American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

<font face="Book Antiqua"><font size="4"><font color="beige">Gentlemen! <salute>

This question has come up and I would appreciate a discussion on the continued usage of Zipping/Compressing of our Battle files in PBEM? I am wondering with few exceptions if this isn't now more or less outdated with the speeds of the internet? I was just the pass few days working with a Cadet who is using Vista and what a slick process it uses to send files. We exchanged battle files without compressing/Zipping with no problems what so ever.

Also on the same subject I saw something about the latest WinZip version being able to do the<b>.rr</b> files? If anyone can enlighten me on this and what the heck the <b>.rr</b> is.

Regards,</font id="beige"></font id="size4"></font id="Book Antiqua">

<font color="limegreen"><font size="4">Gen Nick Kunz

Commanding
3/4/II Corps
Army of Georgia</font id="limegreen"><font color="orange">
Chief of Engineering
VMI & CSA</font id="orange"></font id="size4">

You might not have a problem, today, but maybe tomorrow.[;)]

I do have one opponent that sends me files, unzipped. They do work, so far.

My other 10 or so opponents, send the files ZIPPED. I have never had a problem with a ZIPPED file.

There are some people that are still on dial-up.




<b><font color="gold">Ernie Sands
General, Commanding, Army of Ohio

ACWGC Cabinet Member
ACWGC Records Site Administrator
</b></font id="gold">

I guess check with each opponent before commencing a new game. I still zip files out of habit. I have had files that have had errors or got corrupted but it is usually possible to figure the problem and resolve it.

I find an un-zipped file takes slightly longer to upload/download (say 5-6 seconds compared to 2-3 seconds for zipped) ...but even the biggest likely .bte or .cpf file isn't going to be all that big. The time saved in the transfer of a zipped file is probably lost through the time spent extracting the file to the game folder?

I would suggest that downloading ALL compressed game files initially to the same folder provides a good way to keep tabs on what games are actually progressing at any time. Sending un-zipped files straight to destination folder loses this simple 'housekeeping' aid?

Colonel Jim Wilkes.
2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, XX Corps.
AoC. U.S.A.

Its never been an issue of file size for me, but rather the prevention of file corruption. Never had a corrupted file when zipping, but have had many when not.

I also have a very simple process for managing game files when using WinZip that isn't possible when they aren't.



LGen. Hamilton
II Corps
ANV, CSA

Just to echo Rich and say zipped files have never arrived corrupted in my games, and unzipped ones that did were then sent zipped and arrived fine. That's the reason I zip them.

Maj Gen Sean Turner
3rd Cavalry Division, "The Bishop's Men"
I Corps
Army of Alabama

As a habit I always zip, perhaps it is no longer needed for many users but there never has been a problem with them. The zipping time to be safe is minimal. I think that it is still a good policy.

I think the latest version refers to .rar files which is better that winzip in my opinion for ease of use and options.

Best Regards,

General Pierre D.
1st Bde, 3rd Div,I Corps
Army of Georgia, CSA

"NEVER get into a fight without more ammunition than the other guy."

As a matter of fact, I just helped another pair of players resolve some PBEM issues at the support account where they were not zipping & starting to zip the files resolved the issue. The Internet is a messy place and garbge can attach itself to files, but Zipping seems to prevent this.

LGen. Hamilton
II Corps
ANV, CSA

When transferring large files over the internet they are usually broken down into smaller pieces depending on the packet size setting of your router and lan driver. If any of the packets fail to transmit the software tries to recover tham but only so many times. The result of a failure is a piece of you file missing.

Zipped files are smaller so there is less chance of a failure. Also, zipped files have a checksum which verifies that the file that was sent is the one you received. The net result is you will rarely receive a zip file that is corrupt and the error not indicated.

LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)

There is also the problem that a PBEM file is basically a .txt file except for the name. I have sometimes see them end up included in the email message, rather than attached, if they were not zipped.

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
3/2/VIII AoS

West Point Class of '01

Zipping seems to be the way, and very straightforward.


General Jeff Laub
Union Chief of the Army
ACWGC Cabinet Member
http://www.geocities.com/laubster22/UnionHQ/