News Index: Tech Center   <<  Page 1 of 2  >>  March 11, 2009 Dreaded white center screen The number one support call is the dreaded white center screen. This is caused by "webshields" such as AVG professional, funny the free version doesn't do it. The reason this happens is we are true streaming html chat. We don't use a client to get in the way. The center file has no end and webshields don't like that. Honestly webshields are the snake oil of the 21st century anyway but simply disabling or better off yet removing them will cure the problem. If you want some top quality FREE computer protection just go to COMODO. They have anti virus,100% spam filters and a whole chest o' tools for free. I believe you can even get a free email encryption certificate from them. If you still have a problem after reading this feel to call. The support line has been pretty silent this month. Remember use FIREFOX for better browsing. IE has most of the prolems and the Fox is the way to go. Don't forget to install the "Sparky" add on.  March 03, 2009 Vista Ultimate Not as bad as the reviews Yesterday I bought a new computer with vista Ultimate 32 bit with 4 GB of Ram and a cheap GPU. After installation I downloaded Firefox,Thunderbird and Bitwise SSH client. To my surprise I have none of the problems I read about the processor is a cheapo AMD X3 and the video GPU is so cheap it won't run the Aero interface but it's still pretty and very fast. I will upgrade to a better GPU with an HDMI port. One of the great things is it works perfectly with Chatropolis.com. Not a glitch or bug. I haven't had a crash or odd behavior. Once I get a decent video card it will be a helluva box for 590 dollars. Yea 590 bux. One thing that is great is everything I plug into an USB port works instantly. Orbit cams,External DVD burner,printer. They all work without adding drivers and software install. Of course to get all the functions it's a good idea to throw in the manufacturers install disk but I'm lazy and things work just find. Logitech has this great gadget for their cams. It's a spy thingy. If your cam has motion detection it will automatically store anything that moves within it's view. Great when the kids play with my toys and deny why something is broken. I hate to admit it but Vista Ultimate is doing great on minimal hardware. With it's real networking that doesn't take all day to set up I will be switching the whole house over.  February 18, 2009 For Tech-Heads For our users that are into the Tech side of Chatro this week was interesting. We added another chatserver "cs12". We took a shot with the 64 bit version of our chatserver operating system. It ran beautifully at 15 minute intervals so we immediately took it offline. It is being re-formatted and installed with the 32 bit version. Even so it will add speed, reliability and lots more fun. It will be returned to the 64bit version of the OS when the new server is running cluster wide so we will be able to utilize all of it's resources. Currently all of our web servers and dbase servers run on 64 bit versions of the *NIX OS flawlessly and with hardly any load.I'd love to include a screen shot of "top" on our web + dbase machines but that probably would give too much of a peek under our dress. Although the Chatropolis network is not large by most standards it does take a full rack at Peer1 and a catalyst switch. Since all new boxes have dual gigabit nic's we will be running a VPN for certain functions of the new chatserver. This week Peer1 also had a rather large failure they aren't going into detail about but it sounds like a multi router failure. Even so it hasn't really caused us any problems.  January 17, 2009 HughsNET screws the pooch again Seems all Sat Internet companies are a problem. For a while we had Hughs fixed and for all I know it may well still be. But I did get a call from a user that Hughs proxy no longer worked with Chatro. This was one call and for all I know it was just a confused user....I'm hoping that's the case. For those on Hughs that get extremely slow response just browser the "Tech Sector" and we have a bunch of fixes for them. While we are on the subject there is the "DREADED WHITE CENTER SCREEN". This is caused by any number of "Webshields" AVG professional seems to be the flavor of the month and honestly paying for the upgrade is a waste of money. Just take the extra cash and hand it to a homeless person. To find the webshield option in whatever your using right clicking the tiny icon in the taskbar will usually bring up the options. If it doesn't just call the company that sold it and ask. I have hear of crazy shit like 35 dollars for a support call in that case call us. I can't see how anyone can charge for fixing their own product. Other than Googles new "CHROME" browser needing the advanced settings on the room entry set to http1.0 all is well in chat land. If it isn't pplease call and let us know. ADVERTISERS some bots are back and I've been stopping them rather quickly but if you see one email the info to mludwick[at]interfun[dot]net.  December 15, 2008 Verified/Trusted Users Optional Program Considered As usual one of our users came up with a great idea. First of and this was in the works for a long time the "WHOIS" button will change to "BIO" for Biography. This will be a simple list of questions, sex,age,ethnicity,single.married,Open, other basics. Now that support is by phone only it allows me to speak to almost 1000 users per month, sometimes more. One concern among men and especially our female users is "How do I know I'm talking to a guy/girl?". That's (CLICK LINK ABOVE TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE  November 17, 2008 IE Stuffing/ANOTHER DANGER FOR IE USERS There is an exploit for IE that allows people to put information in your prefix box. Commonly it makes it so you can't speak in a room or it will say something nutty when you try to talk. All other browsers are immune to this. I have not been able to pin down the code but the removal instructions are in the bottom frame of every chat room. You simply hit config while chatting and clear the prefix box. If this happens please send me the contents of the prefix box and I will give you A FREE 1 YEAR MEMBERSHIP! This will allow us to fix yet another Internet