DrPhysic
04-28-2004, 08:54 PM
To all who play on Stars: I am sure I am not the only one who has experienced loss of connection problems. And I am sure it occurs on all sites not just Poker Stars. However, I felt their answer was sufficiently helpful to be posted.
----- Original Message -----
Hi Stars,
substantive content of my e-mail:
I have had continuing loss of connection problems at Poker Stars. What do I do?
(E-m included connection type, other running programs, previous attempts at solution)
DrPhysic
Hello Dr,
If you're experiencing poor connectivity while playing at our site, please click the "Network..." button available in our connection window. Another window will then open up and show your connection status to PokerStars along with 6 other sites for comparison.
You can click the 'Advanced' button for the details of each connection as well as highlighting one of the sites listed. Lost packets to most or all of the sites are indicative of problems nearer your ISP or own computer (your connection is poor to everywhere). Lost packets to just one or two sites indicate problems closer to those sites.
Highlighting a site and clicking 'Trace' will display the "hops" between you and that site and how fast the data is travelling at that time. 100 milliseconds or so is great, over 500 milliseconds is slow and over 1 second is very bad. Look for "lost packets" on the trace
to PokerStars -- the closer the lost packets are to the top of the list, the closer the connection problem is to your own computer.
If your connection to sites other than just PokerStars is bad, then it's likely there's a router problem somewhere close to your ISP. You can inquire with your Internet Service Provider about this connectivity problem, or you can try again in a little while. A problem like this is usually temporary and in most cases, corrects itself. Your connection to PokerStars might even say "100%", even though you suffer temporary disconnects. This percentage is only a snapshot of the past few seconds, so if you suffer brief disconnects every few minutes, they may be difficult to spot by watching the Network Status.
If the connection is only poor for PokerStars, or has been a long-term connection problem here on PokerStars, then this may simply be revealing a connection stability problem that won't manifest itself on most other Internet applications.
The demands of online gaming on a connection are much higher than for the web, Email, or even a large download. Web browsing isn't a constant connection. With web browsing you load a page, and then your connection is "idle" -- you don't stay connected to the web server. The same is true of Email. However, with online gaming (whether poker or multiplayer Quake games), the connection is constant and must be very stable. You may be able to browse web pages even if your connection has intermittent outages of a few seconds... but those brief outages are death to online games.
If you're on a modem connection, sometimes modems will briefly stop exchanging user data to re-negotiate the connect speed. This will cause an apparent disconnect, even if your modem never drops carrier. Lowering your connect speed to 38,400 will often correct this, as lower connect speeds are not nearly as susceptible to speed "re-trainings" as those above 40 kbps. If you'd like a more detailed description of this from one of our connection specialists, please let us know.
For broadband (cable/DSL), which are typically more stable connections, sometimes there are temporary "flapping" troubles, where a broadband provider's network is up and down rapidly over short periods of time. Watch your cable or DSL modem's main connection light, and if it's occasionally going out you may want to ask your provider if they are having trouble or if they can check your connection for long-term stability. To diagnose broadband connection troubles, check and replace any network cables, and if you have a router try running with the line directly from your broadband modem to your network card, without the router in the loop. If it works, then you know your router may be faulty.
For all connections, if the "lost packets" in a trace to PokerStars are mid-way between your computer (the top of the trace) and our server (the bottom) , then there's little anyone can do but wait. Most Internet traffic passes through several ISP's to get to its
destination, and if the problem is a "middleman", you must simply wait for the middleman to correct their problem. Most times when the lost packets are in the middle of the trace, the problem router (the middleman) will be corrected within an hour or two.
Therefore, if this is only a temporary problem and your connection to PokerStars is usually good, we advise that you simply try again in an hour or two. That will give the ISP's involved a chance to notice, diagnose and correct the problem. If this is a long-term, recurring problem, please let us know more about your connection and we will have
one of our connectivity specialists take a more in-depth look for you.
Regards,
Raul
PokerStars Support Team
Hello Dr,
The next time you encounter this problem, it would be helpful if you could send us your program log files for your PokerStars program.
To do this, please load the PokerStars program. From the lobby, please click on 'Help'. Go to 'Log Files', then select 'Send log files to support'. This will automatically send the files to us for you.
Alternatively, you can select 'Save log files as ZIP...' and your log files will then automatically be saved as a .zip file on your hard drive. You can then attach this .zip file to an email and send it to us at support@pokerstars.com.
