Saturday, May 14, 2022

You Got Disconnected

Photo by Jonathan on Unsplash

NOTICE: This post was originally posted on Medium, but has later been moved to the official World Of Card Games blog to consolidate all posts.

Recently, I had to work from a coworking space where my Internet connection was spotty, at times.

Typically, the problem would rear its ugly head as follows: I’d be in the middle of developing something, need some documentation, open a web browser, and do a search. And then I’d wait… and wait… and wait. Eventually, I’d give up, close my browser, reopen it, and then my search would quickly load up.

After a few of these incidents, I decided that slow loading meant I should just turn off the WiFi on my computer, and then turn it on again. This usually seemed faster than just waiting to reconnect, or getting timed out.

I couldn’t figure it out. What was causing this strange and annoying problem? Was the WiFi router really that bad? I expect a coworking space to have really good Internet. After all, most people who use a coworking space are doing work on the Internet. You generally don’t see stacks of books and people typing away on a typewriter at a coworking space 🙂

One day, as I waited and wondered whether I needed to reset my WiFi, I noticed the droning of a microwave in the next room over. And then it hit me — the microwave was interfering with my WiFi! It seemed quite odd, but the next few times I got disconnected, I noticed the microwave running. It wasn’t exactly a science experiment, but I’ve become convinced that microwaves can interfere with WiFi! I’m guessing it depends on the router and the microwave, but I think it has happened to me too frequently to be a coincidence… Perhaps I need to place a tinfoil hat on my computer (or on me!).

When this happened to me, it was so frustrating! And I felt a lot of empathy with any player who has been frustrated with a disconnect from World of Card Games right smack in the middle of a game.

Sometimes, people will email me complaining about getting disconnected from the site. There have definitely been times in the past when everyone playing at the site got disconnected due to a problem with the hosting service (the “hosting service” is the company that maintains the big computer that runs World of Card Games software). However, the truth is that most disconnects are due to local problems — and often the culprit is bad WiFi. According to technology writer Geoffrey Fowler at the Washington Post, “Bad Internet connections are [Americans’] №1 tech problem”.

That Washington Post article outlines some things you can try to fix your Internet connection. And there’s a follow-up article with reader fixes for WiFi problems as well. Next time you get disconnected, try some of those suggested solutions. If they don’t work, check out my blog post where I describe my own experience with game player issues.

Or, just make sure the microwave is turned off before you play 🙂 And please comment here if you find anything that helps you, since it might help someone else.