"Welcome to Winster, where friends help
friends win FREE prizes. Try my games now!"
- Winnie Winster, Founder and Host
friends win FREE prizes. Try my games now!"
- Winnie Winster, Founder and Host
Technical Support
There are several places where problems and delays can occur.
The first is called "bandwidth" - this is the speed of the connection, which determines how fast information can be moved between you and us. Certain types of data, mainly pictures, videos, and sound, can be quite large, and without sufficient bandwidth, they can clog up the connection. By analogy, this is like moving a lot of cars though a narrow tunnel - it can take a while.
The second is called " "latency" - this is the delay between when information is sent and when it arrives. By analogy, a red light at an intersection delays all the traffic, but once it is green, a lot of cars can pass through the intersection quickly. A good example of latency is when you take two cell phones and call one from the other. You speak into one, and you hear an 'echo' of your voice in the other. Even though all the sound gets through, there is a delay in how long it takes to get there.
Bandwidth: You can test your own bandwidth at several sites on the internet, for example at:
http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/
How fast is fast enough? A very rough guide is that you are likely to experience poor performance if your bandwidth is less than 300 Kbps (that's 300,000 bits per second). Note that most dialup connections are well below this.
Latency: We have built a latency test directly into Winster. When you send a message to us (for instance, when you click the spin button), we make a note of the time on your computer. When our server responds, it also sends back the length of time it took to process your message. When this is received on your computer, we check the time again, and subtract the time we spent processing on our site. The difference is the amount of time it took in the internet to get the information round trip between you and us - the latency.
If the latency is more than a few seconds, we display a warning message on your screen, alerting you to the problem. Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do to reduce internet latency, since it is outside of our control. Most of the time, long latency is caused by the last hop - that is between your internet service provider and you. An analogy is to think of the internet as a connected system of local roads and national highways. It's much more likely that a local road is blocked than a national highway, or at least, the highway is going to get faster attention. Winster is located right near the highway; you may be located at the end of a local road.
Certain types of internet connections, such as satellite and wireless (cell phone company) connections, are frequently subject to high latency.
As a general guide, if your latency is more than 250ms (250 milliseconds, or one quarter of a second), you will notice delays when playing at Winster and things will seem to 'lag'.
Just because you can 'see' other web sites or play on other games sites without problems does not mean that your latency is OK, because most other sites do not require fast communication between players, or between you and them - a delay of a few seconds doesn't matter. A good analogy is that it doesn't matter if a TV show you are watching is delayed 10 seconds, but you wouldn't want to talk on a phone call where the sound is delayed by 10 seconds in each direction.
Sometimes you can get better service by requesting it from your internet service provider, or by switching providers. If you'd like to see whether the problem is affecting a wider region in your area, you can check the Internet Traffic Report:
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm
One very common problem (particularly in offices) is that these devices contain filters ("firewalls") that prevent certain types of traffic from passing through. Firewalls typically don't like it when sources outside your local network send you information that you didn't specifically request. Unfortunately, we have to do this all the time - for instance, when someone offers to trade with you.
Winster's program on your computer communicates with our servers in two ways. The first is through a standard web-page request (an "http" request). In general, we use this method whenever you take an action like spin, move a piece, etc. We acknowledge these requests in the standard way, and most local networks let these requests pass without objecting.
The other way is through a special connection ("push socket") that we establish with your computer, and sometimes local networks don't allow such connections. The symptoms of blocking these connections are that you can log in, but after a few seconds get a message that says "communication interrupted". Also, when you spin you will not see the response, you will not see your own chats, and you will not see other people in your room spinning or chatting.
The technical details are that we need to connect to your computer on ports in the 8000-9000 range - this information may help you or your computer expert to 'open up' these ports and let us pass.
Firewalls and antivirus software: The most common problem on your computer is that an aggressive firewall or antivirus program takes a dislike to Winster, usually due to the way we are communicating with you. Typical symptoms of this problem are that you get a "communication interrupted" message, or you get stuck loading on a blue/grey screen, or at a message that we are "looking for a seat", or "loading". To test this, temporarily turn off any firewalls or antivirus program and see if that clears up the problem. Then turn it back on, and see if you can tell it that Winster is OK with you.
Flash: A second kind of problem is that you may not have an up to date version of Flash. It is supposed to upgrade automatically, but this may not always happen correctly. If you have an older version of Flash, our games may seem sluggish, or may not load at all. Typical symptoms of this are if you get stuck on a blue/grey screen, or it stops at a screen saying we are "looking for a seat" or "loading".
