Lag and cam-related issues

[hornygods]

Hey girls,

I've been wondering - has anyone else been having difficulties with MFC lately? For myself, MFC works fine for about a week and for the next few days, it's pretty much un-usable. I've heard similarly from a selective few members, whereas the others would give a contradicting feedback. I define lag to be 'low frame rate with audio that skips frequently'.

If it's MFC's fault, they really ought to fix their stuff because it's ultimately hurting the girls bottom line and their own bottom line - members are more stringent when tipping if they're not receiving a good quality feed.

 

[BullFrogBlues]

Not a model but I too have periods with the same issues.

I often hear the term lag used as you describe, but really it isn't the correct term. Lag is the delay between when something happens on camera and you receive it.

When video frames are dropping and audio skipping ie the model's stream is stuttering, there could be a fault at MFC or you have a low speed connection to the MFC servers.

If it is a particular server you are connected too, so you can try logging out and in to MFC a few times.

It may be your particular ISP's path to the MFC servers in Seattle WA. Try testing your speed to Seattle WA using http://www.speedtest.net/ watch the download graph, even if your download speed is say above 1Mbps overall, if there are long periods below that then the model's stream can't get to you fast enough.

You can also try models with poorer quality video (ie slower speed needed) and see if they come through stutter free.

The ultimate cure? I don't know, I too have times with the same problem. I have tried resetting my ADSL modem, but not sure if this has ever really fixed the problem. Try using different browsers too, chrome or iron usually works best.

Lag is interesting, I am in Australia and Amber's lag for me is about 10 -12 seconds, but for a couple Australian models it is nearly non-existent. I don't know why, because I though they all come from the same servers at MFC. I wonder if it is a function of the video quality, Amber's is very high, the other Australian models have average video quality. I don't hang around in enough different model's rooms to pin this down.

 

[hornygods]

I think the proper term ought to be 'Buffering' - but lag as a broad term encompasses latency and bandwidth issues, so it's not terribly inaccurate. Thanks for the tip though.

It's odd - I think your theory is right; certain routes are significantly slower than others, therefore video streams will inevitably suffer as a result. A strange thing is the multiple confirmation of it in other places - from the introduction thread, to a model's twitter posts.

I hope this is fixed quickly. I'm pretty sure models are losing income because of this relatively simplistic issue.

 

[MrRodry]

Try cleaning your browser cache too. With me, it works with Chrome but not that much with Firefox.

 

[JoleneBrody]

It seems like it's been extra bad the last week. During my G/G show with Lucy it seemed half the room had issues and the other half didn't (so not our connection). When we took a short break and logged back on the server crashed and I had to try again. It is obvious certain servers are having issues, so the logging out and in strategy should work if you are certain it's not caused by your internet connection itself.
I do hope they get it fixed, I'm sure it is equally annoying for the members as it was for us to hear about it every 3 seconds.

 

[Marokite]

Yes, it has to be an MFC issue. I've been having problems with the streams since Wednesday or Thursday. It happens with every browser I have tried. I've tried various random models' rooms (from very busy ones to those with few people and crappy cams). I've cleared the cache on each of the browsers. I've turned off various programs. I've tested the speed to WA, and there was no significant difference. I've run virus checks, uninstalled software and cleared space on my hard drive. Each model I have visited has had a stuttering feed. Sound cuts out every few seconds, and the video skips. The model could be saying something, and right in the middle of the sentence the feed will skip and she's no longer there, having gone to the kitchen (and her statement is left incomplete). I went to another cam site and the feeds were running perfectly. I've played games on Steam with no lag, and my browsing is running smoothly. I can browse or chat on MFC just fine too. I just can't watch a steady feed. I've heard this issue repeated by various people over the past few days, so it isn't just my machine.
Sorry if my post seems angry. I'm just a bit disappointed that I've had to miss out on some cool events, and that conversations with my model friends has been lacking. I hope the get it fixed.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes. Last Tuesday or Thursday night (I think it was Thursday night), members kept complaining that my cam was lagging. Then a little later they told me that it was happening in other models' rooms too.

As a model who's not even on MFC every night, it's very frustrating when stuff like that happens when you ARE on cam. Kinda hard to relax and enjoy your room when people are entering your room and saying "Your cam is lagging real bad." LOL.

It wasn't an issue though the last time I was on cam on there, so that was a relief.

 

[bud9752]

started for me on Thur and after contacting MFC , their response was the usual wiki link. I only contacted them AFTER I had already done all the suggested fixes on their wiki page , so I haven't been very happy with the site for the last 4 days. I did notice if the model was off cam or not moving at all, my audio came through steady but as soon as there was any movement on cam it was right back to stuttering/choppy audio and video. tried numerous model pages with the same poor performance of the site.

