fwiw - I am having same problems for over a month. I posted on the "suggestions forum": safari problems/suggestions forum my last post there: UPDATE: I was okay for a day or two - but it's back to "400 Bad Request". mary4b's message prompted me to contact them again. I was willing to change browsers in order to access the site - not ideal, tho. It's a pain to claer cache (w safari) everytime I want access. What's most frustrating is when I follow a link from google and can't get in. if anyone else is having this issue, here's the email I received you can send the requested info to: Tamara.Amey@nbcuni.com "Hi there, You are receiving this email because you have reported problems accessing GardenWeb. We are still trying to isolate and solve this issue, but need more information from you. Please provide the following: 1. A screenshot of the page you receive when accessing the site. 2. The type of computer you are using. 3. The type and version of the browser you are using. 4. Anything else you feel might be helpful. If you wrote in to report this for a friend, please forward this email to them. Any questions, please feel free to contact me! Best wishes, Tamara Amey GardenWeb Community Manager" hopefully this will be rectified.

Six years is doing good. However give us a make and model number, that always helps things along. Have you ever removed the side panel and blown out the dust bunnies. This is the first place to start. If the computer rests on the floor move it up, even a 6 inch block will work wonders as all dust eventually reaches floor level and you disturb it as you walk about. The fans then suck it in. If it is dusty in there buy a bottle of compressed air, remove the computer outdoors (you don't want to upset whoever cleans the house) and blow the dust out. BE SURE to hold a finger on the fan so it does not spin wildly and pay particular attention to the fan on the motherboard. This protects your processor and very likely it is overheating and shutting down to prevent damage. If you live in a VERY dusty environment and it is bad in there then also take a look between the plastic front panel and the metal behind. There is a 3/4 inch space that can get bad. You can also test for heat issues by removing the left side and use a small house fan to blow in on the components. This is not a fix but a temporary measure so you can decide if heat is the issue here. Let us know how that works for you

grandms, thanks --- I think that I am getting all updates, including those for IE8. When I attempt to use IE8 it runs into a connection problem  "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage." Next, when applying the Diagnose Connection Problem, it cannot detect any problem with internet connection. Following that, it gives the ordinary reasons, bad typing, site temporarily unavailable, DNS is not reachable, DNS does not a listing for the websiteÂs domain, etc.  irrespective of the site attempted, including attempting microsoft.com, the ultimate culprit. This incident is typical of my disdain for Microsoft. If I want a browser, like Firefox, I download it and it runs. If I download IE8 because it is "beautiful" versus 7, I do it and it becomes broken, but cannot return to IE7. I think (now that is dangerous) that along the way I, or some program, wiped out something that is basic to Windows and/or Explorer. Reading several forums and postings by others shows various solutions none of which has corrected my case. But I am not trying very hard because I have alternatives that work. And like zep says, you cannot ignore the noise coming from the engine.

I use Opera primarily and yes it does have a spell check built in from version 10 on. Aspell was fully compatible and worked fine in previous versions so Opera has had a spell check for, well I think I've used a spell check in it for nearly a decade now. It's an excellent spell check too at least for my use. So I primarily use Opera, and often use K-meleon and then comes Firefox. Never have tried Safari or Chrome but really no need to since I like these so much. Opera is the standard of comparison for great browsers. It's fast, well-equipped with features, including a mail client if you need it. It is the most customizable I've used. I like maximum screen space so I customize the toolbars to just be one, and be smaller so I see more of what I want to look at. And it's only about 6mb download for the whole browser! Updates on the Internet Elephant are sometimes 5 times that! K-meleon is based on the old Netscape Gecko engine and is extremely fast. It doesn't have the features of Opera but I like it for checking webmail. Also I have Opera set to kill off a lot of ads and occasionally I need to see something so I'll just open it in K-meleon or Firefox. Firefox is an interesting browser. It's open source and has many varieties. They use extensions, now called "add-ons" to add features. Many are gimmicks. But so many things like paste & go should be built into the browser and I don't like having to constantly update Firefox. Every week there's probably 3-5 updates to be downloaded. Not a major problem, but still a nuisance. But I do like the weather extensions for Firefox and a couple others. But it's much slower than Opera or K-meleon, although light years ahead of the Elephant. The best thing is to try out several. Give them a fair chance, at least a few weeks and do some research on tips and the like so you use it more fully. It took a long time to get used to all the advantages of Opera and I only use the Elephant now for Windows Update. Like I said you might find you like one for one purpose and another for another purpose. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you need a stove and sometimes you need a refrigerator!