ChatWeb News

ChatWeb NEWS

The ONLY valid ChatWeb email addresses contain @chatweb.net in the From and Reply-to fields in emails. Anybody who says to mail them at a hotmail or other non-chatweb email address for help or to report anything is a hoax!

March 9, 2001
We have been receiving dozens of emails a day asking about the status of the upgrade to ChatWeb v2.0. As you have probably already noticed, we've fallen off our original intended schedule. Reason being, we had to put the development on hold for a few weeks to finish up another project. As that project is nearing completion, development is slowly starting to pick back up for the upgrade of ChatWeb.

We will set up a mailing list in the next week or two so we can keep those who are interested up to date on the progress as it moves along.

Stay tooned, as it's going to be an exciting ride!

December 4, 2000
New features that will be found in ChatWeb v2.0:

Rooms with Private Messages

Rooms without Private Messages

Ability to "ignore" private messages

Users will be able to register their handles

The ability to "ignore" users

Chatter Profile pages

Improved abuse reporting

Ability to override font colors and sizes

Chatter Icons next to their handle (these may be any gif or jpeg)

Users have the option to disable the chatter icons on their screen

IP addresses will no longer be displayed

Improved font color and size selection

There are also many new "behind the scenes" features added to improve the chatting experience, and improve speed!

November 1, 2000
The development of the next version of ChatWeb Network is finally back underway. While it will have all the features and simplicity of use it has now, we are adding many more features to make your chatting experience here the best on the net! We will be releasing the new features list sometime in November. We will also be allowing a limited number of chatters to sign up as beta testers! The signup period for that should also start in November.

October 28, 2000
A motherboard fire in one of our firewall servers forced us to shut off the electric to two of our servers for 5 minutes while we removed the firewall. The ChatWeb server was brought back up quickly, however it was not noticed until 2 hours later that the web server deamon hadn't come back up as normal. All is well now.

Jan 21, 2000
We now have Geographical Oriented chat online! Click Here to go there now!

Jan 19, 2000
We have many updates! As of Jan 7 we completed our move to a new Internet Service Provider for faster refreshing around the world! We are plugged directly into their backbone.

We are in the beta testing process of a new version of chat we have written from the ground up, and would like user feedback before we bring the new system online. For similar examples of what we will be implementing at ChatWeb, you can check out MikesWeb Chat. We will be customizing this software for our ChatWeb users. We want as much user input as possible. This can be directed to feedback@chatweb.net and you can participate in the polls below.

July 15, 1999
We are still in the upgrading process, and planning for completion by the end of summer for the remaining additions to chat. We are also putting together a feedback page, so we can get input from YOU the chatter! We've also put together a new contacts page at http://www.chatweb.net/help/contact.shtml so be sure to check that out when you need help! But always make sure to check out the Help page first!

16 May 1999
For several weeks now, we have had free private chat rooms available for users, and a FRAMES version for the General and AgeChat sections. We will be making the frames chat available to ALL chat areas soon.

For HELP with using ChatWeb.net: help@chatweb.net
To report an abusive user: monitor@chatweb.net

These are the only valid e-mail addresses at ChatWeb.net to write to regarding ChatWeb.net

29 Mar 1999
Topic Chat is up with several different topics! Write us if you have a request for a special topic room!

26 Mar 1999
Our second T1 circuit is in so we now have double bandwidth capacity and things should be A LOT FASTER!! We are currently monitoring the new line, and will be throughout the weekend to make sure it runs smoothly. More news coming soon!

22 Mar 1999
What's New, SO FAR.. We have a new web design! This was put in place Thursday night of last week! As for our 2nd T1 for our double bandwidth capacity, US West has been delayed once again.. Now they are telling us sometime this week (it was due 2 weeks ago, then they told us last week). We have been told for sure it will be in by March 31, but most likely it will be in this week. *keeping fingers AND toes crossed*
Why has chat been a little slower than usual? Due to our more attractive design, more people have been coming, and causing a bit of a lag. This lag is only TEMPORARY. It will be cleared up immediately when we have our second T1 in later this week.

04 Mar 1999
Just thought we'd give you a status report on how the upgrade(s) are coming, plus a few more additions/features that it will include.

Double bandwidth capacity should be available by March 17th. Our second T1 is due in on March 12th, and should be configured that day, or within a couple days following. This is if US West stays on schedule (not likely BUT *keeping fingers crossed* it could happen).
Additional features included in the upgrade will include:

Streaming Chat (as promised earlier)
User registration (to prevent unintentional bannings, so when one person gets taken out, a dozen more won't go with if they are sharing a proxy/firewall)
Private messages
Ignore (so you can block messages sent to you by annoying users)
User profiles (optional to each chatter)

So far, things are ahead of schedule for the upgrades, so the ETA could even be complete by mid to late spring.

13 Feb 1999
ChatWeb.net over the next few months will be working on *major* upgrades to make a better experience for chatters. The upgrades will include (in no particular order):

Double bandwidth capacity (this will make the chat faster, and allow many more chatters while still providing fast refresh!)
More chat rooms (covering more topics)
Free *limited* private chat rooms.
A new look to the web site.
Geographical oriented chat rooms so you can chat with people in the same region as you!
......more to come!!

While not all the changes will happen at once, we hope to have the upgrades complete by early summer..

26 Oct 1998
The change in the chat program to show only new messages has been a huge success and is now PERMANANT. We have compared our bandwidth stats over the weekend to just before we made the switch. Just before the switch, packet loss was extremely high, causing the servers and our T1 circuit to be stressed. It was also causing out T1 circuit to be reset at least a hundred times a night. Since we made the switch, bandwidth as dropped significantly, and everything is running a lot faster, and the loads are lower. Our ISP is also happy because it is also causing less problems with their equipment. ChatWeb runs smoother, faster, and more reliable now, and many have noticed the improvements. Now we will also be able to handle more chatters. The improvements that have come from the change far out weigh the few complaints we have got. We appreciate the suggestions on how to change the format, but we feel this is far better.

26 Oct 1998
As highly requested by Webtv users, we have now made it so all Webtv users must register to chat. The reason being, the way Webtv has their services set up, there can be a few hundred people using the same IP address at the same time, meaning, if one person on that IP address gets banned, everybody on that IP address gets banned. And that is not fair to the people who didn't do anything! This way, webtv users register using their e-mail, and if a person needs to be banned, only that person will be banned because the banning of webtv users doesn't user their IP addresses anymore.

25 Oct 1998
We are currently working on making a "streaming" chat, which sends you new messages as they come, and leaves the old messages on the page so you never have to hit the refresh button. Streaming will use the current room databases so you can still chat with people who aren't using streaming. Streaming will also be optional. Use streaming, or standard chat. ETA - 30 Oct 98, or sooner.

24 Oct 1998
Now only NEW messages are shown. The reason for this is that we have limited bandwidth, and have noticed chatters like to "pound" on the refresh button with only a second or 2 in between if they are waiting for new messages. This wastes precious bandwidth and makes the rooms slower for everybody. So we figure rather than make everybody suffer by wasting bandwidth, we will make the chat program just display the new messages which chatters are waiting for, and won't waste bandwidth loading the old messages, making the rooms faster, and everybody is happy. =) If you miss a message, you can always hit the back button!