Ok I have been testing this for about 2 weeks now. It's all anecdotal evidence. In the first two weeks I only tested it on my own Flash client. In the past two weeks I have asked all people in my multi-player game to test my theory as well. I haven't had a network disconnection since.
What I have observed is that in multi-payler games all 4 flash clients have to respond to server, or host. The host then has to respond to all 4 clients.
What is happening in the game is that the Flash clients are not refreshing correctly, and/or fast enough in relation to the server.
I have programming experience.
1. Clicking or posting on the chat client does not refresh the game client.
2. Flash sends a refresh packet at around 7-10 seconds(complete guess. but is based on observations.
3. Clicking on the middle of the Flash screen sends an automatic update to the server and it sends up an update to the other 4 clients.
4. This is a leap, but I think that Flash sends updates to all clients, and the updates that go to the server and how they send them to the clients, are too slow.
I have done network programming in the past(long time ago). I have also spent some time as a bug hunter for EA Games.
This is what I have observed.
If everyone clicks on the middle of the java screen, particularly when it is greyed out, people do not time out. To me this means that a click on the "Flash Client" automatically sends a "refresh" message to the host and all other game clients. This keeps the game alive.
My solution is that the host server send out a refresh request more often, and update the clients after every client response as soon as it comes in.
Sm0knGun/Cryptotich.
-Tyler Lewis