Tickets -- multiple browser tab warning?

[robu]

The new ticket information page on the Glastonbury website now carries the following warning:

• Attempting to book tickets online using multiple browser tabs can confuse the ticket sales process and cause your transaction to fail. We strongly advise that you use just one single browser tab when trying to book tickets, in order to avoid possible problems with your transaction.

I've used multiple browser tabs successfully in the past and always thought they increased the chance of getting through to the booking page.

Have they now wised up to this and taken measures to stop it? Or is it a red herring?

Any thoughts (particularly from tech/web-literate types)?

[payneruk]

Probably just trying to make it more fair for everyone and to reduce network traffic. Will it stop people doing it?

[jeffie]

I tend to go for multiple browsers instead of multiple tabs

[coma girl]

I tend to go for multiple browsers instead of multiple tabs

[eFestivals]

it appears to be the case (from last year's sale) that each tab is using the same server session, meaning that there's no advantage in using multiple tabs.

For those who did use multiple tabs last time, you might have noticed that the moment one of those tabs got the buy page, each f the other tabs did too. That's what's saying to me that they all use the same session.

I'm not sure if using separate indows works the same or not, but I'm pretty certain that if you used a number of "private browsing" windows (which is available within Firefox, if not other browsers) they'd all wrk separately from each other.

[CaledonianGonzo]

I had tickets in the basket last year and it wouldn't let me check out due to having one other tab open - so it's definitely possible that it can bite you on the nethers.

[parsonjack]

I'm not aware of any way in which the See system could identify someone using multiple tabs and then forcibly deny a session being loaded back to the browser.

Certainly as Neil says multiple tabs did tend to grab a 'buy' page simultaneously suggesting a single session - which would imply no advantage in the chances of obtaining the 'buy' page itself, IMHO though there is still the advantage in that if your completed and sent 'buy' page fails and your 'back' button won't reload it you do then have 'spare' buy pages to complete and resend rather than having to retry - although it could be this very process that See are suggesting as being risky........

[mrtourette]

Also if you type google into google you break the internet.

[greenArmy12]

Also if you type google into google you break the internet.

[5co77ie]

I'm not aware of any way in which the See system could identify someone using multiple tabs and then forcibly deny a session being loaded back to the browser.

Certainly as Neil says multiple tabs did tend to grab a 'buy' page simultaneously suggesting a single session - which would imply no advantage in the chances of obtaining the 'buy' page itself, IMHO though there is still the advantage in that if your completed and sent 'buy' page fails and your 'back' button won't reload it you do then have 'spare' buy pages to complete and resend rather than having to retry - although it could be this very process that See are suggesting as being risky........

[parsonjack]

if See wanted to make things fairer surely they would be better to stop telling folks the 'queue' is a 'queue'.....?

[LondonTom]

If it's setup as last year then it's not a queue as such still, just trying to get your cable connected as another falls out.

Unless their moving to an AXS type platform, where I believe it keeps you in some sort of queue (in which case you'd be best off having 3/4 windows/sessions/private browsing windows at the start to try and get a high number in the queue).

[phillyfaddle]

I've always had multiple tabs (as well as devices) open, manually refreshing on timeouts and was successful in getting my mits on tickets 6 times out of the last 7 attempts. Apart from the epic fail last year that is when I left auto-refresh to do its job following the advice of my (supposedly) geek other half. But then, each year's bun fight is a new trial - I mean - learning experience...

[gaz2theb]

think this year i will have one laptop left on the auto refresh 'queue' system and then ipad iphone and other laptop will be refresh refresh refresh!!

As mentioned above - i'm pretty sure the queue isn't a queue

[CaledonianGonzo]

I'm not aware of any way in which the See system could identify someone using multiple tabs and then forcibly deny a session being loaded back to the browser.

[Pinhead]

This is simply See trying to limit the number of unnecessary refresh requests all hitting the server (load balancer), all of which the system is trying to honor, and therefore improve its overall performance somewhat.

"I'm not sure if using separate windows works the same or not, but I'm pretty certain that if you used a number of "private browsing" windows (which is available within Firefox, if not other browsers) they'd all work separately from each other."

Having multiple tabs open on the same browser or multiple browsers on the same machine would typically make no difference assuming that the server end is maintaining session processes based on IP (which would remain the same for each client). If the server end based its sessions on something at the application layer like the browser banner (very unlikely), then there might be an advantage in using different browsers from different vendors on the same machine.

The only way of using multiple browser sessions to your advantage is for them all to have a unique public IP, as each one of these will be dealt its own unique session ID by the server end. Thus, you will need to be refreshing from a number of different machines, each of which has its own unique, unshared, connection to the internet and therefore its own public IP and its own session on the server.

[UEF]

If it's setup as last year then it's not a queue as such still, just trying to get your cable connected as another falls out.

[UEF]

The only way of using multiple browser sessions to your advantage is for them all to have a unique public IP, as each one of these will be dealt its own unique session ID by the server end. Thus, you will need to be refreshing from a number of different machines, each of which has its own unique, unshared, connection to the internet and therefore its own public IP and its own session on the server.

[Thearg]

think this year i will have one laptop left on the auto refresh 'queue' system and then ipad iphone and other laptop will be refresh refresh refresh!!

As mentioned above - i'm pretty sure the queue isn't a queue

[Pinhead]

Or a VPN?

[UEF]

To your work network you mean... With this however the VPN gateway becomes default, so you have to put another static route for See on your machine pointing out to your original gateway with a higher metric value so that you can continue to browse from both networks. Some firms prevent you from doing that however for obvious security reasons...

[phillyfaddle]

Do you really need to be this IT literate to be sure of getting a ticket now? I kind of understand what you mean conceptually but would have no idea how to implement. Blimey, I don't rate my chances this year then either

[Pinhead]

I just used two laptops; one on the VPN (at home), one not (using home network unaltered) - or a virtual PC box within the unfiltered one that runs the VPN.

[Pinhead]

Do you really need to be this IT literate to be sure of getting a ticket now? I kind of understand what you mean conceptually but would have no idea how to implement. Blimey, I don't rate my chances this year then either

[LondonTom]

, is that multiple tabs open on a browser on a single machine offers no discernible advantage and would be best avoided for the reasons of improved system performance at See's end.