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ajqtrz
Chef - loquacious Old Dog
When your system starts to lag and you find yourself able to write a novel between screens it's time to do some analysis. Since you are moving information from one place to another and each piece is traveling through up to 30 devices and 30 physical or wireless "hops" it can be maddening to figure out what's going on. But before you blame the web developers at the other end of that long chain of hops, take a look at these things and see if you can spot the problem, and sometimes solve it, for yourself.
Find the scope of the problem. The scope can be as wide as the internet itself, or as narrow as the particular device, software operating system (OS) version, update of the OS, browser type and version or just about anything else of the tens and hundreds of things between you and what you want. As noted above, there can be up to 30 hops between you and the needed data, and that doesn't include all the versions of all the software in those devices, including in yours. So...
a) try it in a different browser if you are on a PC. I have 3 I use.
b) if you can try it on a different device. This is great for seeing if your system has problems.
c) make sure your browsers are up to date.
d) make sure the game is the latest version (this is usually automatic but I'd check anyway)
e) restart your device. Technically this clears out something called a "memory leak," and that gives your system more room to work.
f) restart your router/modem. This might be 1 or 2 devices. I just unplug them, wait 5 seconds, plug them back in, and then wait about 5 minutes. This does about the same thing as e, but fixes different problems.
After this try again. If it's all clear and good, you know the problem was probably local -- the most likely cause. If not, try those different browsers again. If the other browsers work, I'd uninstall the one I was using, restart, and then download and install the newest version and try again.
In about 80% of the cases these will solve your problem. You found the problem scope to be local. But if not, there are other things you can do to analyze the problem.
If your problem isn't local it could be with your ISP (Internet Service Provider). If the line conditions between your and your CO (Central Office -- what they call the place where their router farm is) and you are poor -- usually moisture in the system the packets of information you are transmitting and receiving can get corrupt -- which means they system will just ask for it to be sent again...and again.....and again up to some magic number of times before it issues a "can't connect," or "system error," or whatever. The "lock up" is usually due to it going through all those attempts and can last up to a couple of minutes. Usually you just give up and restart before that.
To test your internet connection you can run an "Internet Speed Test" Go to: https://www.speedtest.net/ and click on "Go". After that wait a couple of minutes and note your download speed. Compare it to what you are paying for....meaning what your ISP is supposed to be delivering and if it's way low, your lines may be having a problem. I would do this several times over about a half hour since line conditions can fluctuate and it may appear fine the first time, second time, third time....until it doesn't.
If there are problems, call your ISP. Be patient as they will test your modem/router first. They can't test all of it though, and thus, while they may see it as "fine," the problem may be on the side of the device in your home network (the division is called the "gateway"), and thus, it could still be their problem (provided they own the device). In any case if the problem persists you can usually get them to replace the device, though some will try to charge you for the service. They never have me, but I can't cover the policies of the many ISP's out there.
Another way to determine the scope, besides what has been noted above, is to note the places the problem occurs and the places it does not. If you only experience it at one web site it may be that web site -- though it's a tough call if that's the only game web site you use it may be that all the other sites are having problems too (indicating the scope is wider than just your game site), but you might not see it because your internet connection/system condition are good enough for all those other sites. Games take a bit more bandwidth than most things so you might not notice it in other places.
Finally, if everything seems okay locally, your ISP is fine, and everything works in other programs -- especially graphic intensive games -- it might be the game site. You would then go to the forum and look to see if others are having problems. They may, and often do, have the solution, or at least information about the problem and when it's going to be solved. And if you are the only one you may have missed something local. Again, the scope of the problem is key to fixing it. In any case, if you decide to go to tech support do include a number of things as that can help them find the source of the problem
1) the device type. Mobile or PC or Tablet or refrigerator (don't laugh I have one that connects to the internet and you can theoretically play Elvenar on it!)
2) the Operating System (Windows with version, Android, IOS, Chrome or whatever.)
3) the browser version or emulator if you are running the mobile version on a PC.
4) the game version
5) If consistency of the problem -- some problems are intermittent. They are the toughest to track down as you can "solve" the problem, or think you did, because it wasn't present when you tested...only to have it return again a few hours or days later.
6) Describe the problem with as much detail as you can. Include the problem description and what you have tried to fix it.
For instance: "The thing didn't work" is not as good as "the icon disappears after 2 seconds when I click on it and I get a message, 'System error 10659.' It then freezes." In some ways the more details the better.
And "I tried everything" is not as good as "I tried on another system I have, reset all my devices, rebooted, cleaned my internet cache, tested my internet speed (40MB/4MB), tried to play World of Warcraft (it worked fine), and looked at the forums and found others having the same problem. They suggested some of the things listed and I tried everything they suggested."
And if you can figure out how to make it happen and pass that on too. What steps you took to cause the error allows them to reproduce the error or at least determine if the error is in their program to some degree. We used to say we couldn't solve problems we can't reproduce, though we tried and often managed to do it with some general system maintenance. But it was "iffy."
