More MG disconnects.

[vinylweatherman]

I have been running a controlled experiment on the annoying "Casino error 2". We are often told it is "our end", but my new PC has enabled me to run this little test to prove that this is not the case.

In this test, I am running 4 MGS casinos at the same time, all are autoplaying a 5 reel 9 line slot.

Three Casino Action sites are running Thunderstruck, and Riverbelle is running Tally Ho.

For the last couple of weeks I have had problems with Casino Action, and always at the same time of day, a window between 11am to 1pm British Summer Time, after which problems clear.

Sure enough, 11am comes, and so does Casino error 2.
What is shown is that all three Casino Action sites fail simultaneously, and the screenshot is taken after three casino error 2 messages appear within a single second, literally sitting at the PC and hearing, "ping, ping, ping" as the windows pop up.
Closing the error windows causes the game to exit, but the lobby itself remains logged in, ie not a full disconnect as would be expected had there REALLY been a communication loss. This points to a game error, not a total casino error. It looks like individual games stop responding, and this causes the reels to either stall, or spin endlessly. If the lack of response persists for long enough, casino error 2 follows and the game aborts.

The demonstration that this problem is not local to me is that Riverbelle is spinning merrily away without problems.

One other relevant differerence is that all Casino Action sites are served from the Kawanake compound, whereas the unaffected Riverbelle is served from Gibraltar.

This initially points to the problem being local to the Kawanake compound, if not actually on it. This problem seems to temporarily shut down a number of casinos on Kawanake, and the length of the interruption determines whether the result is merely the frustrations of ever spinning reels, or the dreaded Casino Error 2.

This issue has been going on for two years or more, and so far it has been "referred to MGS" a number of times. Each time this has happened, the issue has been shelved, and nothing has ever come of it. Public posting of problems at individual casinos have also been dismissed as "your PC/ISP or general traffic".
None of these properly fit this result here.

1) If it was my end, or my ISP, I should have lost all FOUR casinos, not just the "Kawanake three".

2) If it was "traffic", this would cause problems with packet loss or delay on a pretty much random basis. All three sites aparrently "randomly lost the return packet" at exactly the same time, and all three stopped responding long enough for the full Casino Error 2.

3) The scenario also rules out it being my PC, as even now Riverbelle is happily spinning away, whilst I expect problems at the others till around 1pm, when it will probably follow the recent pattern and clear.


The question is what happens at 5am Eastern time, and finishes around an hour or two later, that specifially hits the Kawanake compound casinos hard, but leaves Gibraltar based casinos unaffected.

The main point of this post is that when my complaint is yet again "referred to MGS", MGS will actually take a proper look at it rather than dismissively shelving the issue as not important enough to interrupt the endless tide of new games.

It would help if other players can confirm whether or not they have experienced these specific problem in this timeslot, or indeed at other dates and times, and have not managed to get anywhere through internal support.

2 years is too long MG, get it sorted

[brianzz]

I get the same error from 7 Sultans between 6 and 8 AM EST every single day, just like clock work

[vinylweatherman]

I get the same error from 7 Sultans between 6 and 8 AM EST every single day, just like clock work

That's probably the same, I worked out 5am based on 11am my time, or 10am GMT. There seem to be two flavors of EST, one is actually EDT (Eastern Daylight Time), but is often referred to by casinos as EST or ET. This looks like it is the same time window, and again from the Kawanake compound.
This looks like a general issue with the Kawanake connectivity during this two hour slot, as 7 Sultans is a different group to that of my test, sharing only the Kawanake compound in common.
There are slowdowns at other times, but not a complete cessation that triggers these lobby errors.

[cheekymonkey]

In this test, I am running 4 MGS casinos at the same time, all are autoplaying a 5 reel 9 line slot.

Is your screen BIG ENOUGH vinyl - lol!

[vinylweatherman]

Is your screen BIG ENOUGH vinyl - lol!

Well,
I could do with another 100 pixels in the vertical, so I could see both balances whichever was the in-focus window

The monitor is 24 inches, and goes up to 1920x1200 - used for High Definition DVD/Media playback (and running rings round the opposition in wager tournaments).
A 30 inch version is available (but VERY expensive), however test show that a slowdown happens at around 5 simultaneous MG casinos, although a better Graphics card might help as the problems mainly relate to the speed of rendering the slot animations.

This monitor has been a godsend in proving the case for casino error 2 being more a Kawanake issue rather than local PC issue. Since most MG casinos are served from Kawanake, this might explain why this has been seen mostly as an MG issue over the past two to three years.

[vinylweatherman]

Microgaming have responded.

Pity it was the usual whitewash

This issue will NEVER be resolved

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We have looked into this and have found no issues from our side .This problem seems to be player specific and "Casino Error 2 " .Please can you also inform the player that the software requires a stable internet internet connection to run smoothly.The player should disable popup blockers and anything else that would possibly hinder the connection.They must make that they update their version of Direct X from Microsoft.
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My points were totally ignored.
IF MG were correct, an unstable internet connection at my end would have shut down ALL FOUR CASINOS, it would NOT have shut down only the three based at Kawanake, and left BelleRock running happily on.

The other points about my PC would, if relevant, affect ALL MG powered casinos in a similar way.

The fact that only the three shut down does prove one of their points, that the software requires a stable internet connection.

Well, don't tell us, tell the Kawanake

[GrandMaster]

They forgot to mention that you should delete your cookies.

[Mousey]

Please can you also inform the player that the software requires a stable internet internet connection to run smoothly.The player should disable popup blockers and anything else that would possibly hinder the connection.They must make that they update their version of Direct X from Microsoft.

Gaaaaahhhhh.... **banging head on desk**

Good point GrandMaster. They also left off: uninstall and reinstall the casino and download all their bloatware -- again.

[AussieDave]

They forgot to mention that you should delete your cookies.

Not to mention doing a reboot...Geeshhh MG you need to pick up your game


vinylweatherman,

I too get the error 2 issue. I get this at 7Sultans between window of 8:15pm to 9:30pm Aust EST.

It could be a database sync or some type of cron job (or whatever it is named in IIS servers) that takes place everyday. It is definitely frustrating, especially when support keeps telling you it's your side not theirs and follows that with their standard clear you cookies and re boot your system BS.

Last time I sent through a detailed log with traces and so forth. It was clear from that log that there was a connectivity issue at the Kawanake server compound. But, as obvious as that writing was on the wall, they simply ignored the facts and opted to stay with dogmatic response of it's your ISP or PC.

Since then, I just don't bother playing within that time frame window.

[vinylweatherman]

One problem is that MG probably did their tests a little earlier, despite the point made about the specific 2 hour window in which the problems ocurr. Naturally, there IS no problem at their end now, and neither is there at mine.
There will be a further problem same time tomorrow, and Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and that's assuming the problem takes weekends off.

There reports have been comig in for years, I remember several times they have got so bad that an explosion of vented rage hits the forum. Recently, MG have taken the heat off this one by introducing some far more interesting bugs in the software.