Tuesday, March 11, 2014

network problems

I've had a number of reports about the site "freezing" on people, or cards piling up in the middle when they shouldn't. This has been happening occasionally since the site came into existence. However, it seems to have become more of a problem in the last couple of weeks.

network switch
network switch by kusumsiri
These problems can occur when there is internet "packet loss."  Packet loss is something like static on a telephone line. A human may be able to understand what a person is saying, based on partial delivery of the words being transmitted over a static-y phone line. In contrast, a computer cannot. The internet is designed to re-deliver messages that were interrupted by this kind of static, but it can lead to unusually long delays - a big problem for an online real-time game site, where timing matters.

I have no control over the internet hardware used to transmit messages around the globe... so this problem is not something that I can do much about. The most that I can do is report it to the people who own the computer hardware on which World of Card Games runs - these people are my "hosting service." Usually they resolve the problem, although it can take a while.

I still rely on reports from players in order to become aware of bugs. So I do appreciate getting your feedback!