Live Webcast Troubleshooting
Webcasting is a difficult art, because so much of the quality of the experience is dependent on the end user's computer and network. That said, there are many things we can do on the originating end to accomodate viewing computers of different capabilities.
Reasons your viewing experience might not work
- Your computer and/or network connection might not meet the basic requirements. For most of our streams, a broadband connection is required (at least Cable/DSL), and faster is better. You should also be running a recent version of the media player, which will require you to be running a recent version of the operating system. The system requirements for any particular stream are listed on the Live Webcasting page.
- You may have all the above, and still be refused access to the stream. Your player may tell you that a firewall is blocking access, or it may just refuse to open the stream. In both these cases, it may be your firewall software. Even if you think you do not have a firewall installed, Windows XP with Service Pack 2, and even earlier versions do have firewalls.
Microsoft has a technical note regarding the issue.
The simplest option, to check if this is the case, would be to turn off your firewall and test the stream. It may not be the best option, but it is probablythe most expedient.
If, after turning off your firewall, you can now connect to the stream, you will want to turn the firewall back on, but allow access through the firewall to your streaming software. And administrator will need to do this. The technical note has instructions.
Please contact us as with your experience, good or bad.
Plugged In highlights go here, news, initiatives, spotlight, designed to draw the user who is done finding or browsing, further into our content.