Answers About Random Chatroom Disconnects

August 15, 2009 by todd

I know that several of you have asked about getting disconnected from the chatroom.   In response to this, I made an inquiry to Parachat and this was their reponse.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for contacting ParaChat Support. There have been no reports of any connectivity issues into any of our data centers.  The rule of thumb with disconnects is that if all users are impacted equally at the same time, then there may be an issue with connectivity into one of our data centers. However, if individual users are impacted differently at random times, then there may be an issue with the user's Internet connection, or in the route that their Internet connection takes between their computer and where the chat servers are running.

Please note that disconnects may occur more frequently with wireless connections than wired connections.  Also, a common remedy to a chronic disconnect issue is the power-cycling of the modem that connects a computer to the Internet.

ParaChat services are monitored continuously from multiple global monitoring stations.  You may review monitoring information if you suspect a connectivity issue by logging into your service administration web page.  Click the "Support" tab.  Under the "Global Monitoring" section, click the "Global Monitoring Map" and "Individual Server Monitoring" links.

Additionally, a traceroute from an impacted user's computer to the codebase URL in the ParaChat code may reveal that a router is down or latent in the router hops that a user's Internet connection takes between a users computer, and the server where the ParaChat service is running.  A down or latent router in the path a connection takes may cause a disconnect.

You may also run the Troubleshooting Ping and Connection utilities found under the chat room's Help menu at the time the disconnect occurs.  Copy the output from the utilities, and paste them into your reply.

Please let us know if you have other questions.

Parachat