 

[LilyMarie]

I have a general lag-related question: How much lag is normal?
When I appear to be having a bad connection and want to find out what the lag is for the members in my room, I usually hold up a certain number of fingers and tell them to let me know how many fingers they're seeing. It normally takes 3 to 4 seconds for them to respond. Is this too long?

 

[hornygods]

I think you can gauge it from the response time to your questions. It's generally normal to have a second or two of lag, but anything over 5 seconds is definitely problematic.

3-4 seconds might be an inaccurate representation simply because it takes time to type a response and send it, too.

 

[BullFrogBlues]

I have a general lag-related question: How much lag is normal?

One way to test for lag is to put up the 1 minute countdown emote onemin) and have the model say the time she sees. I have 10 - 12 seconds lag with Amber's room and the only issue is that my chat response to something she says is that plus my typing time behind. Video and audio is just fine.

 

[ZoeyBell]

I had a lot of problems with this the past week. I thought it was my computer so I cleaned it out deleted everything except what was essential to running it. I made sure I didn't have any other programs running and restarted it. I still had a pretty bad lag and twice I had to end my show early because my cam was taking 2-3 min to load then would go down again. Hopefully this week will go better.

 

[FifthElephant]

I've had this happening for several days now - essentially all rooms are unviewably jerky most of the time.

 

[HornyFella84]

I have had really bad lag for all models for about a week already.
Video and audio lagging so bad it gives me headache.

I have tried 4 different browsers, cleaned cache, restarted modem, etc but nothing helps.
Lags also on my secondary computer so problem is with MFC.

I wish mfc would do something but i guess it works without lag for most people.
Life without mfc has been really shitty, missed so many shows of my favourite girls. So painfull. :crybaby:

More users and models should contact mfc and tell them to do something about this lag bullshit. :angry4:

 

[Marokite]

It appears to have just fixed up for me this afternoon. Going to test again this evening. *crosses fingers*

 

[bud9752]

What Marokite said, for the first time since Thur I can actually see and hear a model without choppy audio and video, crossed fingers , waiting for tonight to see if evening traffic affects it in any way. took them 4 days (I hope 10,000 emails that they had to respond to) before they finally did anything.

 

[HornyFella84]

Hollyhanna, PureDream and sexyvixen27 have stopped lagging for me.

Maybe they are fixing something. :dance:

 

[hornygods]

It appears that MFC has responded just in time for Valentines Day. It's a good business move, but isn't it a tad late?

 

[JoleneBrody]

I've sure they have been working on it the whole time. Servers have restarted multiple times over the last week and that's a good indication they were on it.

 

[Just Me]

Maybe this was a routing issue? I can not say that I have had any of these problems in the last week. I live fairly close to the MFC servers so maybe it just wasn't affecting me enough to notice.

On a side note. Does anyone have issues with sounds playing when a model friend logs on? Maybe not many use that option but is something I really liked. It stopped working consistently for me 6 months or more ago. Now the only time it works is when MFC resets if I am logged on and then it will work for a few hours or until I log off. I have tried MFC support many times and they have never been helpful. I have tried all the usual troubleshooting procedures. Clearing cache and cookies, disabling and re-enabling, and have tried it on 4 different browsers.

 

[HornyFella84]

LexxiStar, KaylaLynn and Niina_ started lagging again.

 

[Kittycatpurr]

Last night quite a few guys had probs in my room, and when i first logged on to my cam apparently I sounded like i was in a room filled with helium whilst being serenaded by Alvin and the Chipmunks. It does seem to have been an all-round issue recently.

 

[Shaun__]

Last night quite a few guys had probs in my room, and when i first logged on to my cam apparently I sounded like i was in a room filled with helium whilst being serenaded by Alvin and the Chipmunks. It does seem to have been an all-round issue recently.

One of my model friends often has that problem. When I asked how she fixes it, she said she switches to the internal mic then switches back in the settings.

 

[hornygods]

I don't seem to be experiencing any problems - has it been fixed again?

 

[schlmoe]

While I saw some improvement, there were still some model rooms that had the stuttering video last night. The transition to HD; MFC server upgrades; and MFC server load balancing all may play a part in this, I am convinced that there is a flaw/bug in the model's web broadcaster.

I have seen at least 6 times lately (different models) where I had the video issue (for up to an hour), and after the model reloaded her web s/w, everything was fine. When I say "reloaded", I do not mean they decided to reload on purpose. It was more like clicking the "back" button, or hitting the "refresh" by mistake.

 

[dumbguy]

Its been pretty bad the hour or so Ive been on tonight

 

[AmberCutie]

While I saw some improvement, there were still some model rooms that had the stuttering video last night. The transition to HD; MFC server upgrades; and MFC server load balancing all may play a part in this, I am convinced that there is a flaw/bug in the model's web broadcaster.

I have seen at least 6 times lately (different models) where I had the video issue (for up to an hour), and after the model reloaded her web s/w, everything was fine. When I say "reloaded", I do not mean they decided to reload on purpose. It was more like clicking the "back" button, or hitting the "refresh" by mistake.