If this is happening to you, open a browser window, and go to the following page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/
This should tell you if you have Flash properly installed, and which version you have. As of 9/15/2008, if the box at the right does not say "You have version 9,0,124,0" (or later), please do the following:
1. CLOSE ALL BROWSER WINDOWS, AND EXIT AND CLOSE ALL INSTANT MESSENGER WINDOWS.
2. Open a single browser window, then go to:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
3. Check off the "Terms of service" checkbox, then click "Install Now", and follow the installation instructions below.
You can also access this page directly from the Winster web site at:
https://www.winster.com/flex/flashupdate.jsp
4. Please go back to http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/ and verify that you have properly installed the latest version.
Here's another test you can perform that will check both Flash and your bandwidth at the same time:
http://support.akamai.com/flash/index.html?autostart=true&url=rtmp%3A%2F%2Fcp37423%2Eedgefcs%2Enet%2Fondemand%2Fflash%2F9a%2F75%2F9a7583c5c04ee7782f3f32df1916adfb%2D47f5f4c0
Not enough memory or computing power: It's possible that your computer just doesn't have the power to run Winster. This will cause lagging, interruptions, odd display problems, and other issues.
One way to test this is to go into a room with few or no other players. If you can spin OK, or the problem clears up, it is most likely due to the heavy demands our program is placing on your computer.
To reduce the problem, you can close other programs that are running, or try turning your computer off and starting it again ("rebooting").
Another thing to try is to use a different browser. Most people use Internet Explorer, which comes with Windows, but Firefox seems to run better for a lot of our players. You can easily download and install Firefox from http://www.firefox.com.
Another way to determine whether the problem is with you computer or local network is to try playing Winster on a different computer at your same location. If this works correctly, then the problem is specific to your computer. (Some people borrow a laptop from a friend to try this.)
Or, you can go to another location, such as a friends' house, school or library, and try playing from there. If that works, the problem is with your location and/or your computer.
If all else fails, or if you are having some problem not covered here, please email , so we can try to help!
How Winster Works
Unlike many other game sites, Winster requires immediate ("real time") interaction with other players. To accomplish this, we place on your computer ("download") a special program written in a language called Flash, which communicates with our computers ("servers") as quickly as possible over the internet. Flash is the same program that is used for many animated ads, games, and videos, and is already present on nearly all computers on the internet. Our servers communicate separately with each player, then pass messages on to the other players - so your computer is never 'talking' directly to another player's computer.There are several places where problems and delays can occur.
Problems at Winster
The first is on Winster's own servers. We monitor this constantly, and regularly upgrade our equipment and services. If a problem is detected, our engineering staff is paged automatically 24 hours a day to look at the problem immediately. Despite this, occasional issues do arise. Also, we stop and restart ("reboot") each of our game servers at 2AM Pacific Standard Time, and the web site is unavailable for about one minute at that time. We make changes to the web site regularly, and certain types of changes require us to interrupt service temporarily, though most of the time we can do this without interruption. In both of these cases, you will see a warning message prior to the interruption.Problems in the Internet
Even if you have a fast internet connection, it usually takes several hops to get data between your computer and our servers, and there is a possibility of a delay at any of these intermediate points. There are two different potential bottlenecks here.The first is called "bandwidth" - this is the speed of the connection, which determines how fast information can be moved between you and us. Certain types of data, mainly pictures, videos, and sound, can be quite large, and without sufficient bandwidth, they can clog up the connection. By analogy, this is like moving a lot of cars though a narrow tunnel - it can take a while.
The second is called " "latency" - this is the delay between when information is sent and when it arrives. By analogy, a red light at an intersection delays all the traffic, but once it is green, a lot of cars can pass through the intersection quickly. A good example of latency is when you take two cell phones and call one from the other. You speak into one, and you hear an 'echo' of your voice in the other. Even though all the sound gets through, there is a delay in how long it takes to get there.
Bandwidth: You can test your own bandwidth at several sites on the internet, for example at:
http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/
How fast is fast enough? A very rough guide is that you are likely to experience poor performance if your bandwidth is less than 300 Kbps (that's 300,000 bits per second). Note that most dialup connections are well below this.
Latency: We have built a latency test directly into Winster. When you send a message to us (for instance, when you click the spin button), we make a note of the time on your computer. When our server responds, it also sends back the length of time it took to process your message. When this is received on your computer, we check the time again, and subtract the time we spent processing on our site. The difference is the amount of time it took in the internet to get the information round trip between you and us - the latency.
If the latency is more than a few seconds, we display a warning message on your screen, alerting you to the problem. Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do to reduce internet latency, since it is outside of our control. Most of the time, long latency is caused by the last hop - that is between your internet service provider and you. An analogy is to think of the internet as a connected system of local roads and national highways. It's much more likely that a local road is blocked than a national highway, or at least, the highway is going to get faster attention. Winster is located right near the highway; you may be located at the end of a local road.
Certain types of internet connections, such as satellite and wireless (cell phone company) connections, are frequently subject to high latency.
