AES launched a new website and I am unable to get anywhere on it. These are the messages that consistently pop up:

Page not found
The requested page could not be found.

Access denied
You are not authorized to access this page.

No matter what I enter into the Search box it returns zero hits. Anybody else having a problem?

Larry

um... no. opened first try

http://www.tubesandmore.com/

says at the top: you are viewing Antique Electronic Supplys new website

All I get are pages not found.....

Link works fine for me.

I'm using FireFox...........

Works fine with Firefox and I.E. Clean out your old browsing history, temp files, etc. on your computer.

Pete

They do have the following statement on their site:

Pardon us while we launch our new website! May 22, 2012 9:00 am PDT
We are in the process of moving our site to a new server. It may take several hours for all the servers around the globe to see the change!
Try back periodically; you will know when you get to the new site!
Also, please check your browser bookmark. If you have bookmarked secure.tubesandmore.com, please change it to www.tubesandmore.com
This site is no longer functional for placing orders. If you need to place an order right away, please call 480-820-5411; we will be happy to take your order by phone.

Didn't do anything and it now seems to work. Wish they would get away from moving graphics or give an opt out. There are many people still on dial up. Not a smart business move. JMO

Getting to the site isn't the problem, it's navigating within the site that generates the Access Denied and Page Not Found errors. Go to the search function and try to find the decals. Search on decal, decals, even Philco and see if you get any hits.

Larry

Did a search of tubes and it seemed to work. It couldn't find any "decals," but didn't get a page not found.

The "Page not found" error doesn't come up in the search. The issue is that the search returns zero hits for common searches on products they are known to carry. Search on "radio". You get a real short list of hits and virtually no parts, mostly books.

Larry

Here's the answer:


As a professional who has written amd launched numerous websites I don't know how a commercial business can launch without being 100% ready but there you have it.

Larry

What was wrong with the old site? Used it for years with zero problems. Change for change's sake is rarely a good thing!

Terry

While it's a good idea for any commercial company to test changes to their existing web site or a new web site, I think we will all survive the few day(s) while they work out all the bugs.

AES has been around for many years and we can cut them a little slack.

All,

I am a member of the software team at AES and we have been monitoring your issues closely. I apologize to those of you whoe have been having troubles getting the site to function correctly.

Unfortunately, the problems many of you are experiencing (access denied issues, page not found) are a result of DNS issues beyond our control. I will attempt to explain below.

Many of you are seeing "access denied" as a result of our old site operating within frames. The way frames work is that individual "pages" are loaded inside of the frames of the site. What is happening is that your personal DNS settings are still pointing at the old web site, so you are looking at the "frames" page. The old website (hosted on a different server) has the updated DNS settings, so when it tries to load these "pages" inside of the frames, it loads the pages from our new website. The result is that you see a bunch of "page not found" errors inside of the frames. This is an issue which should be resolved in the next day or so as all the DNS settings switch over. In the meantime, you can attempt to clear your caches and reload the page (ctrl + F5 will refresh the cache for your current page).

The release of our new website is very much in line with customer complaints. Due to increased requests for "secure checkout", better search results, improved product images, and many other requests, we have made the move to our new site, which will allow us to better respond to your requests and issues with our site. You will find many new features on the new website, including "project lists" and better re-ordering options. We do not take this change light-heartedly, and it is not "change for change's sake", but is intended to provide you with a much better shopping experience.

As always, we are here to help you. If you experience issues with the site, or have any requests or concerns, you can email me directly at dan@tubesandmore.com and I will do my best to address your issues. We want you all to be as happy with the new website as we are.

Thank you,
Daniel Moberly
Software Engineer
Antique Electronic Supply

Also - as a note - I have taken your issues into consideration N7ZAL. I am currently exploring options for "opting out" of the rotating images on the homepage.

I will keep you informed.

N7ZAL,

In response to your issue, I have added the ability for users to "opt out" of high-bandwidth features on our current site.

For now, this only removes the "rotating images" on the homepage that you have issue with.

In order to opt-out, visit your account page. Under "edit" you should see a "custom settings" tab at the top. Your opt-out setting should be located here.

I think the new web site looks great and seems to be easy to maneuver around to find stuff. The old site was in need of a change; it was very 90's looking. Your web site seems to be following the same style and look as many of today's merchants (home depot, lowes, target, etc.) on the web.

Pete

The downside is that a user has to sign in to "opt out." Some sites have an option on the first page to select high bandwidth or low bandwidth, thus allowing the visitor to opt in/out before actually visiting the site. The advantage of this approach is that visitors who would normally jump off the site because of page load issues, wouldn't. I know there are some members here on dial up. FYI

Appreciate the explanations Daniel but I will take an exception to the DNS and frames part. If the new site is using relative addressing (and it is, I examined your code) then the DNS issue goes out the door. If I click on a link on the new site and get an access denied or page not found error it has nothing to do with DNS, the old site, or with frames unless the new link is pointing to the old address/page/frame. Let's see what the future holds.

Larry