Um, I'm pretty sure its not THAT cold...

[Geek King]

Ok, so for the last few weeks I've been going back and forth with EA Tech Support. I was playing one of their online games just fine for weeks, logging about 50 hours of playtime, then they released a patch. Now the game has become a laggy mess, but only that game. Other online games I play are just fine.

So, Now I have been dealing with upper level Tech Support, and the issue has them kind of stumped. I can understand this, as nothing is more frustrating than a few people having problems when everyone else is just fine. I've been running traces from my PC for them, providing specs, and turning off processes to test out different theories they have, but so far no luck.

So today I get a message from one of the guys there that made me stop and stare at my monitor in disbelief. His new theory? I can't connect because a network in Las Angeles is slower because it is Winter.

Winter.

He's trying to blame a networking problem on the season.

Frankly, I may have stepped into the realm of SC-ness, as I wrote back and called BS on this. I don't think a company who designs a game to be played mainly online gets to blame Mother Nature for thier defects (well, maybe if their office is damaged by high winds, meteors, mudslides, or random whales dropping in from orbit). If I had pulled out an excuse like that when I worked for a government contractor testing software, I would have been laughed out of the conference room.

Do any of our more networking-savvy members have an opinion on this? I'm strictly local support for my company, but this just seems like a completely ridiculous claim for them to make. Ok, time to calm down. Back to the soft, warm glow of WoW until I calm down.

[trunks2k]

Do any of our more networking-savvy members have an opinion on this? I'm strictly local support for my company, but this just seems like a completely ridiculous claim for them to make. Ok, time to calm down. Back to the soft, warm glow of WoW until I calm down.

Temperature would not make a difference. Especially in LA. I could maybe undestand if the temp drops so low that physical lines start to fail and a bottle neck forms, but that would have to be a temp much, much lower than LA would ever experience. You'd be running a risk of a slow down due to temp in the summer in LA than in the winter since you'd have more brownouts that may cut power to nodes in the network. And even that's really a stretch. Though it kinda happened around me in the summer, when storms knocked out power, more customers on my Cable provider were funnled through certain lines, making a bottle neck.

The only possible reason that explaination would make sense is if more people in LA are using the network because there are less people outside having fun because it's "cold." Again, I really doubt that is a problem.

On top of that, you are not experiencing a slow down with anything else. The only reason the conditions in LA would really effect you would be if you are located in the LA area, or they are located in the LA area. Since the IP you are going to generally take the fastest route, the only reason you would pass through an area with significant slow down would be if an end point is in that area. So, if they are located in the LA area, EVERYONE would be experiencing a slow down and if you are located in the LA area, EVERYTHING you connect to would experience a slow down, and neither of those two are happening.

So yeah, it's a BS reason for the slow down.

[Cedophile]

Heck, if they can run systems on liquid nitrogen cooling, I'm pretty sure servers in LA should be fine. The weather in LA is, I think, above -320 degrees Fahrenheit.

[Rapscallion]

I thought the whole process of superconductors was to have a conductor that was so cold the electricity flowed with virtually no loss of power? That would mean that his argument was even more ridiculous.

Hey, if heat is good for a computer's speed, he can take his CPU fan from his machine and see how much faster it goes.

Rapscallion

[PuckishOne]

It's a completely ridiculous non-explanation, and not unlike the excuses we get here at the office from our ISP every time we (frequently) lose our connection. I can only hope that what that tech meant was that an increase of users during the colder weather (more people indoors and online) could result in more traffic and thus more lag.

But, somehow, I doubt it.

[trunks2k]

I thought the whole process of superconductors was to have a conductor that was so cold the electricity flowed with virtually no loss of power? That would mean that his argument was even more ridiculous.

Yeah, but I don't think any computers are running on superconductors. They use semi conductors. You need to have some resistance in the computer to control the states (logical gates). Incredibly cold weather can do a lot of damage to physical lines. The actual computer, not so much, but there would be a minimal operating temperature somewhere along the line.