Technical tips for resale

[GoonerRob]

1 minute ago, Michaelgball said:

I thought that might have been the case. I've just had a very good track record with Virgin. I managed to get through 3 times in the last sale and snatch 18 tickets for my group, it was pretty mad. 

 

Me too... but also on BT the year before... honestly from a tech point of view, the ISP your using shouldn't matter... but then again, all we have is anecdotal evidence either way! Good Luck everyone going in at 6!

Edited April 14, 2016 by GoonerRob

[bennyhana22]

4 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

It's not ISP or speed I'm afraid... assuming you are connected to the internet and have broadband that is working, it's down to a free session being available. you just need to make as many requests to the server as you can. Good luck! 

This seems to be universally aknowledged as correct. However, presumably your computer's 'performance' is relevant only in as much as the quicker your processor will refresh the page, the more shots you fire, and so the greater the chance of landing on that only too elusive free seesion, no?

Ben

[clarkete]

19 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

I've got through for my group the last 2 years, the way I do it is by having multiple sandboxed sessions. 

In non geek speak, this means multiple browsers / tabs in browsers that are independent of each other, so they cant share data between tabs. To do this, I usually have Firefox / Safari and chrome running, all with auto refreshing plugins ( Chrome, Firefox, Safari for mac) . I also open up one "incognito" window in each browser - which should all be sandboxed. 

The reason i do this are: 

You make a request to the load balancer - it pushes you to one of two servers. If there is a free session available to book, it allows you to get to the booking page, else it throws you back out and you need to make a new request (F5).

By having multiple sessions all auto refreshing, you are hitting the load balancer more often, with more sandboxed sessions and therefore increasing your chances. 

That's my 0.2¢ anyway - hope it helps someone out. 

P.S. I'm a web developer... 
 

Just to say, I did do something similar a couple of years ago, actually set myself up a few virtual machines, each with only one browser being regularly refreshed.  That year not one of them even got to the order page whilst my Sis bought the tickets on her bloody ipad over wifi.

That year I was fairly convinced that they'd taken steps to explicitly block multiple sessions from the same IP, but as above I believe multiple people following a mix of methods I think is good for improved odds.

[GoonerRob]

24 minutes ago, bennyhana22 said:

This seems to be universally aknowledged as correct. However, presumably your computer's 'performance' is relevant only in as much as the quicker your processor will refresh the page, the more shots you fire, and so the greater the chance of landing on that only too elusive free seesion, no?

Ben

Yep that's correct in theory, however i think if you have a computer thats less than 5 years old, the processor speed would make such a tiny difference that I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even then... if you have a crappy PC from ten years ago and happen to hit at the right moment... you'll get through too.

[GoonerRob]

11 minutes ago, clarkete said:

Just to say, I did do something similar a couple of years ago, actually set myself up a few virtual machines, each with only one browser being regularly refreshed.  That year not one of them even got to the order page whilst my Sis bought the tickets on her bloody ipad over wifi.

That year I was fairly convinced that they'd taken steps to explicitly block multiple sessions from the same IP, but as above I believe multiple people following a mix of methods I think is good for improved odds.

Hmm, I managed to get 4 booking windows up last year (only needed 10 tickets tho) and they all came through a min or so after each other... that would suggest to me that it isnt IP based either, but again, all anecdotal evidence on my part

[bennyhana22]

4 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

Yep that's correct in theory, however i think if you have a computer thats less than 5 years old, the processor speed would make such a tiny difference that I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even then... if you have a crappy PC from ten years ago and happen to hit at the right moment... you'll get through too.

There do appear (again anecdotal) to be some variables. mind - for example, in October, with everything else equal and 'optimised', the reload function of Firefox on my Mac was discernibly faster than exactly the same process on Safari. It might be that that's 'known' (e.g. that Safari is a bit sluggish), but there are tiny margins to look at, all be they tiny!

Ben

[clarkete]

13 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

Hmm, I managed to get 4 booking windows up last year (only needed 10 tickets tho) and they all came through a min or so after each other... that would suggest to me that it isnt IP based either, but again, all anecdotal evidence on my part

Aye, if you're talking October 2015 I wasn't doing it then, so wouldn't know if I'd have had the same issue, that one attempt made me doubt the benefit.  These days if I were in your shoes I'd just make sure the other nine people were trying too  

[eFestivals]

1 hour ago, robalotalob said:

Wasn't there something on the holding page in October mentioning not to have multiple browsers or tabs open in case it affected the tab you got through on?

it was about more than one tab in a browser.

Different browsers are fine. More than one window, or tab within a single browser is not.

[eFestivals]

1 hour ago, GoonerRob said:

Me too... but also on BT the year before... honestly from a tech point of view, the ISP your using shouldn't matter... but then again, all we have is anecdotal evidence either way!

when you get lucky and someone else doesn't, you start to look for 'reasons' for why you got lucky.

There are no reasons, it's just luck - but people find those reasons anyway.

Think about it. If there was 1 ticket and two people, one will defo lose out ... but if you don't know that's really all there is to it at the other end, you can make up a million different reasons for why you, special you, were the lucky chosen one. It's what humans do.

[505]

This is the only year I've tried and I got through! I was getting nowhere with Chrome, first attempt on Internet Explorer and it worked.. Only time I've ever praised IE!

Good luck!

