Maybe Bryan got on Massimiliano's case on my behalf. Shortly after my post, I received the following email:
Hello,
Thank you for your email and apologies if my reply was out of
scope.
However I wanted to assure you that we are looking into this
issue.
If you are interested on how to read a network status report,
please allow us a moment to break down that report. I hope this
is not turning too technical, but unfortunately it will make this
reply longer then I wish I could write.
The set of traces listed below are ran to Australia, Cambridge
(UK), US West and East coasts, (US) Manx Telecom (IOM), and the
Pokerstars.com Website (IOM). With the exception of the
PokerStars website, none of the other servers belong to
PokerStars nor are they related to your connection to our
servers. We use these sites to test your overall connection and
path of data communication. We have only included small snippets
of each trace and you may review the file you sent to review the
entire path.
Host 210.247.216.161
[210.247.216.161], Pings=8 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
1 --- [ 192.168.1.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
2 --- [ 91.176.181.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
3 --- [ 91.183.241.86], Pings=2 , Quality=0 , Lost=4
4 --- Error - Status 6 , Lost=6
5 --- [ 212.3.238.105], Pings=7 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
Host 67.195.160.76
[ 67.195.160.76], Pings=8 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
1 --- [ 192.168.1.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
2 --- [ 91.176.181.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
3 --- [ 91.183.241.86], Pings=2 , Quality=0 , Lost=4
4 --- Error - Status 6 , Lost=6
5 --- [ 80.84.20.162], Pings=8 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
Host 128.112.132.86
[ 128.112.132.86], Pings=8 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
1 --- [ 192.168.1.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
2 --- [ 91.176.181.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
3 --- [ 91.183.241.86], Pings=2 , Quality=0 , Lost=4
4 --- Error - Status 6 , Lost=6
5 --- [ 212.3.238.105], Pings=8 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
Host 169.232.55.224
[ 169.232.55.224], Pings=8 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
1 --- [ 192.168.1.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
2 --- [ 91.176.181.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
3 --- [ 91.183.241.86], Pings=2 , Quality=0 , Lost=4
4 --- Error - Status 6 , Lost=6
5 --- [ 80.84.20.210], Pings=7 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
Host 80.65.254.253
[ 80.65.254.253], Pings=8 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
1 --- [ 192.168.1.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
2 --- [ 91.176.181.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
3 --- [ 91.183.241.86], Pings=2 , Quality=0 , Lost=4
4 --- Error - Status 6 , Lost=6
5 --- [ 80.84.20.174], Pings=8 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
Host 77.87.181.63
[ 77.87.181.63], Pings=8 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
1 --- [ 192.168.1.1], Pings=9 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
2 --- [ 91.176.181.1], Pings=8 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
3 --- [ 91.183.241.86], Pings=2 , Quality=0 , Lost=4
4 --- Error - Status 6 , Lost=6
5 --- [ 80.84.20.162], Pings=7 , Quality=100 , Lost=0
As you can see the traces fail starting at hop # 4 for all sites
traced.
First, it is important to understand how the Internet works. When
data flows from your computer to a remote site and vice versa, it
is "routed", hence the use of routers throughout the Internet.
Each router will have several connections and when it receives
data it will choose where to send that data based upon what it
knows. Each router only knows how to reach a few specific IP
addresses, and has a "default gateway" for everyone else. Data
will hop through many routers, from 8 to 30 or more on its
journey.
The complexities of routing tables are beyond the scope of what
we can explain in a short description, but there are a few basic
truisms that are easy to explain:
1. Data from you to our server does not necessarily take the same
path as data from our server back to you.
2. Today's data may not take the same path to reach its
destination as yesterday's identical connection. Routing tables
change dynamically depending on many factors.
3. Data from you to a server in a particular city may take a
completely different route than data to another server in that
same city, it depends on which ISPs the two servers use.
In short, this all boils down to one single, immutable fact: The
Internet is inherently less reliable than any other utility such
as a phone company, electric company, etc. Outages happen
somewhere on the Internet each and every minute as routers are
shut down, restarted, and fail. Data is routed around such
outages as best it can be, but sometimes this takes time.
The NSR demonstrates there was a routing issue, outside our
control, that caused your data to be sent through a poor
connection. This affected PokerStars, located in the United
Kingdom, and other sites around the world. But may not have
affected other sites who might locate their servers elsewhere
such as Gibraltar or Kahnawake, Quebec. That is why that
particular routing anomaly affected PokerStars but not others.
Can this happen to others? Absolutely! It can, and it does. Our
servers used to be located in Kahnawake, Quebec, and this
happened to our customers there as well. It also happens to other
poker sites located around the world. That is the nature of the
Internet, as explained above.
So, will it happen again? We are sad to say, yes it will. It will
happen to you again at some point, no matter where you choose to
play. Any site that guarantees you 100% uninterrupted access is
providing false information. In the Internet industry, there is a
"slang phrase" used by network administrators called "five
nines". It means that a respectable goal is uptime of 99.999% of
the time. We are pleased to say that, aside from a monthly
scheduled downtime for the deployment of new versions of the
PokerStars server, we indeed exceed "five nines" uptime for our
own internal network.
It is important to remember, however, that even if a site manages
their own "five nines" for their hardware and connection to the
Internet, the customers are at the mercy of the uptime of every
single router along the way from the customer to the server. As
mentioned above, that can be 30 or more routers, some of whom
will have monstrously poorer track records. It can also be a
different set of routers depending on overall traffic shaping
anywhere along the path from you to the server. PokerStars has
absolutely no control over those networks, though we have spent a
great deal of time and money researching the up-times and
stability of our own ISP providers to minimize "out of network"
down time.
In the end, the simple truth is that no site, not even PokerStars
can assume responsibility for the stability of every router in
the world. Outages are going to happen, a small few in our own
network but the vast majority outside our control. The same is
true of other sites. We can and do assume responsibility for our
own network, but most disconnects from games are caused by
factors beyond our or any site's control.
I hope I have cleared all your doubts. Thank you for your
understanding and we look forward to assisting you further.
Kind regards,
Massimiliano Ri
PokerStars Technical Specialist
---
We are poker!
I understand that the internet is not 100% stable all of the time. I also understand that there may be issues outside of my own control (and that of stars) which may cause disconnections. However, these disconnections are supposed to be the exception, not the standard. Stop trying to pass this off as something only an omnipotent intelligence can control.
PS. "We are poker" is tilting.