I keep a close eye on the game sites because serious gamers tend to be very serious about the quality of their network connections, and aren't shy about expressing their opinions. I've found them a usefull early warning of network problems. For the same reason I watch the on-line stock trading sites. However, I should have kept quiet about Everquest's network status page. Gamers hold some strong views. I was flooded with comments about Microsoft's Game Zone problems over the weekend. They had some network problems with their new Asheron's multi-player game. From what I could tell Microsoft's www.zone.com site was inaccessiable for part of Sunday Night. After my post about Everquest, several gamers asked what I knew about Microsofts's problems. The simple answer is not much. It didn't appear to be a general Internet problem, but specific to Microsoft's site. Yes, Randy, I did ask Microsoft's customer service and NOC. I got back answers either they didn't see a problem, or they saw a problem but their customer service people couldn't find out from their their technical staff what was happening either. Microsoft's Game Zone does have some status pages, but as far as I could tell, unlike Everquest, Microsoft doesn't actually update their status when there is a problem.
Yes, Randy, I did ask Microsoft's customer service and NOC. I got back answers either they didn't see a problem, or they saw a problem but their customer service people couldn't find out from their their technical staff what was happening either. Microsoft's Game Zone does have some status pages, but as far as I could tell, unlike Everquest, Microsoft doesn't actually update their status when there is a problem.
they did update their status. there was no problem. just ask them. this syndrome is called telephantitis <tm>, as it is most commonly found infecting telephants, as has been much discussed here. randy
On 29 Nov 1999, Sean Donelan wrote:
I keep a close eye on the game sites because serious gamers tend to be very serious about the quality of their network connections, and aren't shy about expressing their opinions. I've found them a usefull early warning of network problems. For the same reason I watch the on-line stock trading sites.
So who's gonna write up the RFC proposing to replace all network monitoring systems by forcing all of the technical staff to play games? :) -- Tim -------------------------------------------------- * Timothy M. Wolfe, Chief Network Engineer * * ClipperNet Corporation / It's a wireless world * * tim@clipper.net 800.338.2629 x 402 * * Sufficient for today = Inadequate for tomorrow * --------------------------------------------------
It's don't a joke, the whole idea was realized a few times in the past. I myself saw an operators playing games at some ansient computers; if this game slowed down or if it was faded by the operating system, it means operators MUST do something; while they had nothing to do, they could play (and the game itself tested the system because it was one of the running tasks). If I remember right, it was oin the SYBER mainfraim. -:) Alex R. On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Tim Wolfe wrote:
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 13:56:59 -0800 (PST) From: Tim Wolfe <tim@clipper.net> To: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> Cc: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: Equal time among gamers?
On 29 Nov 1999, Sean Donelan wrote:
I keep a close eye on the game sites because serious gamers tend to be very serious about the quality of their network connections, and aren't shy about expressing their opinions. I've found them a usefull early warning of network problems. For the same reason I watch the on-line stock trading sites.
So who's gonna write up the RFC proposing to replace all network monitoring systems by forcing all of the technical staff to play games? :)
-- Tim
-------------------------------------------------- * Timothy M. Wolfe, Chief Network Engineer * * ClipperNet Corporation / It's a wireless world * * tim@clipper.net 800.338.2629 x 402 * * Sufficient for today = Inadequate for tomorrow * --------------------------------------------------
Aleksei Roudnev, (+1 415) 585-3489 /San Francisco CA/
On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Tim Wolfe wrote:
So who's gonna write up the RFC proposing to replace all network monitoring systems by forcing all of the technical staff to play games? :)
Stuff OpenView - What's the world's most popular piece of networking benchmarking and monitoring software? Doom! -- Patrick Evans - Sysadmin, bran addict and couch potato pre at pre dot org www.pre.org/pre
On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Patrick Evans wrote:
On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Tim Wolfe wrote:
So who's gonna write up the RFC proposing to replace all network monitoring systems by forcing all of the technical staff to play games? :)
Stuff OpenView - What's the world's most popular piece of networking benchmarking and monitoring software?
Doom!
Bah, Quake3 runs on linux.. :) -- Tim -------------------------------------------------- * Timothy M. Wolfe, Chief Network Engineer * * ClipperNet Corporation / It's a wireless world * * tim@clipper.net 800.338.2629 x 402 * * Sufficient for today = Inadequate for tomorrow * --------------------------------------------------
I'm no gamer, but I've found that being a news junkie can get you the same headsup, and carries the added advantage of checking out multiple pieces of the net in the process. Gotta take the /. effect into account, though. :-) -ls- Tim Wolfe <tim@clipper.net> wrote:
On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Patrick Evans wrote:
On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Tim Wolfe wrote:
So who's gonna write up the RFC proposing to replace all network monitoring systems by forcing all of the technical staff to play games? :)
Stuff OpenView - What's the world's most popular piece of networking benchmarking and monitoring software?
Doom!
Bah, Quake3 runs on linux.. :)
-- Tim
-------------------------------------------------- * Timothy M. Wolfe, Chief Network Engineer * * ClipperNet Corporation / It's a wireless world * * tim@clipper.net 800.338.2629 x 402 * * Sufficient for today = Inadequate for tomorrow * --------------------------------------------------
participants (7)
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Alex P. Rudnev -
Dan Hollis -
Larry Snyder -
Patrick Evans -
Randy Bush -
Sean Donelan -
Tim Wolfe