[Quantumcat]

I can't use BBO. Every few minutes, it takes 10-30 seconds to see somebody's bid or play.

In Partnership Bidding, even with the GIBs turned off, East/West sometimes take 5 seconds to a minute to pass.

This makes no sense as they are instructed to pass, so there shouldn't need to be any communication with the BBO server.

My internet is completely fine. It says "excellent" in Connection Status, with five bars out of five. I can watch youtube clips, download things etc. with no problems, so it's not my internet's fault.

I would appreciate anyone who can suggest a way to fix this. It is annoying to pay for GIBs and not be able to use them :-(

[barmar]

Are you using the old or new version? If it's happening with the old version, does it get better if you use the new version?

[Quantumcat]

barmar, on 2012-July-16, 06:50, said:

Are you using the old or new version? If it's happening with the old version, does it get better if you use the new version?

We haven't really used the new version because we couldn't work out how to get most of the functionality of the old version (setting the parameters for the practice bidding hands, using the Full Disclosure convention cards, getting GIB to do the EW bidding, double dummy analysis when kibitzing, etc). And using the keyboard to play cards on the new version doesn't really work because the focus keeps shifting to the chat bar so you have to click before most plays anyway.

We'll give it a try and get back to you.

Thanks

[BunnyGo]

Put on a sweater.










(sorry couldn't resist)

[Quantumcat]

barmar, on 2012-July-16, 06:50, said:

Are you using the old or new version? If it's happening with the old version, does it get better if you use the new version?

I've tried the browser version, and it still froze eventually, but in this case it never came back. With the old version, when it froze, it was usually only for a few minutes at a time.
Also, while both interfaces were frozen, I tried doing some other things on the internet to confirm the connection. I even watched a streaming YouTube video without interruption. After a couple of minutes into the video, the Old BBO unfroze (flipping through two whole deals in one second) but the browser version remained on the frozen card until it eventually timed back to the login screen ten minutes later.

[barmar]

There's a big difference between YouTube and BBO. YouTube, like many other major Internet services (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.), makes use of a worldwide network of servers (called a Content Delivery Network, see here), so you're using a server in Australia.

BBO doesn't currently use a CDN. All our servers are in the US. Internet connectivity between Australia and the US can be quite slow at times.

[Quantumcat]

Ok, I was hoping there might have been something we could do - it is strange as we have changed nothing on our computers, and it was working fine a few months ago. I guess we have to give up.

[FM75]

barmar, on 2012-July-16, 22:34, said:

There's a big difference between YouTube and BBO. YouTube, like many other major Internet services (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.), makes use of a worldwide network of servers (called a Content Delivery Network, see here), so you're using a server in Australia.

BBO doesn't currently use a CDN. All our servers are in the US. Internet connectivity between Australia and the US can be quite slow at times.

I do not find this explanation persuasive. For example, Voice on Vugraph works quite nicely even when commentators are in Europe. Voice has a much higher bandwidth requirement than passing a bid, or play between two end-points. However, the voice *might* be streaming on an HTTP connection. I do not know what type of protocol the two clients use, but it would have to work without the benefit of a CDN realistically anyway, since the content is dynamic, not static, like a video, and the 4 seats at a table can all be players from different continents. If it were that simple, then tournaments in Australia would simply be impossible.

Even if Australia - US bandwidth is lower, the complaint is that it has gotten worse on both clients, not that it is bad. So what has changed? QuantumCat's type of connection? Activity in Australia? Does an iPad do better? Was the problem during some intense BBO activity from Australia/NZ?

[Rain]

Is this a recent thing (in the past few days)? I have heard a few other BBOers indicate there may be some problems during peak hours recently and uday was informed yesterday. But since everyone is away at the nationals we may not be able to do anything about it right now. We'll keep an eye on this and check soon. Thanks for feedback.

[Quantumcat]

Rain, on 2012-July-17, 16:58, said:

Is this a recent thing (in the past few days)? I have heard a few other BBOers indicate there may be some problems during peak hours recently and uday was informed yesterday.

Yes, we've only noticed this in the past week. We normally play in the evenings (about 2am-4am Las Vegas time).

A couple of other clues that might help narrow it down:
1) We've also tried the iPad version, and it runs at lightning speed for hours when playing anonymously at a robot table (gets through at least one deal per minute). But at a live table it always freezes after a few minutes.
2) On one occasion, while my hand was frozen (browser version), the redeal button was still functional. Each time I clicked redeal, the new deal came up on my partner's iPad -- even though my computer remained stuck on the original frozen deal. I was hosting a partnership table using saved deals.

