Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Free Web Hosting

[Mikhail Kovalenko <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Jonathan King wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Dec 2003, Mikhail Kovalenko wrote:
> 
>>It takes seconds nowadays to validate a credit card through the
>>merchant network. I doubt it would work. Instead, make sure to use
>>a good credit card -- you can always dispute the charge (something
>>you can't do with a debit card).
> 
> "Seconds" to validate?  Even less than that I think.  The last time 
> I bought something at Wal*Mart, the validation maybe took one 
> second, and when I last bought something at Target, I swear it was 
> practically instantaneous.  So either somebody has gotten some 
> mammoth bandwidth behind this, or bad checksums are cached locally 
> (and daily), or they just spout out a contingent approval and then 
> rely on the fact that you've got 30 seconds to get the real answer 
> while I'm fumbling for a pen.
> 
> Seriously, does anybody know for sure how it got this fast?
> 

There isn't a lot of info to transmit. When the card is swiped, only 
what's printed on its face is transmitted. For an online sale, a little 
more information is required, but it's still only a few dozen bytes, and 
there's no dial-up terminal to slow things down. Low-speed telco 
connection - that's where most of the delay usually is.

--
MK

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