What to do if your audio stream is skipping / buffering

[Gavin]

If all of your listeners are experiencing skipping or buffering, it is usually caused by a lack of bandwidth at the source (the connection that you stream from using the Shoutcast DSP/Oddcast/SAM broadcaster)

There are several common problems to check for if this is the case:

* Make sure you have no downloads, uploads or file transfers. This includes MSN/AIM transfers, automatic updates. Some spyware and viruses can also cause your connection to become unstable.

* High CPU usage on the source computer - check that your CPU usage is not high by pressing ctrl-alt-del and going to Task Manager > Performance with Windows.

* Bad ISP. Some customers find that at peak times, their Internet connection becomes unreliable and they are unable to stream. The only way around this is reducing the stream bitrate or to change your ISP.

There is a chance that there is a bandwidth routing issue between your ISP and the stream server, if you think this is the case then please open a support ticket with a traceroute.

On very rare occasions, there are issues with the streaming servers or datacentres where they are located. If you think this may be the case then please check the appropriate Announcement forums or open a support ticket.

[r.londal]

Quite a few of my customers have skipping problems as Gavin detailed.

Most of them are running the 'Second Life' program which is already using a chunk of bandwidth.

Having duplicated the problem myself I was a little concerned that I could not reliably send a stream up to the server despite a supposed 16 Meg broadband connection.

The point is (at least in the UK) that we have ADSL NOT DSL. The A standing for Asynchronous, or uneven for our purposes. So while we may download from the web fast we cannot upload at the same rate.

Its worth visiting somewhere like www.speedtest.net and doing a test to find out your actual download AND upload speed, mine are as follows..

Download speed = 3804Kbps
Upload speed = 506Kbps (This is the speed of your traffic TO the streaming server)

I am close to 2Km from the phone exchange so I wouldnt expect anything like the 16M Max offered.

So, if I expect to stream at 192Kbps up a line doing 506Kbps there is not a whole lot of headroom to spare for other things.

Also I am fairly suspicious that even these speed are an average and that sometimes the line actually goes to sleep for short periods, not a problem when uploading files etc, but streaming is a 'real time' application.

As a result I advise my customers to treat their upload bandwidth like gold and cherish every byte!

I hope this helps anyone else learning the ropes like me and I'm sure Gavin will point out if I have got the wrong end of the stick in any of the detail

[Gavin]

Some excellent points there.

I have found before that even when you get a good result on speedtest.net, you can still have problems, I also think the same as r.londal that sometimes the speed is an average over a period of time, and sometimes ADSL cuts out or goes very slow for a short period - it would be good if Shoutcast offered a way to increase the buffer at the server, but this isn't supported unfortunately although some other streaming servers do.

I always advise people to turn off all file downloads, uploads and transfers via IM (like MSN, AIM, Yahoo! etc) - also remember if you have MSN to pause any shared folders as they normally transfer files in the background without you knowing.

Another thing is wireless connections - where possible you should use wired Internet. Wireless can be unstable, and gets worse the further away from the wireless point you are. If you do need to use wireless, then it is best to make sure you are as close as possible to the wireless point and that you are on a clean frequency or channel.

If anyone else has some extra points then feel free to post them here, I'm sure they will be helpful to someone.

[djxdon]

Some very helpful tips. Thanks. I would just like to add that I have found "Sam broadcaster" works better when used just on its own. emails, msn, surfing,facebook etc can & has caused my stream to skip.