If you're not seeing the most recent information on your computer screen, you are probably experiencing a problem with your cache--a problem shared by many America Online users.
AOL's built-in browser temporarily stores images and text from the Web pages on your hard drive in a storage area called a cache.
When the cache fills up, performance can slow down, and your hard drive may run out of space.
When you visit a web page for the second and future times, your browser is supposed to do a date/time check on the cached copy of the page you are visiting, to see if the Internet copy is newer and load it if it is.
Sometimes, browsers don't work properly. Refresh or reload is supposed to fix this problem, but occasionally that doesn't work either. You will need to clear your cache.
To start the following steps, click on the 'My AOL' icon and scroll down to 'Preferences'. The Preferences box should appear.
1. Click on the Toolbar icon.
- Under History Trail, place a check on 'Clear history trail after each sign off or switch screen name.'
- Click on the 'Clear History Now' button.
- Click Yes on'WWW' icon.
- AOL Properties box should appear.
2. The middle section of the box should be Temporary Internet Files.
- Click on the 'Delete Files' button.
- Place a check on the 'Delete all offline content' box.
- Click OK.
- Click on the Settings button to the right of Delete Files.
- Make sure that you have 'Every visit to the page' checked on.
- Click OK.
3. The lower section of the box should be History.
- Set your Days to keep pages in history to '1.'
- Click on the 'Clear History' button.
- Click OK.
- Click on the 'Advanced' tab.
- Scroll down to the section labeled 'Cookies'.
- Place a check on 'Accept all cookies'.
- Scroll down to the section below Cookies labeled Java VM.
- Place a check on all of the Java Options listed below:
- Java console enabled (requires restart)
- Java JIT compiler enabled
- Java logging enabled
4. Final Steps in the Preferences Box. (necessary for changes to go in effect.)
- Click on Apply.
- Click on OK.
- Click on Signoff.
- Scroll down to Signoff to log out of AOL.
- Click on File.
- Scroll to Exit.
- When you're done, shut your computer completely down (not just a restart). Then turn your computer back on and return to the Web site you're trying to view. This should correct the problem.
HINT: TO ENSURE THAT YOUR BROWSER PERFORMS EFFECIENTLY, REPEAT STEPS 2 and 4 ON A REGULAR BASIS. MY RECOMMENDATION IS AFTER EACH TIME YOU BROWSE THE INTERNET. STEPS 1 AND 3 DO NOT NEED TO BE REPEATED AFTER THE FIRST TIME COMPLETED.
