The 2 T’s Talk about the 3 C’s for Optimizing Your Pogo Experience!

Green: How ya’ll doing’? Welcome to Tiki Brothers Talk Tech! Did you miss us?!

Red: It feels great to be back! We sure missed you!

Green: Indeed we did, but we are back and we are ready to serve! So, shall we get started?

Red: Sure! Today’s question comes from Jerry S. from New York, NY.

“I have been playing on Pogo forever; do you have any advice for optimizing my Pogo playing experience?”

Green: Oh, the age old question Jerry. But I am glad you asked! Red, let’s give Jerry the low-down on how to optimize his computer and Internet so that Pogo is as smooth as it can be!

Red: Great, where to start? Okay, everything being equal– everything comes down to three main things. I will call them the Three C’s! These are your Internet Connection, your Computer, and your Configuration.

Green: That’s right Red, let’s tackle the Internet Connection first. Everything else being equal, this is like your most important part of Pogo that can sometimes gets overlooked.

Your connection is everything between your wall and your computer; it is your pipeline to the ‘net. So, besides the most obvious things like spending a few bucks extra a month to get a broadband connection, such as DSL, and Cable Internet, there are some other things you want to check on.

Red: If you have a DSL or Cable connection, there could be a whole bunch of devices between you and your modem that could be causing troubles. Many people these days plug their modem into some sort of router or firewall, or into a wireless router. Don’t forget that these all have the ability to block Pogo. Check with your device manufacture, if you suspect a firewall is blocking Pogo.

You can learn all about Firewalls and Routers in our Help Section.

Green: Yeah, and for all of you on wireless connections, remember to keep an eye on your connection strength. You can usually find this on the bottom right hand side of your computer’s task bar. It looks like something you might see on a cell phone: an antenna with 4-6 bars next to it. Try to get as many bars as possible. If you need to, get closer to your wireless transmitter, or just plug in with a network cable, to make sure your connection is as stable as possible.

Red: Oh yeah, and if you are “borrowing” someone’s wireless connection, keep in mind that this isn’t something we advise, as there are security risks. If you are going to use wireless, be sure you are the owner of the wireless connection and that you password-protect your connection to prevent others from getting into your network. Check with your wireless hardware manufactures for info on how to set it up securely.

Green: Okay Red, I think we covered that pretty good, let’s move on to the next point, your computer!

Red: Don’t you mean pretty well, dude?

Green: Sheesh whatever! Haha. So let’s talk about your computer. Did your nephew build it for you from old parts? Was it bought circa 1998? It might as well be a hundred year old car. It still drives around, but try merging on the freeway with it!

Red: Green, don’t be mean! Let’s get a bit more specific so friends at Pogo will know what is recommended for Pogo and where the “Gray” zones are for hardware compatibility on Pogo.

Green: Haha, fine fine.

First you might want to compare your system specs with our list of compatible hardware for Pogo.com

You can find out about Pogo Hardware Compatibility in our Help center.

You’ll want to make sure your Operating System is up to snuff. Pogo supports Windows XP, Vista and most modern Macs. Older operating systems like Windows 98 and 2000 might work, but we can’t really recommend them, since they are not supported by Microsoft anymore.

Red: Next, make sure you have at least a 56k modem, but as we stated before, we highly recommend some sort of broadband connection like DSL or Cable Internet.

Green: Okay, next, check your systems memory. You should have at least 128 MB of system memory, but we would love it if you had 256 or more. And if you are using Windows Vista, well, you better be sure you have 512 MB or above. (And if you don’t have 512 for Vista, how the world did you get Vista installed in the first place?!) Oh yeah, and if you are on a Mac make sure you have 384 MB or more.

Red: Be sure that your Windows XP machine has a Pentium III processor with 400 MHz or more. That is a minimum though. Me and Green would love it if you had at least 1 GHz. Oh and Vistas minimum is 1.6 Ghz.

Green: Don’t you mean Green and I?

Red: Ah sheesh! *rolls eyes*. Finally, for system requirements, please remember we don’t support non-computer type hardware like game consoles and Web-TV type devices.

This is the “official” list of what is not supported:

• WebTV
• Windows Mobile devices

We also don’t support Internet-capable gaming systems like:

• Dreamcast
• XBox 360
• Gamecube
• Wii
• Nintendo DS
• PlayStation 2
• Playstation 3
• Playstation Portable.

Green: I guess the only exception for that rule is Pogo Island on the DS, where you can transfer tokens to Pogo, and Boom Boom Rocket on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade, although Boom Boom doesn’t have tokens.

Red: Alas, we reach the configuration of your computer. This seems to be the trickiest part of the equation, and the one with the most things to mess up. Frankly, we could write an infinite number of articles just about this very subject. Today we are just going to make a few main points.

Green: Haha, got me worried there for a minute, Red. My fingers are hurting already from typing so much! *Cracks knuckles*

First make sure your browser is on our supported browser list. This is Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2 or later on the Mac and PC, and Safari for the Mac only. We have gone in detail about these browsers in previous Tiki Brothers. Point is: make sure you are using one of them!

You can find out more about Web Browsers in our Help center.

Red: Great, also make sure your Java is up to date and happy!

We recommend you keep only one version of Sun Java installed on your computer at a time. You can make sure you only have one by going into your Add/Remove programs and checking for multiple Java installations. These are listed under J2SE Runtime Environment, or just Java. Remove all the versions but the latest version, for optimal performance.

Tons of help can be found in the Java FAQ in our Help center.

Green: And finally, if you are having trouble loading games or you find that they load very slowly, be aware that Internet Security programs and software firewalls can cause all kinds of weird things to happen. Keep an eye on your security programs, if you start having trouble out of the blue one day, check them to see if they were recently automatically updated by your security provider. It’s a good idea to try shutting them off temporarily as a test to see if it gets you up and running again. Also remember some browsers like the AOL browser have built in security that might need tweaking in order to get the games to work correctly.

Guess where I’m going to send you now? That’s right– back to our Help Section on Game Loading.

What do you think Red, did we give them enough to think about until next time?

Red: Haha! I think we gave them more than enough to tide our ravenous fans over until next time.

Green: But… what do we do until then? I miss all my Pogo friends. We have been gone so long. Too long! Much, much too long! I’m surprised the Editor hasn’t fired us!

Red: Well let’s Green see. If we had not been washed out to sea while you were giving me surfing lessons… then swallowed by a whale… then spit up onto a deserted island and stuck there for 2 months, we could have been back at home, nice and cozy helping people out.

Green: Well, it was sort-of like a vacation right?

Red: If I have to eat another coconut it will be the last thing I do! *Shakes fist*

Green: *runs away* Bye everyone! Until next time!!!