Connection Problems and How to Get the Most from Your Connection

 

System Requirements for watching Setting the Captives Free Broadcast:

Operating Systems: Windows XP suggested, Windows 2000 or later required for PC's, for Mac's, Mac OS X or later.

Browser: Internet Explorer 7 or later suggested (download), Netscape 7.1 or later suggested (download) (or other ActiveX compatible browser. Compatibility needed for embedded Windows Media Player pages, otherwise select "Watch in Windows Media Player").

Media Player: Windows Media Player 9 or 10 or later (download)

Note that even in our pages that display video without you having to open Windows Media Player, the player is still being used and the below settings in Windows Media Player will still affect the player on the web page. To check if you have Windows Media Player version 9 or 10 just open Windows Media Player and at the top of the player select Help and then About Windows Media Player. It will report the version number. If the number doesn't begin with the number 9 or 10, then you need to upgrade. We now are using Windows Media Player 9 or later on all of our live services. This will give a higher quality experience especially if you have a broadband Internet connection. Windows 2000 or later is required to install Windows Media Player version 9, Windows XP is required to install Windows Media Player version 10 or later. See below for details.

Here are the latest versions for your operating system:

1) Open Windows Media Player.

2) If you don't see the menu selections File View Play Tools Help at the top of the player, RIGHT-click on the very top of the player and select Show Menu Bar.

3) Select Tools and then Options and the Network tab.

4) Under the Streaming Protocols section, be sure that only TCP and HTTP are selected.

5) Select the Performance tab.

6) In the Connection Speed section, select Detect Connection speed (recommended), or if you have continuous buffering problems see the section below on buffering, pauses and disconnects.

7) select the Player tab.

8) Be sure that Connect to the Internet (overrides all other commands) is checked

9) Select the File Types tab.

10) Click the Select All button.

11) Click OK and totally close the player and try connecting again.



Problems with buffering, pauses and disconnects.

This problem is usually caused by lack of bandwidth capacity between our hosting site and your computer. CPM is connected to multiple high-quality Internet providers and we continuously maintain enough bandwidth to a server at least twice our peak audience. Studies have shown that most connectivity problems reside at the Internet Service Provider or between the Internet Service provider and the user's computer. We are informed when we have a network problem on our end.

To check your bandwidth from our servers you can try our bandwidth test by going to www.netbroadcasting.tv/myspeed.
Our best quality streams will require that you have at least 700 kbps of download speed. You can still watch with less bandwidth although for best results you should set your Windows Media Player not to exceed your tested connections speed. To do this follow these directions:

1) Open Windows Media Player.

2) If you don't see the menu selections File View Play Tools Help at the top of the player, RIGHT-click on the very top of the player and select Show Menu Bar.

3) Select Tools and then Options and the Network tab.

4) In the Connection Speed section, set your connection speed one step LESS than what the above bandwidth test shows. Click OK and totally close the player. and try connecting again.

If your connectivity varies or is erratic and your buffering problem continues, you can help the problem by increasing your Windows Media Player's buffer. Here is how to accomplish that:

1) Open Windows Media Player.

2) If you don't see the menu selections File View Play Tools Help at the top of the player, RIGHT-click on the very top of the player and select Show Menu Bar.

3) Select Tools and then Options and the Network tab.

4) In the Network Buffer section, manually set the buffer to 30 seconds of content. This setting will cause a delay in the start of your program play, but once it begins to play should provide more stability.

If you still have problems, please let us know by going to our Comments Form.