Please note it is important that you send us these files as soon as you can as they are only kept on your hard drive for a period of one day.
Regards,
Rob
PokerStars Support Team
----- Original Message -----
Hi Stars,
substantive content of my e-mail:
I have had continuing loss of connection problems at Poker Stars. What do I do?
(E-m included connection type, other running programs, previous attempts at solution)
DrPhysic
Hello Dr,
If you're experiencing poor connectivity while playing at our site, please click the "Network..." button available in our connection window. Another window will then open up and show your connection status to PokerStars along with 6 other sites for comparison.
You can click the 'Advanced' button for the details of each connection as well as highlighting one of the sites listed. Lost packets to most or all of the sites are indicative of problems nearer your ISP or own computer (your connection is poor to everywhere). Lost packets to just one or two sites indicate problems closer to those sites.
Highlighting a site and clicking 'Trace' will display the "hops" between you and that site and how fast the data is travelling at that time. 100 milliseconds or so is great, over 500 milliseconds is slow and over 1 second is very bad. Look for "lost packets" on the trace
to PokerStars -- the closer the lost packets are to the top of the list, the closer the connection problem is to your own computer.
If your connection to sites other than just PokerStars is bad, then it's likely there's a router problem somewhere close to your ISP. You can inquire with your Internet Service Provider about this connectivity problem, or you can try again in a little while. A problem like this is usually temporary and in most cases, corrects itself. Your connection to PokerStars might even say "100%", even though you suffer temporary disconnects. This percentage is only a snapshot of the past few seconds, so if you suffer brief disconnects every few minutes, they may be difficult to spot by watching the Network Status.
If the connection is only poor for PokerStars, or has been a long-term connection problem here on PokerStars, then this may simply be revealing a connection stability problem that won't manifest itself on most other Internet applications.
The demands of online gaming on a connection are much higher than for the web, Email, or even a large download. Web browsing isn't a constant connection. With web browsing you load a page, and then your connection is "idle" -- you don't stay connected to the web server. The same is true of Email. However, with online gaming (whether poker or multiplayer Quake games), the connection is constant and must be very stable. You may be able to browse web pages even if your connection has intermittent outages of a few seconds... but those brief outages are death to online games.
If you're on a modem connection, sometimes modems will briefly stop exchanging user data to re-negotiate the connect speed. This will cause an apparent disconnect, even if your modem never drops carrier. Lowering your connect speed to 38,400 will often correct this, as lower connect speeds are not nearly as susceptible to speed "re-trainings" as those above 40 kbps. If you'd like a more detailed description of this from one of our connection specialists, please let us know.
For broadband (cable/DSL), which are typically more stable connections, sometimes there are temporary "flapping" troubles, where a broadband provider's network is up and down rapidly over short periods of time. Watch your cable or DSL modem's main connection light, and if it's occasionally going out you may want to ask your provider if they are having trouble or if they can check your connection for long-term stability. To diagnose broadband connection troubles, check and replace any network cables, and if you have a router try running with the line directly from your broadband modem to your network card, without the router in the loop. If it works, then you know your router may be faulty.
For all connections, if the "lost packets" in a trace to PokerStars are mid-way between your computer (the top of the trace) and our server (the bottom) , then there's little anyone can do but wait. Most Internet traffic passes through several ISP's to get to its
destination, and if the problem is a "middleman", you must simply wait for the middleman to correct their problem. Most times when the lost packets are in the middle of the trace, the problem router (the middleman) will be corrected within an hour or two.
Therefore, if this is only a temporary problem and your connection to PokerStars is usually good, we advise that you simply try again in an hour or two. That will give the ISP's involved a chance to notice, diagnose and correct the problem. If this is a long-term, recurring problem, please let us know more about your connection and we will have
one of our connectivity specialists take a more in-depth look for you.
Regards,
Raul
PokerStars Support Team
Hello Dr,
The next time you encounter this problem, it would be helpful if you could send us your program log files for your PokerStars program.
To do this, please load the PokerStars program. From the lobby, please click on 'Help'. Go to 'Log Files', then select 'Send log files to support'. This will automatically send the files to us for you.
Alternatively, you can select 'Save log files as ZIP...' and your log files will then automatically be saved as a .zip file on your hard drive. You can then attach this .zip file to an email and send it to us at support@pokerstars.com.
Please note it is important that you send us these files as soon as you can as they are only kept on your hard drive for a period of one day.
Regards,
Rob
PokerStars Support Team