ABOUT THE MSN-TV 2.8 UPGRADE

After using client version 2.8 for several weeks now, I can report that I find little or no difference from the 2.7 version. The upgrade was promoted as having better access to secure banking sites and better overall performance. It does seem at times that pages seem to load a little faster. I tried to use the online bill paying at one of my credit card banking sites that I was unable to use before, I found no change there. I have always been able to access my account there, but when I click to make a payment online, I would get a blank page. I still get the same blank page and am still unable to make a payment online at that site. I gave up on online bill paying because even when the sites do work with MSN-TV, it takes so long to step through and load the pages that it's faster and easier to just write a check and drop it in the mail.

There is one thing that I have been noticing with the 2.8 version. That is the "WebTV javascript and header bug", the browser bug that fails to read javascripts and the page title when it loads, leaving your title bar at the bottom blank. Some pages will show an on screen notice asking you to reload the page when this occurs. I seem to be experiencing an increase of this browser bug since upgrading to 2.8. Anytime you see "Getting Page" instead of the page title while loading, then your title bar is left blank when the page is loaded, you should reload the page by holding the Cmd key and the R key for a few seconds to load the page properly.

I have received some complaints on the 2.8 upgrade regarding the use of IRCs and chat. These complaints are coming from users of the new MSN-TV Classic by RCA. They tell me that their IRCs no longer work and they are having trouble accessing chat rooms other than MSN owned chat rooms. No complaints from Plus users have been received. I thought my IRCs stopped working with the 2.7 upgrade but I haven't used them in a long time and could be wrong.

On the up side, I have been pleasantly surprised to find that now we are able to open .rfc" attachments in email. I submitted a "Feature Request" for .rfc attachment support some time back. Did they actually read and grant it? Speaking of Email, have you seen the double cursor box in your sidebar yet? If you haven't, you will. You'll have one yellow box around "Discard" and another one around "Mail List" at the same time. I've only seen this once so far and didn't click to see which one worked. Just use your cursor keys to join them back together.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: Although my experience with this upgrade has so far been acceptable, you should be aware that I am using an RCA model RW-2110 WebTV "Plus" terminal with 16 Megs of RAM. This upgrade is designed for only newer WebTV units and may not perform well with older units.