BLITZ: Troubles + what BROWSER using?
Sort:
Hi ERIK~! Just want to say, as per chewybac5, I do realize it is beta. And beta is as beta does :) ... but mostly to point out, I didn't post this as a complaint. My objective here is to see if I cannot get some input from the players more experienced with it, to see: (1) What problems have been had. (2) Might I be causing myself any of them somehow? Or my choice of connection & software, etc. And (3) most importantly; what have others done or tried to smooth things where possible at this time. I would like very much to think that if there is some manner I can make my own experience there more workable, that I AM trying to "do my part" to make it so.
Seeking knowledge, for knowledge is (Blitz) power, type of exercise here 
. And wanting to make sure I am helping myself out, where possible; rather than making it worst for myself or the other player. (Eg I once found on another site, that if you had a certain program minimized in the background during blitz, it tended to put the other players pieces en prise on an unintended square ??! He was quick to point out, HE did NOT plan to put his Queen on d4 where I play PAWN x Queen @ d4 !! So I am careful now to keep background to a minimum when playing Chess online }8-)
What's your OS?
Ihave no issues with Firefox on Win XP Sp2.
no issues ie 7 on xp sp2
Thanks everyone for the responses~! Eternal21 I am also on Windows XP when using Firefox (or with IE also). I do not know what Sp2 refers to? I am on a Pentium-4D Model 820 however, if that is helpful.
It was surprising to hear you both are without these issues! So I have looked over my own set-up and tried running with Only the browsers active (& only one at a time :) & only this site + the LIVE page, making sure of no prior urls nor programs started. But I still have had the same issues. Although I must say I played today and had none at all; using each browser for awhile. The only difference being IE7 had the better response times today, which were quite good! (even With some prior tags minimized too). If it continues being as good as today, that will be Great~!
I do enjoy the blitz play here more than other places, when things are running smoothly with the interface . . .
( Before switching to IE-7 today, I did have ONE especially bad response time; sitting there with Mate-in-one to play, and could Not get it to pick up the piece. With mere seconds left, I sit and try to summon whatever ESP might be left over, perhaps floating about in the air, from the 70's. And with great concentration, chanting my mantra; "c'mon, c'mon, c'omn ...c'mon, move~! Move, move, move! Now! " ....apparently it worked, after 7 or 8 seconds. Whew )
I am pleased, I can say that LIVE Chess has been working better for me lately. Tho I notice it can be dependant upon the number of total games being played at one time. With 40 to 60 or more, it gets slow and sticky. But around 30 or under, it plays well for me now. However, once this week there was a time when my opponent got knocked out of the room, and at the same time several others did too, as I saw them on the chat area, one having thought his opponent had put him Out somehow, due to being faced with mate in one. Having been in the same situation, I know that frustration ... and so was happy to be able to CHAT to them that others got KO'd at the same instant, and everybody was bygones again. I wonder how often it happens that the unrequested LOGOFFS happen en-masse ? Is this something others have seen? Or perhaps it is more often an Individual player event? Just curious.
Please include the option to FINGER my opponent.
an option to dissable the channel chat while playing to save bandwidth.
May I ask what type of implementation is this? Java? Is it possible to make an installable client because its much faster?
cheers! :)
I have FOUND the alltime blitz success SECRET for this site. All the problems seem to be worked out now, of the programming, as far as I have seen lately. The one that remains is that the server gets bogged down, when like today there were 257(!!) players in the Main Hall. The big secret IS: JUst CHANGE ROOMS~! Another player met me in the Room called BLITZ HOUSE and we had it all to ourselves! So EVERY MOVE was INSTANTANEOUS and there was NO GETTING LOGGED_OUT~! And NO BETA Problems, at all-!
***
UNfortunately, when you try to tell other players that, by CHAT in the MAIN HALL ...No one believes it and they all stay and have problems in MAIN HALL, where over 85 Games were going at once! By simply changing to one of the other two rooms tho, SMART PLAYERS can have a FANTASTIC Blitz Experience that is as good as ANY BLITZ Server on the entire Web~! It is too bad that no one seems to know it . . . For instance, if those 85 games were divided between the three rooms instead of all in one room ... then all 3 rooms would have had Excellent response time and no LogOut errors. Sigh ... too bad.
I see now that browser recommendations have been made by this site for Live Chess use. So I did try that today, and yes it was working wonderfully for me. (!) BIG EXCITEMENT (!).
***
And so I've spent some time today beginning to climb out of my 800-ish point rating deflation, caused largely from the past troubles with disconnects aor freezing or slow response. I must say, it is finally becoming F U N to play Live Chess here. If it keeps getting better, I look forward to making it my main blitz site and getting a membership here for that purpose. The players have been generally good chaps with manners, unlike the poor sports that some sites seems always to have on them. And they provide a proper level of playing challenge and diversity, now, since not getting knocked offline like before. Keep up the good work Chess Com ... ! }8-)
Sigh I spoke too soon. Now I cannot get even logged back into Live Dhess play. And for some reason I cannot see the words that I am typing here either. I wonder if they will show up. At lieast my smiley did. I can see that.
Greetings Everyone. I am in my first month here. Please excuse if this has come up before.
I am wondering what BROWSER You use for playing OTB/Blitz type games here on ChessCom? And which Browser(s) you have had trouble with while using it there. And what kind of troubles? I have tried so far, with WindowsXP: IE-7, Mozilla Firefox, and AOLexplorer Browser (which is not the same as going thru AOL site, tho I may try that soon.)
The problems I have had include: Will not Logon to Live area at all for hours/ slow response to move pieces/ being kicked out of the board play area back to the Live Logon stage and taking forfeit when relogged. Strangely it has always happened During a game, not between. Those problems have been the first two browsers I mention. The AOL browser has been trouble free until today. Now I had my board completely freeze from moving, when about to go up a Rook. Then later (after reloggingto the site and area, as I always do after any problem occurs) it sat over 3 min. in a 7 min game, showing my opponent's clock in red ...to mean it was his move. Yet in the end, it told ME I lost on time, without ever showing that he ever made another move; of course being at a point where I was just going to make advantage. These things have not happened when I am losing anyway! Probably just the bad luck of the draw, as the saying goes. But will be interested to see if that continues. Anyone had similar cases ?!?
Regards, Craig A.C.
PS// Are there anythings you do, that HELP you have a better blitz experience? One that I typically do, is to turn-up the Browser Processes to HIGH when blitzing. And on other sites, I've found Firefox to play faster than my IE, perhaps being a much smaller program(?). Yet AOLexplorer is also faster than IE-7, & at least equal to F-Fox, tho byte-size is inbetween. Must be efficiency issues of the coding too?