ASP.NET MVC 3 and JQuery on long-running operations -

i have web-application written on asp.net mvc 3. on client side used jquery. main part of application grid of items. each item has own progress bar , need show realtime progress. unfortunately, need 10 20 seconds fetch data (this pretty difficult process of data aggregation few web-services), need hide process user. thus, have 2 types of operations. first type update operation can called asyncronously (we can inherit asynccontroller , use jquery call operation - sort of long-polling) , second type first load of page. far see, should performed syncroniously, need show loading message.

my question simple - how can show such message using jquery while sync data fetching running?

thanks!

if want roll own, can use following:

$('#loadingdiv')     .show()  // hide     .ajaxstop(function() {         $(this).remove();     }); 

there several plugins jquery support modal popups. use 1 of these accomplish same, may overkill.