what am I doing wrong?

James Martin (U.K.) · Post by **James Martin (U.K.)** » 9 Feb 2006 5:02 am

Can somebody tell me why, when I click on a members link to listen to a song it either takes forever or nothing happens at all. Also at other times when attempting to listen on other links I get five or six seconds of music then a minute of silence then another six seconds of music and so on!!drives me mad. I'm using the standard XP version of Microsoft.What am I doing wrong?Thanks.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 9 Feb 2006 5:17 am

sounds like your system is streaming poorly.

What type of Internet connection do you have ?

What program is used to play the downloads, WINdows Media Player ?

Also try WINAMP.. it's Free
http://www.winamp.com/

I use both..( not at the same time though) duh...[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 09 February 2006 at 05:17 AM.][This message was edited by Tony Prior on 09 February 2006 at 05:19 AM.]

John Daugherty · Post by **John Daugherty** » 9 Feb 2006 6:00 am

James, it sounds like a slow connection speed to me. If your internet connection is an internal 56k modem connected to a "dialup" service, you can expect results as you described. If you have a "DSL" connection, it should perform very well.

------------------
www.phelpscountychoppers.com/steelguitar

James Martin (U.K.) · Post by **James Martin (U.K.)** » 9 Feb 2006 9:29 am

Thanks for your answers.Yes, mine is 56k and I'm using Media Player and dial up.I'll give Winamp a check out. Excuse my ignorance, but what's DSL? James

Dave Grafe · Post by **Dave Grafe** » 9 Feb 2006 10:25 am

James, rather than just clicking to play the file, if you use the right mouse button to save the "target" file to your hard drive while yo go about your other activities you can then listen to the music file after it has completely downloaded - the connection speed will no longer be a performance issue.

James Martin (U.K.) · Post by **James Martin (U.K.)** » 9 Feb 2006 11:29 am

Good thinking Dave!Thanks.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 9 Feb 2006 1:50 pm

Also, check your computer for spyware. These pesky programs can slow most any computer to a crawl if you have too many of them "monitoring" your every keystroke and web excursion. "Spybot" and "AdAware" are two very good programs that will eliminate 95% of these troublesome programs, and make your computer faster and more crash-free at the same time.

John Daugherty · Post by **John Daugherty** » 9 Feb 2006 4:21 pm

James, You can try winamp if you want to, but Media player works great with anything I play with it. I suggest that you keep using Media Player.
Do a Google search for "DSL" and you can find info about it. It is a faster connection than dialup and is offered by many phone companies. I remember a post on the forum in "computers", I think, titled "Is DSL really worth it".
I use the cheapest DSL connection available to me and my downloads are 10 times faster than dialup.

------------------
www.phelpscountychoppers.com/steelguitar

Mickey Lawson · Post by **Mickey Lawson** » 9 Feb 2006 5:33 pm

difference is:
dial-up costs.......... $9.95 mo.
dsl or cable costs... $39.00 mo. [This message was edited by Mickey Lawson on 09 February 2006 at 05:34 PM.]

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 9 Feb 2006 6:30 pm

This belongs in Computers, moving....

James Martin (U.K.) · Post by **James Martin (U.K.)** » 10 Feb 2006 1:04 am

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments.At that price DSL is out!I'll check my spyware. Cheers.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 10 Feb 2006 11:02 am

James;
You can check your download "throughput" on my website, on my baudtest page. Use the smaller three file sizes to test your dialup modem connection. There is lots of information about modems and throughput (actual data flow) on that page, on the test results pages (click on "About modem tweaking and other speed improvement options"), and on the modems-101 page. I also have links to a modem tweaking site in case you want to fiddle with what are known as "init strings." Many people have found that by reducing their initial maximum connection rate they can actually improve their steady throughput rate. This applies to downloading streaming music as well as mp3s, executables and zip files (all basically non-compressible files).

It is a common problem for dialup modems to establish an initial connect rate that cannot be sustained by the telephone wires through which it connects to the ISP's modem bank. Tweaking or lowering the connection rate with custom Init Strings can often lead to a marked improvement in download throughput.

------------------
Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services,
or my Webmaster Services webpage[This message was edited by Wiz Feinberg on 10 February 2006 at 01:46 PM.]

James Martin (U.K.) · Post by **James Martin (U.K.)** » 11 Feb 2006 1:18 am

Hello Wiz, Thanks for your advice.I went to the site you suggested and checked out the information as best I could but found it frighteningly confusing and baffling and have decided to just put up with what I have and maybe think about broadband!Thanks again for your detailed explanation. Cheers James