[momo3491]

Rain, on 2012-July-17, 16:58, said:

Is this a recent thing (in the past few days)? I have heard a few other BBOers indicate there may be some problems during peak hours recently and uday was informed yesterday. But since everyone is away at the nationals we may not be able to do anything about it right now. We'll keep an eye on this and check soon. Thanks for feedback.

Well, maybe I can add some additional comments. I am new to BBO and also new to the Apple community, having just bought a MacBook Air, as a second computer (always been a PC person). Started using it less than one week ago. As for old and new versions of BBO, whatever comes up when I hit the shortcut is what I'm using. Assume it is the "new". I am having the exact same problem with freezing. Interestingly, when I log out and then log in with my PC, NO PROBLEM. I have left my partner waiting for my response many times while I sit and wait for something to happen with a robot. Sometimes is unfreezes but it is basically non-functional. Once I got a string of error messages saying it couldn't execute the commands. So it seems to be something unique to the Apple. I have cleared the cashe and have the newest version of Flash Player installed. Any thoughts?

[barmar]

momo3491, on 2012-July-19, 07:37, said:

Well, maybe I can add some additional comments. I am new to BBO and also new to the Apple community, having just bought a MacBook Air, as a second computer (always been a PC person). Started using it less than one week ago. As for old and new versions of BBO, whatever comes up when I hit the shortcut is what I'm using. Assume it is the "new". I am having the exact same problem with freezing. Interestingly, when I log out and then log in with my PC, NO PROBLEM. I have left my partner waiting for my response many times while I sit and wait for something to happen with a robot. Sometimes is unfreezes but it is basically non-functional. Once I got a string of error messages saying it couldn't execute the commands. So it seems to be something unique to the Apple. I have cleared the cashe and have the newest version of Flash Player installed. Any thoughts?

The "old version" is the Windows version that you have to download, instead of going to a web page; it only works on PCs (or Windows emulators). Is that what you use on your PC? It looks completely different from the new version, so you should be able to tell the difference.

[momo3491]

What I use on my PC is the new version. Any ideas about the Mac problem?

[barmar]

Can you try using a different browser and see if it makes a difference?

[momo3491]

barmar, on 2012-July-20, 22:19, said:

Can you try using a different browser and see if it makes a difference?

I did that already (Chrome) and it made no difference. I did, however, ask a friend who also has a MacBook to try to use BBO. She had no problem using both Safari and Firefox. So next I plan to take my computer to the Apple store and get some help. At least we can confirm that BBO works on MACS (except for me). Thanks for your continued interest.

[barmar]

Uday and I both use Macs, so if there were a general problem with BBO on Macs you can be sure we'd know about it and get it fixed.

[momo3491]

barmar, on 2012-July-21, 21:10, said:

Uday and I both use Macs, so if there were a general problem with BBO on Macs you can be sure we'd know about it and get it fixed.

I thought I would let you know how this got resolved, which it did. I replaced my router (Buffalo) with a new Cisco router and that solved the problem. There was some incompatibility between the Buffalo router and the BBO. I had previously had trouble getting a Barnes and Noble Nook to connect with that same router. Took about an hour with tech support at Buffalo to fix the problem. This time, I decided to just get a new router. So everything is now working fine. Thanks again for your interest.

[barmar]

It's not really possible for a router to be "incompatible with BBO" -- we're just sending ordinary TCP/IP data, and a properly functioning router should just pass it through like anything else.

However, sometimes routers just go bad, and one of the ways this can manifest is that they're sensitive to some data patterns. This might happen to match something BBO sends frequently, so the bug affects BBO more than most other network applications.

[bawarde]

I can confirm the following:

BBO is freezing every 10 minutes so. Previously the freezing used to start after 30m or so which has progressively increased down to 10m now.
Once it starts freezing it will not stop till the next fresh login. Well over 50 Tasks are generated (as shown by the MS TAsk Manager utility) when the freezing starts.
Nothing wrong with anyone's computer. BBO's fault.

If there is no easy workaround the problem then time to leave BBO forever and let them stew in their own technical incompetencies.

[barmar]

What are all those extra tasks named?

Are you using the download version or the web version? If it's the download version, forget about us trying to fix it.