Internet connection sometimes flowing haltingly for online poker.

Factual Questions
1

Every so often, my internet connection (which I get through Time Warner) assumes a “stop & go” mentality with regard to my online poker tables. That is, it will essentially disconnect for 5-20 seconds at a time, then reconnect (at which point the tables fast forward through all the actions by other players that I missed while disconnected), then disconnect again, usually within a few seconds.

This seems to be an isolated phenomenon – web browsing, even during the specific time when my poker connection is frozen, is not affected, and I can load new pages very quickly. Nor is it a problem with one specific online poker site, as the problem affects every poker room equally whenever it crops up – it affects them simultaneously, as well, meaning that, say, my Full Tilt tables and my PokerStars tables will stop & go in synchronicity.

Anyway, what would be just an occasional annoyance if I were a casual player who opened one table at a time is actually a pretty big problem, seeing as I’m a semi-professional who plays four tables at a time; for obvious reasons, this problem makes it effectively impossible to multi-table.

So, does anyone have any idea what this problem is and how it might be addressed? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

2

This is probably lag at the poker site or somewhere along the way. If other pages are not affected then its not your internet connection/computer.

Does it do this while you only play one table too.

3

Yes, it’s not affected by the number of tables that are open. And I really doubt it’s lag at the site, because when it happens it occurs in synchronicity across multiple sites, which run off of completely different servers and software.

4

Has this always happened, or only since what change or update?

When it happens does it affect other internet activity on the same machine? That is, can you browse here or to Google OK?

Do you have a home network of any sort, or just the one machine?

If you use a different machine in a different location to play the same sites, does it happen there too?

5

It’s been an issue since I moved into a new apartment and got a new computer, with a new operating system (Vista), and a new ISP (RoadRunner from Time Warner). So there are a bunch of variables there, I’m afraid.

No, even during the specific time when the tables are frozen, web pages load just fine, youtube videos continue to buffer, etc.

Network, and I am connected through a wireless router. That’s a thought, perhaps next time it happens I can install poker software on my roommate’s computer (which is not connected through the router) and see if that’s the problem.

I’ve never encountered this problem in a different setting.

6

Rebooting the router and modem just now seems to have helped (though this problem has been known to tease me in the past). Whether or not this turns out to be an effective solution, I’d still be interested in possible explanations for this behavior.

7

I wonder if it’s because they all use flash and that any flash app running in any of your browser instances get locked. Have you tried using a different browser for one of the sites? Say, use firefox for full tilt and IE for poker starz at the same time. If they both froze I would be pretty surprised.

8

I’m not particularly tech-savvy so I could be wrong, but I don’t think that flash is involved in any way. The tables certainly don’t run off of a web browser. Download the software and observe a table if you’re curious.

ETA: Still running smoothly since rebooting the router and modem a few hours ago.

9

I have a very similar problem with AIM chats. It appears that my connection will very briefly disappear and AIM will sometimes disconnect and reconnect and other times simply go quiet and occasional lose messages sent. It’s infuriating.

I have done everything from a complete OS install, replacement router and updated firmware on ever component. I’ve eliminated the router and plugged the modem straight into 2 different on board network ports. I’m almost certain that this is an issue with the nature of my cable modem connection. I’ve even stitched from Comcast to RCN in hopes that it would correct the problem and it’s identical. I currently have a trouble call into my ISP and they detected packet loss on all the routers in my immediate area so I’m hoping that there’s a piece of shared hardware they can replace to fix the problem.

I’m hoping it’s not simply a issue inherent to modern cable broadband. I’ve been researching this online for literally a year and it’s a pretty common issue and I’ve yet to see anything resembling a concrete answer. Many of the complaints about AIM also mentioned issues with online poker which is why I’m replying here. I think as more people start using persistent connections to do things we’ll see more issues with this.