Exlorer exploit. This is an issue of great concern because people think Chatro is malfunctioning when it is IE the is the culprit. My advice is to download Firefox. browse the zillion useful add-ons including Sparky. Then right click the IE icon and get to advanced/network proxies or connections. Put 127.0.0 for the proxy and you effectively disable microsoft from gathering information on your system or pulling the plug on your OS if your vendor put an illegal copy of the operating system on your box. If at any time you absolutely have to update any Microsoft product that requires you use IE you can remove the proxy setting and the browser will work. I can't say it as much as google has 349,000 results on IE exploits. Don't use IE! It's insecure,broken,slow,ugly,fatware and just a piece of junk!99.999% of all support calls involve IE and it's degree of brokenness. Simply google download firefox 3 and you can do it in 3 minutes. Then you can browse themes (I prefer the Harley theme) and add-ons like screen capture,passwd helpers like Skipper. Skipper lets you train forms and I would die without it. There are also privacy,encryption,time,geolocation,SEO and more tools than you could ever use. The tools are super small downloads that install themselves. Thunderbird mail Firefox's mail companion is also a great mailer with the same range of add-ons. I use Validation and spam reporting tools and also a neat clock weather combo that are always on my desktop.  November 11, 2008 Google Chrome Browser It was just a matter of time for Google to come out with a browser. If you like the minimalist look then this will give you a hardon. I didn't import any info from firfox so I'm sure a few tabs were missing but even then it is very basic and simple to use. I just got done done testing it. You must use http1.0 on the room entry's or the message box will not clear. But once you get the Chatro advanced setting to 1.0 it is very fast and I don't see a problem with using it here. It is another alternative to IE which is alwys a good thing. If your using IE please switch to Firefox or Now Chrome by Google. The download took about a minute from start to chatroom. As always with new browsers it hasn't had had time to show it's cracks yet but Google does a lot of things well why not an open source browser...Yea I think it's open source to for the tech heads. Now in my campaign to rid the world of IE there is one more choice. It looks like a better choice right off the bat. Well lets be honest Microsoft hasn't released a product that worked for the first 10 revisions in 15 years. I'd rather play Russian roulette with Chrome any day over IE. See what you think just make sure the room entry setting is correct.  August 27, 2008 Reporting Kiddie Porn/Spammers Alot of users report kiddie porn and spammers but unfortunately they don't provide the correct information and it doesn't help. When reporting Kiddie porn please call the 800 number and have the URL of the offending image ready. You obtain this info by right clicking the image and looking at the properties. We will immediately check the image and filter it. Spammers are another problem. Chatrooms are Holy ground and we don't advertise in them so it really pisses us off when someone else does. If you see anyone spamming our rooms please call us immediately and we will filter these talentless morons. On a funny note the telegraph spammer from a couple of weeks ago called me to complain he couldn't spam anymore. I immediately had his caller id info and told him. He stuttered and said this call is being forwarded I'm in Panama. So I called him back at his Hollywood flophouse (When I googled Earthed it you could actually smell the crack and see the hookers standing outside his house). Just from a glance it seems he lives off his 76 year old father and had what sounded like a dozen untrained rugrats in the backround when I spoke to his grandmother/wife or whatever I let her know I knew how stupid this guy is. I'm waiting on a backround/asset report to see if he's worth suing. Unfortunately these guys are usually too broke to bother with.  June 18, 2008 Common Errors and Fixes/Rules The dreaded white center screen. This is almost caused by the last peice of software you have installed. It's usually a webshield or anti virus program. Sat systems are sometimes a problem. For the most popular Hughs this will work for high lag time and a blank center window. You can go in your browsers advanced settings. For example in Firefox go to TOOLS>OPTIONS>ADVANCED>NETWORK>CONNECTION SETTINGS And put this is manual settings http proxy 69.19.14.10 Port 3128. That works just fine. 403 Error. This means your IP is banned. If you think this is not your fault please contact support so we can reconsider the ban. Sometimes a ban takes out more than one person. This is more of a problem in support email than an actual technical problem. We do not ban people because you don't like them. Because they are assholes or in your opinion "Have to go". This goes for members and non-members alike. Our rules are very few and very clear. You can read them here http://www.chatropolis.com/rules.html Reporting Child pornography. If you would like to report an inappropriate image please send us the room name,users screen name,time stamp and right click the offending image. When you right click the image give us the location of where it is hosted. We do NOT host child porn on Chatro.  June 03, 2008 Two Steps Forward One Step Back Well it's clear I'm going to have to redo the HTML of Chatro myself. Evidently I don't play well with others. That's not the end of the world I just find it boring work and it's not programming by any stretch of thee imagination. It's closer to spell checking and everyone knows my prowess with spelling. The good news is huge strides are being made with the new chat server. The other night a handful of users got a look at the video/audio end of it. It should be a lot of fun for those brave enough to put their mug in front of a camera. I did have one use give me an excellent view of their keyboard.LOL. In addition to the A/V end there will be many other features added. Most behind the scenes but just enough to make an improvement. But not so much as Chatro becomes unrecognizable.