7, then re-opened it to this site. The icon was now shown.

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #15 –
OK, this gets weird...

Eric, did as you suggested, 'cept I couldn't close IE while the delete was running as I was denied access to the window - of course - so once done I exited IE and deleted files again from the Desktop icon properties.  (Have already done this a bunch of times, but what the hey - another don't hurt :)   )

No good.  Repeated, restarted PC - unloaded my proxy from my firewall (I had already disabled access to it in IE) and repeated - no good...

Finally I cleared everything again, fired up Wireshark and did a packet capture while accessing the site - not only still no good, but I cannot find ANYWHERE in the trace where favicon.ico is even mentioned let alone downloaded...

Now, I don't play http at all so I'm not sure but I assume that my browser isn't assuming that it should ask for favicon.ico?  Rather the server should say 'ere 'tis?

Only other thing I can think of is if my ISP has a transparent proxy running, but surely it would have updated it's cache by now?  It's been a couple of days and the content HAS changed...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #16 –
In my earlier reply, I ran that test on a Win XP Pro SP2 machine. The "Delete Files" action was definitely running in its own process, which left me free to close IE7 while the delete action was still running.

As far as I know, IE6 will generally do a request for "favicon.ico" whenever you add a site to your favorites, if an icon is not already cached for the site. From what I can see, IE7 requests this icon whenever it does not have a cached copy. It is even supposed to request this file as a default without it being linked in the HTML. However, as I noted, it does not necessarily display the file once it gets it.

The browser has to actually request this file. It does this with a conventional GET request. I think we can probably categorize this as just one of those IE anomalies.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #17 –
See also:

IE7 Favicons absent
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=160637

This page gave me another thought. If you have your IE cache size set to a restrictively low value, that is a possible explanation of your experience.

Google search for related content
http://www.google.com/search?q=ie7+favicon

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #18 –
G'day Eric,
reset cache - IE said it was too big and REDUCED it to a Gigabyte! - which I acccepted.

Other than that still no go...

Can you confirm to me just what the http request is that gets the favicon - maybe I missed it in the trace...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #19 –
The request is a simple "GET  /favicon.ico"

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #20 –
Thanks.  It definitely wasn't in the trace - This bears some investigation - something common to all the machines I use at home and at work is breaking this for the NWC site, perhaps fo some others too, but NOT all sites...  Curious...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #21 –
It appears as though IE behaves differently for sites that you have visited frequently in the past. I have not a clue what dictates its behaviour with regard to the favicon function in this regard.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #22 –
Another Channel 9 link:

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=271309

The Microsoft answers lead me to suspect that the IE implementation might never perform in the consistent fashion achieved by Firefox.

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #23 –
Hmm, thanks Eric - think I'l give up on favicons - if I get 'em, I get 'em, if I don't then I don't...  IE is, after a m$ product - need I say more?  ;)
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #24 –
Once you have given up, they will probably just show up for you (smile).

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #25 –
I assume these special icons are linked from another website?  If so, I wonder if changing one's IE security settngs will allow access?  They show up fine for me; I use IE7 and Windows XP Pro.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #26 –
No, the icon is delivered from this same website/server.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #27 –
Quote from: NoteWorthy Online –
Once you have given up, they will probably just show up for you (smile).

Yeah.  Probably - sounds like an application of Murphy's Law...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #28 –
Well it still hasn't turned up for me, either. I'm using XP and IE7 as well.
I explicitly downloaded it in my favourites menu, so it appears there, but on the page itself, it still shows as the standard IE logo.
I've seen similar issues with other favourite icons. They will just suddenly appear for no apparent reason.

Robin
Robin

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #29 –
I'll shake the trees with regard to this icon and see if it helps any of you.

Re: New icon for this forum

Reply #30 –
Quote from: NoteWorthy Online –
I'll shake the trees with regard to this icon and see if it helps any of you.

Yeehaa - I finally got'st an icon!  Dunno what you did Eric, but I was having a sleepless night, came out to the study and checked online - and "Hey Presto" - there 'tis!

I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #31 –
Hey! Me too!

Cheers!
Robin

Forum Icon Post-mortem

Reply #32 –
Here is my theory on the cause of the problems:
I believe that the problem with IE7 and the favicon.ico image was caused by the fact that IE seems to have a long memory. If IE had previously requested the image, but received a 404 response indicating that the file was not found, then it would behave unpredictably. In some cases, IE cannot be coaxed into retrieving an icon image, or displaying it properly, when it has previously tried and failed to get the image. IE's ability to remember past 404 errors does not seem to be cleared when you clear its cache.

Tips for making a successful IE favicon:
Given my theory, here are some tips to any web developer who happens to visit this page while experiencing favicon issues:

  • Do not reference the IE default filename of favicon.ico in your HTML page. IE may have previously tried to GET this file from your site. If it did not yet exist, then IE might treat this file differently in the future, since it had previously received a 404 error on the file. Use a different filename, and consider locating the file in your images directory.

  • Use image/vnd.microsoft.icon as the mime type for *.ico files. Make sure that your server is sending the correct mime type. If you are using Apache, the following line in your htaccess file will set this up properly:

    AddType image/vnd.microsoft.icon .ico

  • Add a single link line in your HTML page's head section. It should look something like the following:

    <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon" href="/images/tabicon.ico" />

For more information, this Wikipedia page has a good synopsis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #33 –
It does not really worry me, but I see no icons, new or old, when I am linked ti the forums
Tony

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #34 –
It still remains a mystery why the icon first showed up on my dektop (XP IE7)in the shortcut to the forum without at that point appearing in the tabs etc.

FWIW my home 2000 IE6 computer shows the icon in the tab (MSN toolbar), but neither in the address nor on the desktop!

Re: New icon for newsgroup

Reply #35 –
I have it at home but not at my school (on any of the 20 different kinds of computers) or my wife's school.