Problems watching videos online - why's it keep stopping?

rachelandgromit

I am trying to watch the last 6 weeks of Shameless I missed whilst on holiday via the Channel 4 website but it keeps stopping and freezing. This also happens on other sites, e.g. You Tube.

Why does it do this and can anyone help me fix it? The video freezes up and keeps stopping and starting.

Help!

Rachel

financequest

Could be several things. Has online viewing worked OK in the past?. Are you using wireless connection, what spec PC do you have ?. You may have a poor broadband connection, or too many applications running in the background (sharing the PC resources). What time of the day are you connecting ?, it may be a busy period on the network when many others are using the service heavily too. You may have a trojan or virus infection. Whi is your provider ?, some are known to throttle connection speeds to persistent heavy users.

rachelandgromit

I'm using Firefox. I'm on my laptop upstairs, wireless. Mum and dad's computer is in the hall (the main one) however there's also does the whole freezing up thing too, but if you run things through once, e.g. You Tube it works fine second time around. I don't want to run each 49 min episode through once before watching it though, it would take forever. We live in a rural place so it may be the internet connection although generally it has no problems browsing. Mum and dad's computer isn't being used at the moment.

rachelandgromit

Forgot to say I know I'm virus free, haev a good antivirus, provider is BT and I'm trying this minute to watch it.

globalds

Sounds like it is your download speed.

try this
http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/

and post result



Copy the the Chat /email link into the picture link

Bowling_4_Gold

Seems like a lack of bandwidth. Really the only way to permanently solve this is to upgrade your Internet package.

Try to ensure all programs that might be secretly downloading updates are closed and ensure you aren't browsing the net while watching the video. Press pause as soon as the video starts to play, go away for 15 mins, and come back & watch it.

rachelandgromit

Ok, done the test results are 192 Kpbs download speed and 331 Kpbs upload speed. I've no idea what this means and if it is good or bad and if this explains things.

Bowling_4_Gold

That sounds incredibly low, and is where the problem lies. You won't be able to smoothly watch internet videos based on that result. I would be on the phone first thing tomorrow and telling BT to get their act together.

Just to put it in perspective, at my workplace (with around 400 PCs networked), I consistently get around 15/20Mbps (roughly 15,000 Kbps).

Strangely, your upload speed is greater than your download speed.

financequest

Weird, download speed should be many times faster than upload (typically 5 to 10). Anyways, here is a possible helpful link http://www.runpcrun.com/bthelp

rachelandgromit

Thanks for the info, I have checked the speed checker again 2-3 times since posting the message and the highest so far is 200kbps download and 331 kbps upload (I have tried it both on my laptop and using mum and dad's main computer which has the router, etc...). I will ring BT tomorrow for mum and dad, however can you give me an idea of what I should be saying to them. I know the last time they had problems it is an Indian call centre and trying to get them to understand exactly what the problem was took some doing. I want to be as clear as possible but what exactly am I saying - just that my download and upload speed is slow and say that I have checked it via the speed checker, etc...... and quote them speeds.

financequest

You did not say if online viewing worked OK in the past, how far are you from nearest BT exchange?, line distance affects speed. Try powering wireless router/modem off 2 minutes, then on again. Wait 5 minutes, run speedchecker again. As new internet users in your area join BT Broadband, available bandwidth has to be spread more thinly. What advertised speed is BT quoting?, compare this with actual tested speed.