I'm using Qcharts via Starband. Almost everyday I will get times when Qcharts will stall. Sometimes for a minute, sometimes for several moments. I don't want to lay the blame on Qcharts right away because I've noticed this happens at times on other program which I am pretty sure are caused by the satellite feed. I've read other comments here saying Qcharts is bad about this. Is anyone else using Starband satellite feed on Qcharts and NOT having problems? Is anybody using Qcharts on any connection and NOT getting interruptions?
EasyRider, the QCharts data feed is extremely unreliable. They have a great little charting package, but I would never use them for real-time trading, and would even be leery of using them for swing trading. The only reliable internet based data feeds that I've ever found are: www.eSignal.com or www.atattitude.com Regards, Slave2Market
QCharts is very reliable for futures over a broadband connection. Never used it for Level II or options, where I understand they had some issues at one time. Are you losing the whole program or just some data? There are many quirks to QCharts and you should keep up with the user groups on SI or Yahoo. Your problem sounds like a bad router somewhere on your internet connection. Next time it happens, run a tracert and check your connection times.
easyrider, That is not you internet connection problem. More like QChart's servers. LII quote will stalled for few seconds. I used it for graph only. Never used it for Level II trading.
It's definitely not your satellite - the QFeed is complete shit. You'd have to look far and wide for a more unreliable datafeed (I've used it for stocks and the minis) --- or a more poorly run company. I gave up after one month. Their customer service is terrible, the phone reps have no idea what's going on, and my e mails went unanswered. I hope this helps. -N
Hmm..Seems most arent too crazy about Qcharts. AAA: I am mainly interested in futures data and am curious about your statement about their futures data being very reliable. Is that as opposed to equities data? How did you arrive at this conclusion? No I dont lose the program. It just sits there and you notice that the quotes arent changing. It will generally start back up after a few moments.
easyrider check and see if you have it set to switch servers automatically.. if so, you might want to have it prompt you first so that you dont lose the connection without warning.. ive been using qcharts for over 2 years now.. for the most part i really dont have any complaints.. there have been problems here and there but all quote providers have them from time to time.. if you seem to be having alot of problems on a particular day.. one thing you might try is deleting the continuumclient file from the qcharts directory.. and then restarting the program.. if you are still stuck with a slow server then you can change to a different one with (alt)+(ctrl)+(n).. hope that helps.. -qwik
Starband does have sporadic outages. Just check the newsgroups for more on this. I have SB and usually those outages are infrequent but when they do happen everything is dead. Pings are not possible nor is tracert. What is weird is that the "network status box" shows everything up and running...good signal, etc. Symptoms are just as described in the first post. Everything stops...Nextrend (or realtick...I've used both), Island book, squawk box. Can last a second or two or longer but nothing over two minutes or so. BTW, this isn't the typical weather or sunspot outage...that's a whole 'nother thread. It has come to the point where I've decided go with a dedicated 128k line for trading. As I wrote above, I have never used Qcharts so I can't comment on their feed. Jim
easyrider, I only use it for futures, so I can't comment on stocks or options. I run it beside IB and the quotes are comparable in speed. I seldom have problems with it. When I do, I exit, right click on the icon , select properties, find target, then right click on the cont. client file and delete it, close everything and restart the program. You should be able to tell from the task bar if you are losing the connection or if it is backing up, the light goes from green to yellow or whatever. I fully agree with the comments about Lycos tech support, it is even worse than TradeStation, but I seldom if ever use it.
easyrider, You said..."because I've noticed this happens at times on other program which I am pretty sure are caused by the satellite feed." A google search turned up this: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qcharts/messages/21958 You should be able to find some useful info from the above link. Also, I use QCharts (my backup system) and rarely have problems with Emini quotes nor stocks. Yet, I don't use Level II nor options in QCharts. I've heard there's problems with this. Yet, when I first started using QCharts I had some major problems. Problems went away when I got a more powerful computer, switched ISPs, and stopped running other programs in the background while working in QCharts. QCharts is now on one computer by itself. I guess its a sensitive program when other programs are working at the same time (Norton Systemworks, trading platform, Lotus spreadsheet, etc, Netscape browser). I'm not really sure what caused the stall and crashes in QCharts previously because all the changes I mentioned above occured over a 2 day period. My suspicions is that it was my system and not my ISP. Esignal data feed is more reliable but its charting program SUCKS...not user friendly as QCharts. Simply, now I do my internet financial browsing on one computer, my trading platform on another and my backup realtime charting program on another. Are you aware theirs a QCharts user group on the othernet server (mirc)? Live realtime chat beats message-board snail mail any day It's not supported by Quote.com but there is a sales guy in there that's interested in knowing when customers have problems. Finally, regardless what others say...if it works...keep using it...if it doesn't...find something else. Nihaba Ashi