Connection issues
If you are having problems connecting to CentralChat there are many possible causes. The easiest way to join a chat room is by using our webchat, which will work even if access to IRC has been blocked by your network administrator (eg. at school or work).
Some possible connection issues are described below.
"Ping timeout" or "connection reset by peer"
These messages are common on CentralChat and the Internet in general; there is nothing wrong with your computer, so there is no need to panic. If you see someone leaving the chat with one of these messages, or see one of these messages on your own computer, it just means that the connection between your computer and CentralChat was lost.
The most common cause is your Internet connection - your connection may have dropped out. Just reconnect to the Internet, or wait to be connected automatically, and log in to the chat room again.
These messages are an unfortunate part of the Internet. There is no such thing as a completely stable connection, so everyone will experience one of these error messages at some point, some more often than others.
Occasionally this message means that something has gone wrong at our end: just sit tight and we'll sort it out. CentralChat has redundant servers so in the event of one server going offline, you should be automatically connected to a different server.
Session limit exceeded
You may see this message if you attempt to connect to CentralChat more than once. For security reasons we only allow a few connections from each computer at once; if someone attempts to connect more than the allowed number of times, the extra connections will be rejected. If you have a legitimate reason for needing to connect multiple clients at once, post a message in the help forum and we'll arrange a session limit exception for you.
You have been banned from CentralChat
This one explains itself, and you'll only see it if you've been banned by the CentralChat staff for breaking one of our rules. How long the ban lasts will depend on what you did to deserve the ban: usually it's a few days, sometimes a few weeks or even forever. Sometimes there will be instructions in the ban message on how to get unbanned: you should follow these instructions and then try to reconnect an hour later. If you want to appeal a ban, or if you think you were banned by mistake, post a message in the help forum.
Netsplit
Sometimes the connection between two of CentralChat's servers will be interrupted. This is called a "netsplit" since it causes the CentralChat network to be split in two - half the users will be on one side of the netsplit, while the rest are on the other. Users on either side of the netsplit won't be able to see each other. These are rare events and usually only last a few minutes.