AOL browser problem

[greendog]

OK I have a rather small problem that thanks to my client has risen to a larger one! The site I created works fine on all browsers except on AOL. Here's the problem. When I work on a site I use 1 X 1 pixel transparent gifs as "spacers" to put in the tables on the site just so there is a graphic there to take up the empty spaces.
When my client tries viewing the site on the AOL browser the spacers come up as missing images and they stay that way until he clicks "refresh". Only then do the spacers show up. One thing I tried to get it working is preloading the spacer image. That didn't do anything. Is there a way to fix this? Why does this only happen on the AOL browser? Any help would greatly be appreciated!

-= greendog =-

[newmand2]

If you use valid (X)HTML and CSS, you will not need spacers or tables (assuming you are using tables for positioning).

I suggest you look into rewriting your code if this is the case, as I am sure most others on here will tell you to do the same.

[tsguitar2004]

Hey! Welcome to the forums! Let's see if we can help you out...

I agree with newmand2: you won't need those spacers or tables with XHTML and CSS (transparent GIF, what a pain in the butt; eeck!). However, a link would be helpful.

Also, it sounds like your trouble is a browser configuration problem. Make sure that the browser is set to read the document off the server every time it encounters the page. Otherwise, it's just looking at a cached version of the site and it may not have cached those GIFs, for whatever reason.

And what is the AOL browser? I thought they bundled IE with AOL. No?
-ts

[gsnedders]

To my knowledge, the AOL Browser runs on the IE engine... but an out of date version of it...

[tsguitar2004]

An out of date version of IE...that's redundant, isn't it?
-ts

[bradyj]

To fix your issue we'd need to know what version of AOL -- older ones used a Netscape browser, newer ones use Internet Explorer... also, have you noticed any errors in any other browsers? AOL is notorious for being junk, but it can be fixed. And, as they were explaining, if you're sticking with tables, that's great, but you can honestly do CSS that will rid yourself of the need of spacer gifs, making your site cleaner and faster.

Also, we'd need to see a link to fix this for you, as you may just have a code error that could be causing loading issues.