Technology

[guanomere]

Okay, I've had enough of losing money hand over fist because my setup is not suitable, so I'm looking for some advice from anyone that may have experienced the same problems in the past or even anyone with a bit of technical nous!

Today has been frustrating when attempting to trade - I had the lot: dropouts, applications freezing, API issues, chuggy updating... ugh. Here's a little about my current situation and what I use:

Internet - I live in an area that doesn't support cable broadband, only ADSL. This theoretically should still be enough bandwidth to trade effectively, but I suffer CONSTANT drop-outs and lost connections. This is obviously not ideal when I have orders in the queue or have been matched on one side but not the other. I've tried a WiFi connection from the router as well as straight Ethernet but the problem is consistent whatever the mode of connection. Add to that the usual problems from 4.30pm onwards when every schoolchild in the area hops onto Facebook.

API - I get API issues on quite a regular basis (most probably a Betfair issue, but I wonder if my general setup has anything to do with it). The most annoying thing is, aside from having to re-log into BetAngel, is that when I attempt to bring up my saved markets on Guardian ... blank. There's nothing there, and the same applies to the Market Selection menu.

Computer - I currently use an Apple Mac with VMWare. I've dedicated 2GB of RAM to this but suffer speed issues aplenty. Playing videos/simple games (e.g. Solitaire) on the Windows side - forget it! This will freeze the whole system and most likely result in a forced reboot. I'm aware my video settings are likely not up to scratch, but could this affect the way BetAngel runs too?

BetAngel - is highly prone to suddenly freezing/sticking - this can be a nightmare. Today I had £2 matched out of the money while I was waiting for it to unstick, and by the time it did it was too late to do anything about it.

Okay, the most obvious solutions to me are:

1) Get a Windows PC/laptop and cut the whole VMWare issue out of the equation!

2) Move to an area that actually belongs in the 21st century and can support fibre-optic broadband.

3) Minimise internet downtime. Does anyone know if a dedicated broadband connection makes any difference? Has anyone gone down this route? What are your experiences (additional costs included)? I also want to consider mobile broadband i.e. 3G, even if it's just as backup. While I'm living in this ADSL zone though, I'm thinking mobile broadband might even be more reliable than my main connection. Any comments?

I know I will have to upgrade all my equipment eventually, it would just be nice to know if I can be successful before I go ahead and spend the money. When things run smoothly and I settle down with the right frame of mind, I've had promising results. With all these technology issues attacking me left, right and centre it's a different story. I'm only using £2 stakes being a relative beginner, but 45p down later and I'm giving up for the day - it's just too unreliable to properly gauge my performance and consistency.

I don't feel I can move forward until I get these problems ironed out. Sigh ... I may just be stuck with it for the next six months until I find a better area to live.

[superfrank]

what is the speed of your connection?
http://www.speedtest.net, http://www.pingtest.net

get your ISP to check if there are any errors on your line (i had a fault recently, my connection still worked but suffered intermittent problems - the worst kind of fault). Sky broadband were v.good and got a BT engineer out the next day to sort the problem (in the exchange).

always use an Ethernet connection where possible.

i can't comment on macs or VMWare - not my thing.

[TheTub]

Have you considered a VPS? At least then you have Bet Angel running on a Windows machine.

www.betangel.com/vps/

[Boing]

A VPS is a good idea. You need so little bandwidth to run it, and it will run like a dream on a mac. Much better than an PC emulator.

[PeterLe]

Hi G
I use a MAC too.
I also tried using virtual machine on my MAC (Fusion) but there is a slight latency added...we are only talking about millisecs, but depending upon what you are doing, it can cause issues.

The Tub is right; a VPS is a much better solution. I was using a microsoft product called RDC to connect to my VPS but when I upgraded to the Lion OS I found that RDC was running away with my memory. Microsoft know about the memory leak but in no rush to fix it!
Anyway, I now use something called CoRD - absolutely brilliant
Regards
Peter

[guanomere]

Some very helpful replies here, many thanks!

First, for Superfrank, speed test results:

Speedtest.net:
Ping = 208ms
Download speed = 0.30 Mbps
Upload speed = 0.09 Mbps

Pingtest.net:
Packet loss = 0%
Ping = 131ms
Jitter = 70ms
Line Quality = D

Broadband Genie:
Download speed = 0.71 Mbps
Upload speed = 0.67 Mbps

Bit of a mixed bag, but then I can't pretend to know what any of it means...!

TheTub, Boing and PeterLe - thanks for the suggestion. I didn't even know this existed. Or maybe I did and it completely passed me by. I'll definitely consider a VPS and it could certainly eliminate some of the problems I'm having. The only spanner is my beautiful, darling internet connection - I don't think there's much I can do about that for the time being, although a backup mobile option would maybe cover the cracks. PeterLe, thanks for the recommendation for CoRD - I've checked it out online and it looks nice and simple.

Costs are adding up, but long-term reliability is priceless!

[superfrank]

you simply have a terrible connection, for whatever reason, and not one that anyone could seriously trade with.

you should be looking at a ping of less than 40ms as a starting point.

where do you live? who is your ISP?

[guanomere]

This is my second attempt to post an update (yes, my connection dropped LITERALLY as my mouse pointer hovered over the Submit button).

Superfrank, I live in Sandhurst, near Camberley and my ISP is Virgin Media. I used to live in Frimley Green and the connection there was fine - fast and reliable. Here, it's pointless doing anything. I have a Virgin Media 10MB package, but we all know that only means 'up to'. Being an ADSL line, that probably diminishes further depending on how generous BT are feeling at the time.

I'm going to investigate mobile broadband this weekend and see if that at least gives me some consistency - it can't be any worse than what I've got. If that proves reliable enough, I'll trial the VPS route for a month to maximise my output. No point in VPS if my local connection is going to continue to drop out.

I lost 45p over 13 races the other day (using £2 stakes) due to these issues. The next evening, things were working fine and I made 55p over 5 races! You can see how counter-productive this thing is. This evening the problems are back en force, and I've lost 80p over 2 races - a drift reversed itself while I was waiting for my screen to unstick.

No more for me until I get things working as they should be...