Windows Buffering during playing

Hello!

Will someone out there pls help in clearifying what is really wrong with my system. I use window 98 as my operating system. I am connected to a proxy server for browsing the net. Whenever l am listening to music online l have the problem of intermitted break in which the playing will cease and display buffering. What is really wrong? can someone give to me an explanation

Thanks

Kayode Ogunwole

FYI, in the future, your Windows-related questions should be posted in the "Windows & DOS: Issues & Discussions" forum.

Sounds like you're listening to streaming audio. How fast is your connection? Do you have a 56 k modem or something faster like dsl? The computer downloads as much as it can and starts playing it.. if you have a slow connection, the computer gets done playing what it has so far and has to wait for more music to be downloaded, which is when you see the "buffering" message.

Really the only way to fix this is to get a faster connection to the Internet.

Or you can pause the music and let the entire file download before you begin to play it.

You know, I am having a similar problem, even running over a T3 network. Whenever I stream music, it occaisionally interrupts to buffer, and sometimes just disconnects the stream. I assume that this is a proxy problem, and that there is nothing I can do on my (end user) side.
Maybe someone else has similar problems...

Not sure what you're using, but here are some sites for solving playback problems with Windows Media Player and RealPlayer.

Well l use window media player 7.0.1. Our connection is through VSAT multilink with 96Kbps bandwidth. I am connected on the LAN 10/100mbps link with about 25 workstation. Is it the LAN or the proxy that is causing the buffering.

Thanks

If you've got 25 workstations on your LAN and only 96Kbps to play with your going to have buffering. Unless your the only one on your network your going to have to put up with buffering.

A few comments here... Streaming audio is not file oriented. You can't wait for the entire file to download. This is used, for example, by radio stations to "transmit" over the internet.

And playing software doesn't buffer as much as it can...it will typically buffer a few seconds worth. It could buffer minutes or hours worth, but that kind of delay would be annoying. I'm not thrilled with the 10 second delay I now have.

Last night I tried listening to some internet radio on my laptop via a 56k dialup. I connected at a real speed of 44kb and it was adequate provided that I didn't do anything else over the internet. 96kb divided among 25 users is not going to be enough bandwidth.

Some of the websites of some internet radio stations claimed that they could deliver a good signal even with a 28kb dialup. I could find no claim that less bandwidth might work.

I had better luck with internet radio stations on my continent. A couple of times European stations drained my buffer. I am guessing that this related to Internet congestion rather far from my laptop, but I have no way to prove that.

I would rather listen to my stereo anyway.

There are many network factors in queuing systems like the Internet that make it suboptimal for streaming audio or video. Congestion over a shared public network is one of the biggest factors.

Remember, TCP/IP networks are queuing systems not hard switched circuits.

"internet radio" is really great, provided you have a broadband connection and that the server streaming the music is relativly close to you. dial up will work with internet radio, but again, you must make sure that the server is not too far from your location, and you want to select low quality streaming. generally for broadband 96kbps is plenty, and sounds great. for dial up 32kbps is good, though with a noticable lack in quality.

With 96kbps with a LAN 10/100mbps of about 10 workstations and 4 remote access users connecting using dial-up of 56kbps modem while the dial-up only allow for mail retrieval and sending.

Why do you think the connect speed of the remote access is slow as 9.6kbps dialing into the server with intermitted break if there is data to be send or downloaded.

Does it mean that in the LAN environment those who can browse and access mail have consume the usage of the bandwidth leaving those from remote site with lesser bandwidth usage?

Or it is the clarity of the telephone line for dailing that is distorted therefore not allowing for an optimum usage of the 56kbps for modem dial-up?

What data can be send on a 9.6kbps bandwidth from a remote site of about 330 KM distance using dial-up?.

Thanks