• Missing card(s)
• Slloowwww...
• Which browser?
• Advertisements
• The quick refresh trick
• Viruses and ad-ware
• Java problems
• Repeatedly asked to login

One of the most common problems is that you'll find one or more of the cards in the deck has gone completely missing. This is usually just your browser having a little wedgie. You can force a reload of the game by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing F5, or clicking the Reload/Refresh icon up by your browser's address bar (also while holding down the Ctrl key). This makes the browser re-fetch everything and this will likely restore the missing card(s).

There are two main kinds of slow. If you're seeing a delay after clicking Play before you get a new deal, or upon completing a game it takes a while for the server to respond, that's probably network delay. The Internet is still highly variable and depending on your current "route" to the server you might have different latencies. The server is running on fast hardware and to my knowledge pretty much always responds almost instantly (in human terms), so if you're having sluggishness like this, it's probably something between you and the server on the 'net that's responsible. traceroute (tracert on Windows) can help you learn more. Use your favorite search engine to learn how to use traceroute/tracert.

The second kind of slow is when the game actually takes a while to draw cards or respond to mouse/keyboard input. First off, if you're running Internet Explorer, make sure you're not running in a magnified mode. Look at the little magnifying glass in the lower right corner of the browser screen and make sure it's at 100%. Second, some systems seem to have trouble displaying the new PNG card images but will happily display the older small GIF versions. Between games there's a dropdown in the upper right hand corner of the game board. Use that to select "Old Cards." They won't be as big but hopefully they'll animate faster. Finally, if neither of those tips work, try Firefox. It always seems to be frisky. It's a free and easy download from mozilla.com.

If the game doesn't seem to work right in your browser, please make sure you're using the latest version of either Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari. I'm just one guy so I can't attempt to support the other browsers and/or older versions of the Big Three. The game actually seems to continue to work in older versions of Internet Explorer but I make no promises. Firefox seems to work well everywhere these days, even on Macs and Linux and as I note above, it's a free and easy download from mozilla.com.

Yes, some advertisements can be annoying. I don't pick the ads; I simply don't have the time to try to micromanage the ads we're served. Note that in return for the occasional annoyance of this or that advertisement you are indirectly at least generating a little money for charity. If you absolutely can't stand the ads, we do provide Premium service which does nothing except give you an entirely ad-free site.

Now if you're getting pop-ups using the site or other apparently dubious advertisements, you likely have an infestation of ad-ware. See the section on that below.

As noted above under the "missing card(s)" section, a quick reliable way to fix a variety of odd problems is to simply force your browser to reload everything. While on the game page, hold down the Ctrl key and hit F5, or else click on the Reload/Refresh icon up by your browser's address bar (also while holding down the Ctrl key). The makes the browser re-fetch everything and will often restore sanity to you and your computer.

Viruses and ad-ware were frankly more of a problem in years past as most folks now do have their computers adequately protected. If you don't, however, we'd strongly recommend it. If odd things are happening, you've got browser toolbars you didn't ask for, ads are popping up while using this site (we never serve pop-ups), or things are just running slow in general, try installing either a commercial anti-virus program or else one of the fine free ones.

I use Avast Free Home Edition and find it to be excellent. There are others out there, just use your favorite search engine and look for "free anti-virus".

First of all I'd encourage you to try to stop using the Java version. Java is getting a bit long in the tooth and isn't widely used on the Internet anymore. I wrote the Java version of the game many years ago and don't do more than make minimal updates to it. All the attention goes to the regular (DHTML) version, so that's where you'll find the latest amenities.

Java's advantage used to be that it played on every computer system, not just Windows systems. But these days you can run Firefox on any system and it does a fine job of running the regular version of the game. And Safari on Mac runs the regular version very well so unless you have an ancient Mac and haven't updated Safari, there's little cause to stay with Java.

But having said all that, if you're still using the Java version and have troubles, please try simply updating you browser and/or updating your Java version from here: Java download

If you're repeatedly asked to login, this probably means your browser is rejecting cookies from this site. We use cookies to maintain state as you use the site, a very common practice, and also use them to remember who you are so you don't have to login every time, also a very common practice.

But if you can't successfully login or are asked every time you come to the site to login, it's probably because we can't save that cookie. Some 3rd party "scrubber" software removes cookies as soon as you close your browser. Often folks seem to have installed such software without really realizing it so you might need to do a little looking to figure out what is providing the unwanted "help".

You can also try adjusting your browser's preferences. Go to Tools --> Internet Options and then click the Security tab. Add freecell.net to your Trusted Sites list.

If that still doesn't get it, trying using your favorite search engine to find info about how to explicitly enable cookies for your browser. I won't attempt to keep up-to-date instructions here when they're so easy to come across on the 'net, again using that good ol' favorite search engine.

Sometimes as a last resort (or even a first resort) try switching browsers. Whatever has gotten tangled up on your main browser with regard to cookie configuration will likely not happen with an alternate browser. If you're using Internet Explorer, try Firefox, or vice versa. Again a search engine will help you find the downloads.