I'm wondering if what you think is the model reloading their broadcaster is actually just the video resetting on its own. You mentioned that my feed "reset" last night and all was better for a while after that, but I didn't touch a thing. Maybe it's trying to fix itself.

All I know is that it's pretty frustrating when a handful of people are getting a shitty video feed and it's perfect for everyone else. It's clear that it's not something we can really control, with exception of picking and choosing if/when to manually reset our broadcaster if our friends request it of us. And even then it poses a problem, as sometimes when we reset it, there are other people who are then left with a white screen or broken video feed.

I would suggest that everyone who can clearly and technically explain the problem they're having and the fixes they are trying send a concise/coherent email to the MFC admins. My instinct tells me they probably know of the issue, but the more details they get, the better they may be able to troubleshoot it.

I haven't spoken to the admin who was developing the web broadcaster in months, so I can't streamline the process for anyone.

 

[SNATCH]

Omg omg omgggg... It's been making me want to beat my head on the keyboard. Almost everyone in my room had has problems with it... It's super frustrating to have to explain every five fucking minutes that it's NOT my internet connection, or anything on MY end, but it's MFC's...

I've found nothing to work to make it better... Switching to the model software, web browser, clearing cache, refreshing my room... && the lag has been pretty bad sometimes... Like, a few seconds delay, frame by frame stuff. I ahave also noticed that sometimes when I hit start webcam, it will look like I am on, but it says loading, then I have to restart. Or people say my cam reloads as well, but I haven't done anything. I have noticed it happening in other models' rooms too... So it does make me feel better knowing it's not just me. Haha.

I was on last night, && it was reallllllyyy bad, so it hasn't fixed itself for me yet.

 

[schlmoe]

Omg omg omgggg... It's been making me want to beat my head on the keyboard. Almost everyone in my room had has problems with it... It's super frustrating to have to explain every five fucking minutes that it's NOT my internet connection, or anything on MY end, but it's MFC's...

I've found nothing to work to make it better... Switching to the model software, web browser, clearing cache, refreshing my room... && the lag has been pretty bad sometimes... Like, a few seconds delay, frame by frame stuff. I ahave also noticed that sometimes when I hit start webcam, it will look like I am on, but it says loading, then I have to restart. Or people say my cam reloads as well, but I haven't done anything. I have noticed it happening in other models' rooms too... So it does make me feel better knowing it's not just me. Haha.

I was on last night, && it was reallllllyyy bad, so it hasn't fixed itself for me yet.

That is good to know that it is both the model S/W and the browser based broadcaster. It is obvious that the trouble resides in the MFC infrastructure, whether it's the HD implementation or server load balancing or not enough hamsters to make the wheels move.

I'm wondering if what you think is the model reloading their broadcaster is actually just the video resetting on its own. You mentioned that my feed "reset" last night and all was better for a while after that, but I didn't touch a thing. Maybe it's trying to fix itself.

Like I mentioned, on several instances, while the model may not have "reloaded" the web broadcaster intentionally, they did say they hit the refresh or back buttons by mistake. In your room last night, as far as I could tell, you did nothing to cause the reset. This just causes me to scratch my head more.

I would suggest that everyone who can clearly and technically explain the problem they're having and the fixes they are trying send a concise/coherent email to the MFC admins. My instinct tells me they probably know of the issue, but the more details they get, the better they may be able to troubleshoot it.

I'm more than willing to send an email, but this forum is littered with posts describing the poor email response from members. Even when members couldn't buy tokens, or in a case today, the member couldn't log in to spend his tokens. There is a post earlier in this thread where the member was directed to the wiki, "clear your cache, blah blah blah".

I am hoping when you say "everyone", that it includes models. Maybe you guys will have better luck in getting a response. Maybe all of us working together in emailing the admins will help.

The bottom line is that a bad video stream is not costing me a dime. There is a multi-page thread in this section devoted to less tipping recently. It could very well be that poor video streams are a contributing factor. This video problem does not affect all model rooms at the same time, and it is pretty easy for dudes (and dudettes) to click "next".

Another thing to keep in mind is that in any business, it is a very small minority who complain. It could be as low as 10%. My point is if there are 4 people complaining, maybe the other 36 clicked "next".

 

[hornygods]

Pressing 'thanks' is insufficient, so I'll post that it was a nicely thought out response/post. Indeed, customer support is a little inept on MyFreeCams - it appears that a majority of the investment lies within advertising and the infrastructure.

On a slightly unrelated note: is there any way to correct my grammar and such on the original post, after the edit function has timed out? I notice that I've written 'give a contradicting feedback', which should be 'give a contradicting response', or 'give contradicting feedback'. 'stringent' should have been 'stingy', I'm not sure how I did that. I think that's the most obtrusive ones in the post..