7) Be patient. More than likely the problem will take some time to rectify and often it will just go away for reasons nobody quite understands, but it will, eventually, go away.
I'm sure I've missed some things and others have some things to add or even correct (shock!). But this is my take on the matter.
AJ
Find the scope of the problem. The scope can be as wide as the internet itself, or as narrow as the particular device, software operating system (OS) version, update of the OS, browser type and version or just about anything else of the tens and hundreds of things between you and what you want. As noted above, there can be up to 30 hops between you and the needed data, and that doesn't include all the versions of all the software in those devices, including in yours. So...
a) try it in a different browser if you are on a PC. I have 3 I use.
b) if you can try it on a different device. This is great for seeing if your system has problems.
c) make sure your browsers are up to date.
d) make sure the game is the latest version (this is usually automatic but I'd check anyway)
e) restart your device. Technically this clears out something called a "memory leak," and that gives your system more room to work.
f) restart your router/modem. This might be 1 or 2 devices. I just unplug them, wait 5 seconds, plug them back in, and then wait about 5 minutes. This does about the same thing as e, but fixes different problems.
After this try again. If it's all clear and good, you know the problem was probably local -- the most likely cause. If not, try those different browsers again. If the other browsers work, I'd uninstall the one I was using, restart, and then download and install the newest version and try again.
In about 80% of the cases these will solve your problem. You found the problem scope to be local. But if not, there are other things you can do to analyze the problem.
If your problem isn't local it could be with your ISP (Internet Service Provider). If the line conditions between your and your CO (Central Office -- what they call the place where their router farm is) and you are poor -- usually moisture in the system the packets of information you are transmitting and receiving can get corrupt -- which means they system will just ask for it to be sent again...and again.....and again up to some magic number of times before it issues a "can't connect," or "system error," or whatever. The "lock up" is usually due to it going through all those attempts and can last up to a couple of minutes. Usually you just give up and restart before that.
To test your internet connection you can run an "Internet Speed Test" Go to: https://www.speedtest.net/ and click on "Go". After that wait a couple of minutes and note your download speed. Compare it to what you are paying for....meaning what your ISP is supposed to be delivering and if it's way low, your lines may be having a problem. I would do this several times over about a half hour since line conditions can fluctuate and it may appear fine the first time, second time, third time....until it doesn't.
If there are problems, call your ISP. Be patient as they will test your modem/router first. They can't test all of it though, and thus, while they may see it as "fine," the problem may be on the side of the device in your home network (the division is called the "gateway"), and thus, it could still be their problem (provided they own the device). In any case if the problem persists you can usually get them to replace the device, though some will try to charge you for the service. They never have me, but I can't cover the policies of the many ISP's out there.
Another way to determine the scope, besides what has been noted above, is to note the places the problem occurs and the places it does not. If you only experience it at one web site it may be that web site -- though it's a tough call if that's the only game web site you use it may be that all the other sites are having problems too (indicating the scope is wider than just your game site), but you might not see it because your internet connection/system condition are good enough for all those other sites. Games take a bit more bandwidth than most things so you might not notice it in other places.
Finally, if everything seems okay locally, your ISP is fine, and everything works in other programs -- especially graphic intensive games -- it might be the game site. You would then go to the forum and look to see if others are having problems. They may, and often do, have the solution, or at least information about the problem and when it's going to be solved. And if you are the only one you may have missed something local. Again, the scope of the problem is key to fixing it. In any case, if you decide to go to tech support do include a number of things as that can help them find the source of the problem
1) the device type. Mobile or PC or Tablet or refrigerator (don't laugh I have one that connects to the internet and you can theoretically play Elvenar on it!)
2) the Operating System (Windows with version, Android, IOS, Chrome or whatever.)
3) the browser version or emulator if you are running the mobile version on a PC.
4) the game version
5) If consistency of the problem -- some problems are intermittent. They are the toughest to track down as you can "solve" the problem, or think you did, because it wasn't present when you tested...only to have it return again a few hours or days later.
6) Describe the problem with as much detail as you can. Include the problem description and what you have tried to fix it.
For instance: "The thing didn't work" is not as good as "the icon disappears after 2 seconds when I click on it and I get a message, 'System error 10659.' It then freezes." In some ways the more details the better.
And "I tried everything" is not as good as "I tried on another system I have, reset all my devices, rebooted, cleaned my internet cache, tested my internet speed (40MB/4MB), tried to play World of Warcraft (it worked fine), and looked at the forums and found others having the same problem. They suggested some of the things listed and I tried everything they suggested."
And if you can figure out how to make it happen and pass that on too. What steps you took to cause the error allows them to reproduce the error or at least determine if the error is in their program to some degree. We used to say we couldn't solve problems we can't reproduce, though we tried and often managed to do it with some general system maintenance. But it was "iffy."
7) Be patient. More than likely the problem will take some time to rectify and often it will just go away for reasons nobody quite understands, but it will, eventually, go away.
I'm sure I've missed some things and others have some things to add or even correct (shock!). But this is my take on the matter.
AJ
