Army.ca Status- The History of Outages & Dark Days

[GAP]

With a lot of places, if you are not a subscriber, you are limited. Just enough to not make you want to go away. A suggestion might me you can't access chat room after, say 15 minutes, if you are not a subscriber...that way people can chat, but their time is limited. Same goes for the forums. They can lurk, but to respond, you are limited to 2 or 3 /24hr.  May not be feasible, but most need to understand that upgrades don't come free, let alone the time spend just monitoring, etc.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

It's nothing intentional, we're just having some problems with out dual DSL connections unfortunately. I've contacted our ISP to see if we can improve the situation.


Thanks
Mike

 

[GAP]

I hope you understand, I wasn't suggesting anything was intentional, but it amazes me that for such a popular board, so few are willing to subscribe to it, in order that the costs are covered. We're not talking great gobs of $$ here.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Thanks. My intent is to provide the services at Army.ca for free. For those who chose to support it with a subscription (thanks!) they can enjoy some additional features, but not at the expense of the general user base. There are a lot of reasons people cannot or choose not to buy a subscription and I don't want to "punish" them but rather provide a small reward for those that can.

Thanks again!


Cheers
Mike

 

[couchcommander]

What about running a donation campaign, a la wikipedia? Put a paypal "donate" button up top there. You could offer donating as an alternative to subscribing, or of course for us subscribers that are willing to give more.

I know I would be willing to throw you another couple of bucks to keep this thing up and running.

Re: the DSL... is it all ADSL out there, ie 768k up?

 

[Cloud Cover]

that people are leaving to Troops.ca,

Wow- does that site look familiar.  :

 

[Franko]

I've noticed the lag as well and brought it to Mike's attention this morning.

I was thinking it was my browser (Firefox) but it sounds more like a Bell / ISP problem.

Regards

 

[Trinity]

Yeah...  getting the profile popup in chat won't work

And clicking on links in chat won't work for me either...


NOW...  that being said  I use firefox.

If I try it in Explorer they do work but I still experience the lag.

So some of our problems could be firefox not be compatiable?

 

[Franko]

No I don't think it's the browser at all.....or I'd have bigger problems than just lag.

I have had other notes such as " IP switch reset...." bla bla bla.

So methink's it's either Bell ( more than likely ) or the server itself.

Either way Mike's on it.

Regards

 

[Pea]

Just thought I would add I have been having trouble with lag as well. I find submitting a post, using the spellcheck, and reporting a post to a mod are taking quite a bit longer and sometimes just freeze up. Also, I have been getting booted from the chat as well, which is something I never had problems with before.

 

[Trinity]

Also, I have been getting booted from the chat as well, which is something I never had problems with before.

oh..  thats just the mod's using their secret "kick" button when they get tired of your chatting!!! 

 

[camochick]

Yeah I have had the lag too. The chat freezes up (perhaps it's cause i have been chatting too much too hehe) and sometimes i get an error page when clicking on a topic to read or trying to get into my PM's. I do however plan on subscribing soon, I've soaked off this site too much hehe. So Mike you can expect my subscription soon, probably when hubby gets paid (why use my own money when I can use his hahahahaha, marriage is great >)

 

[HItorMiss]

Now I'm not usually one to complain...  ;D

But yes in the last month or so (at least 3+ weeks) I have had issues such as the boards themselves going down for brief periods of times, more so then ever before.

loosing the chat, and all my logging info, which means re-submitting everything.

However as per I'm happy with everything and other then small complaint's Mike keep up the good work.

 

[GAP]

why use my own money when I can use his hahahahaha, marriage is great )

That reminds me of a radio advertisement playing here in Winnipeg (can't remember the company, just the ad) The woman wants the man to order grilled salmon so they can share, and he wants steak. When he questions why he can't just order what he wants she quotes "But honey, you gave all that up when you got married"   ;D

 

[Bert]

I don't know the specifics of Army.ca's chat window, but the contributions of lag and connection quality between
the client (you) and the Army.ca server do come into play.

Between the servers and client, active chats pass special data to keep the connection open.  The server
asks if you are there, and the client answers yes I am.  The idea is to close inactive sessions if the client suddenly
drops out.  The server tests occasionally to see if you're still there.   If the data is lagged, corrupted and misses
timings, the server/chat app may decide the session is inactive (when it may not be) and closes the session.  Trinity
gets knocked off.

Theres alot of possibilities that may contribute to the problem from Windows issues, router settings, to ISPs,
bad wiring, server/chat app settings, gateways and equipment and issues out on the 'net outside of the ISP
sphere.

If you suspect you may have connection issues, go to www.dslreports.com, click on tools, and perform a speed
test, tweak test, and/or DoctorPing.  Its free safe stuff.   It will give you a basic idea of the quality of your
connection from speed to packet loss.  Lot of other tools out there too.

I've never had problems with army.ca chat yet, but my connection rate and qaulity is good with Telus or at
least so far.

 

[Franko]

Ouch... I didn't think my site was that bad now...

Before this gets out of hand.....

Knock it off troops.

Regards

 

[Trinity]

Bert....

When 5 people get knocked out of chat at the same time,
I don't think it's an individual problem.

HOWEVER, thanks for the link, i will definately check out
my connection. 

 

[larry Strong]

I'm not having the same issues as you guys and anytime I have had issues I just run Macafee to get rid of any spyware then my Army.ca surfing is mega fast. Could it be your ISP? I also thought Mike mentioned that he is in the middle of upgrades right now...

I went back and dumped Yahoo Messanger, since it was the last thing I had configured, That got rid of the pop up problem. Thanks

 

[couchcommander]

I'm not so sure it's an individual connection issue. I've noticed this same problem (intermittent connection loss) from probably 30 different machines with 3 distinct internet connections (even different providers).

My home connection is pretty good, doesn't usually drop packets. Not to mention I get about 6.5 mbps down... :evil:

 

[Trinity]

I'm not so sure it's an individual connection issue. I've noticed this same problem (intermittent connection loss) from probably 30 different machines with 3 distinct internet connections (even different providers).

WHAT?  How often you do connect.  30 different machines, man you must be an addict.