As a general guide, if your latency is more than 250ms (250 milliseconds, or one quarter of a second), you will notice delays when playing at Winster and things will seem to 'lag'.
Just because you can 'see' other web sites or play on other games sites without problems does not mean that your latency is OK, because most other sites do not require fast communication between players, or between you and them - a delay of a few seconds doesn't matter. A good analogy is that it doesn't matter if a TV show you are watching is delayed 10 seconds, but you wouldn't want to talk on a phone call where the sound is delayed by 10 seconds in each direction.
Sometimes you can get better service by requesting it from your internet service provider, or by switching providers. If you'd like to see whether the problem is affecting a wider region in your area, you can check the Internet Traffic Report:
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm
Problems in your Local Network
Another potential source of problems is your local network. You may not realize that you have a local network, but even the connection between your cable or DSL modem and your computer is a simple network. Sometimes, in a misguided effort to 'help' you, your internet service provider will filter traffic or prevent you from making certain types of connections to the outside world.One very common problem (particularly in offices) is that these devices contain filters ("firewalls") that prevent certain types of traffic from passing through. Firewalls typically don't like it when sources outside your local network send you information that you didn't specifically request. Unfortunately, we have to do this all the time - for instance, when someone offers to trade with you.
Winster's program on your computer communicates with our servers in two ways. The first is through a standard web-page request (an "http" request). In general, we use this method whenever you take an action like spin, move a piece, etc. We acknowledge these requests in the standard way, and most local networks let these requests pass without objecting.
The other way is through a special connection ("push socket") that we establish with your computer, and sometimes local networks don't allow such connections. The symptoms of blocking these connections are that you can log in, but after a few seconds get a message that says "communication interrupted". Also, when you spin you will not see the response, you will not see your own chats, and you will not see other people in your room spinning or chatting.
The technical details are that we need to connect to your computer on ports in the 8000-9000 range - this information may help you or your computer expert to 'open up' these ports and let us pass.
Problems with your Computer
The last potential area of problems is your computer.Firewalls and antivirus software: The most common problem on your computer is that an aggressive firewall or antivirus program takes a dislike to Winster, usually due to the way we are communicating with you. Typical symptoms of this problem are that you get a "communication interrupted" message, or you get stuck loading on a blue/grey screen, or at a message that we are "looking for a seat", or "loading". To test this, temporarily turn off any firewalls or antivirus program and see if that clears up the problem. Then turn it back on, and see if you can tell it that Winster is OK with you.
Flash: A second kind of problem is that you may not have an up to date version of Flash. It is supposed to upgrade automatically, but this may not always happen correctly. If you have an older version of Flash, our games may seem sluggish, or may not load at all. Typical symptoms of this are if you get stuck on a blue/grey screen, or it stops at a screen saying we are "looking for a seat" or "loading".
If this is happening to you, open a browser window, and go to the following page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/
This should tell you if you have Flash properly installed, and which version you have. As of 9/15/2008, if the box at the right does not say "You have version 9,0,124,0" (or later), please do the following:
1. CLOSE ALL BROWSER WINDOWS, AND EXIT AND CLOSE ALL INSTANT MESSENGER WINDOWS.
2. Open a single browser window, then go to:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
3. Check off the "Terms of service" checkbox, then click "Install Now", and follow the installation instructions below.
You can also access this page directly from the Winster web site at:
https://www.winster.com/flex/flashupdate.jsp
4. Please go back to http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/ and verify that you have properly installed the latest version.
Here's another test you can perform that will check both Flash and your bandwidth at the same time:
http://support.akamai.com/flash/index.html?autostart=true&url=rtmp%3A%2F%2Fcp37423%2Eedgefcs%2Enet%2Fondemand%2Fflash%2F9a%2F75%2F9a7583c5c04ee7782f3f32df1916adfb%2D47f5f4c0
Not enough memory or computing power: It's possible that your computer just doesn't have the power to run Winster. This will cause lagging, interruptions, odd display problems, and other issues.
One way to test this is to go into a room with few or no other players. If you can spin OK, or the problem clears up, it is most likely due to the heavy demands our program is placing on your computer.
To reduce the problem, you can close other programs that are running, or try turning your computer off and starting it again ("rebooting").
Another thing to try is to use a different browser. Most people use Internet Explorer, which comes with Windows, but Firefox seems to run better for a lot of our players. You can easily download and install Firefox from http://www.firefox.com.
Another way to determine whether the problem is with you computer or local network is to try playing Winster on a different computer at your same location. If this works correctly, then the problem is specific to your computer. (Some people borrow a laptop from a friend to try this.)
Or, you can go to another location, such as a friends' house, school or library, and try playing from there. If that works, the problem is with your location and/or your computer.
If all else fails, or if you are having some problem not covered here, please email , so we can try to help!
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About Us | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | FAQ | NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
