We listen to a radio program called "Down Gilead Lane" on a Christian radio station's website. I know-it's for kids- anyway, it's on RealPlayer. It plays for a while and then rebuffers. Why, what does that mean. It's terribly annoying. I suppose it happens on other programs??

-- Cindy (S.E.IN) (atilrthehony@countrylife.net), October 13, 2001

Answers

no idea, but we live on Mt. Gilead Road, so I like the title!

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), October 13, 2001.

Cindy rebuffering occurs when one of two things happen.

1. Your connection to the net is not sufficent to tranmit all the data that it needs to keep it running smoothly on a consistent basis. (Your Internet Service Provider is not fast enough or large enough to maintain the data stream needed to support the program you are listening to.) It is kind of like needing a one inch pipe for optimum use, but only having one that is 7/8 inch. It will work most of the time, but sometimes it falls behind.

2. The server that you are receiving this program from is not sufficient in size to handle all the people who are trying to retrieve information at the same time. (Similar analogy as above. Too many hoses and not enough faucets to hook them up to at once.)

Hope this helps.

Talk to you later.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), October 13, 2001.

Thanks for the explanation, Bob! I have the same problem and it is *** *r e a l l y**** irritating.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), October 13, 2001.

One other thing I just thought of that may affect this buffering.

If you have more than one window open you may have a problem. Try closing everything else except the site you are trying to listen to. I know at times it has helped me with this problem.

Talk to you later.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), October 14, 2001.

rebuffering is simply, Sending site and your site becommming out of sync. When you listen to a digital program your actually listening to it several seconds late. When the audio starts, it buffers several seconds of audio to listen to before it starts. As you hear the start, more is fillin in behind. So if there is a missed packet in the connection, there is enough extra data already on your machine to play while the system catches up. Sometimes there is not enough and the data has to create its buffer (i.e. rebuffering.).

This issues is usaully caused by a busy link someplace

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), October 19, 2001.