[eFestivals]

Just now, 505 said:

This is the only year I've tried and I got through! I was getting nowhere with Chrome, first attempt on Internet Explorer and it worked.. Only time I've ever praised IE!

Good luck!

I'd say that was just luck, but because the luck coincided with you taking a different action your mind tells you the two are related in some way, when they could just be coincidence. Someone somewhere is always getting thru, don't forget.

But if it wasn't, that was more likely the effect of a newly-created session than it was of that specific browser type, and you might have got the same effect if the browser had been (say) Firefox instead.

We can only guess at these things because we don't know the exact system set-up - and we shouldn't of course, because then we'd definitely try to game it.

[robalotalob]

9 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

when you get lucky and someone else doesn't, you start to look for 'reasons' for why you got lucky.

There are no reasons, it's just luck - but people find those reasons anyway.

Think about it. If there was 1 ticket and two people, one will defo lose out ... but if you don't know that's really all there is to it at the other end, you can make up a million different reasons for why you, special you, were the lucky chosen one. It's what humans do.

I'm the opposite, I look for reasons why I missed out. Especially when I'm reading of many people who got tickets relatively easily. I question what I could have done differently, or even question if I was trying hard enough!

[sloseph]

if I remember correctly Virgin Media has a very high Ping speed compared to the likes of BT/Openreach which basically means the request from your PC gets to See's server quicker than the average

it probably don't make much of a difference but there it might be something in it

[eFestivals]

9 minutes ago, sloseph said:

if I remember correctly Virgin Media has a very high Ping speed compared to the likes of BT/Openreach which basically means the request from your PC gets to See's server quicker than the average

while that might be true, getting the server quicker doesn't increase the chances of that instance being successful.

That's fully dependent on the server having an available sales slot to give you, and how well your page request matches with an available slot is down to luck once all the slots are initially filled.

[Calvin Klein]

what about people who can't even get to the holding page and other people getting in multiple times and buying 10+ tickets?

Is that just luck?

[eFestivals]

Just now, Calvin Klein said:

what about people who can't even get to the holding page and other people getting in multiple times and buying 10+ tickets?

Is that just luck?

If you can't get the holding page I suggest shutting down your browser and restarting it.

I can't guarantee that'll fix it, but I have a feeling it might.

[Beerqueen]

6 minutes ago, Calvin Klein said:

what about people who can't even get to the holding page and other people getting in multiple times and buying 10+ tickets?

Is that just luck?

I've tried twice, on three different computers on different browsers and have never even got to the holding page!  I don't hold out much hope for me really!

[Waapster]

15 minutes ago, sloseph said:

if I remember correctly Virgin Media has a very high Ping speed compared to the likes of BT/Openreach which basically means the request from your PC gets to See's server quicker than the average

it probably don't make much of a difference but there it might be something in it

I don't think it matters how fast if gets there if there isn't an open 'slot' when it arrives.

Here's something I do. I don't know if it makes a difference and I'm mindful of Neil's comment that I might be imputing meaning where there is none... However...

I click on the link at least half an hour early to get the page that tells you the sale isn't open yet. Then I start refreshing about a minute before the sale opens. Doing this I haven't had the white screen the rest of my group get - just a holding screen with the countdown timer. It does feel like I start off a step closer than some others...

[sloseph]

13 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

while that might be true, getting the server quicker doesn't increase the chances of that instance being successful.

That's fully dependent on the server having an available sales slot to give you, and how well your page request matches with an available slot is down to luck once all the slots are initially filled.

yeah your completely right, speed isn't going to get you anywhere if all your racing towards is a brick wall

technically speaking the faster you get to the refreshing page the quicker you can refresh again to try and get a slot but we're talking milliseconds

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, Waapster said:

I don't think it matters how fast if gets there if there isn't an open 'slot' when it arrives.

Here's something I do. I don't know if it makes a difference and I'm mindful of Neil's comment that I might be imputing meaning where there is none... However...

I click on the link at least half an hour early to get the page that tells you the sale isn't open yet. Then I start refreshing about a minute before the sale opens. Doing this I haven't had the white screen the rest of my group get - just a holding screen with the countdown timer. It does feel like I start off a step closer than some others...

Someone who claimed to know something about the set-up of the See anti-attack system has suggested there's benefit in visiting the sales page in the 24 hours before. I've no idea if that's correct or not, but I can't see that it would do any harm.

In the past I've suggested myself that what you're doing might help get the holding page in the first place. While it might not, again, I can't see that it would do any harm.

[GoonerRob]

21 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Someone who claimed to know something about the set-up of the See anti-attack system has suggested there's benefit in visiting the sales page in the 24 hours before. I've no idea if that's correct or not, but I can't see that it would do any harm.

In the past I've suggested myself that what you're doing might help get the holding page in the first place. While it might not, again, I can't see that it would do any harm.

The advantage to visiting the pages in advance is that some of the assets on the page will already load (and cache) in your browser. Therefore when you request the site, your browser doesnt have to download these files first and will go straight for the queue. 

Here's the stuff currently loading on the page... biggest things being Glastonbury + See's logos. This WILL give users who have already visited the site an advantage, if only a slight one.

 

Rob


 

[Beerqueen]

I'm bricking it already!

[Redwinevino]

Do we have a address yet?

[cammie81]

3 minutes ago, Redwinevino said:

Do we have a address yet?

http://glastonbury.seetickets.com/content/extras

[Joshuwarr]

I can't deal with this. So nervous!