Audio Streaming Tests

ITC occasionally hears from users who complain of problems making audio streaming work on the network. This site offers trouble-shooting links and tips, and is a known good source of audio so that workstation issues can be addressed and any potential network issues identified.

Overview

The live WTJU broadcast signal is available on the UVa network as a demonstration of audio-streaming capability. The broadcast can be accessed using Windows Media Player. This player is available without cost for PCs running the Microsoft Windows operating system and for Apple Macintosh computers.

Your ability to listen to the WTJU audio signal (the stream) depends on several factors. Fortunately, most necessary settings are the default configuration, and most components are free. The necessary elements are:

Platform
This refers to the type of computer and its operating system. The platforms which have been tested and shown to be able to play the audio signal are the Windows PC and the Macintosh.
Windows Media Player
The audio stream is supplied by software on a Microsoft Windows-based server, so the player (or client) must be able to use the proprietary format of the stream. This client is Windows Media Player (WMP), which is installed as part of the Microsoft Windows operating system; it is usually located under Accessories -> Entertainment on the Start menu. It is also available free for the Macintosh.
Web browser
The Windows Media Player can be started from within a web browser for convenience. This allows the webpage author to include a link to streamed material. Many different browsers can use that link. Actually embedding a Windows Media Player on a web page, however, requires that the viewer must use the Internet Explorer browser on a Windows PC. No other browser has the code built into it that will access WMP.

Further discussion of the WTJU audio streaming system is here.

Tests

Troubleshooting

  • Browser-based problems
    Problem: The Opera browser objects to the MMS protocol. This situation is found when accessing the off-grounds audio stream.
    Solution: Special configuration for Opera browser
    Problem: What should be the embedded Windows Media Player is just a grey square.
    Solution 1: Only use the Internet Explorer browser to access those pages.
    Solution 2: If IE won't display the applet, the Java implementation probably is corrupted or old. Reinstall.
  • Player software problems
    Problem: Macintosh OS X complains that it cannot play the stream.
    Solution: Windows Media Player for the Macintosh
    Problem: WMP starts, but fails to make a connection to the server.
    Solution 1: Configure "Performance" (bandwidth) to the default setting
    Solution 2: Configure "Network" to accept all protocols
    Problem: You get a pop-up that reports "The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect."
    Solution: This is a complaint that the file name is wrong. Look for spelling errors. Spaces and capitalization matter.
    Problem: I'd rather just use WMP without having to use a web link.
    Solution: Instructions for using WMP to manually access the WTJU signal are here.
  • Network problems
    Problem: You don't know whether your network can use multicast or only unicast.
    Solution: You do not need to know this in order to use the main WTJU stream since it will offer multicast where possible, but back off to unicast if necessary. If you want a quick explanation of the difference between multicast and unicast you can read it here. If you want to test your connection to see if it will allow multicast, use this test site.
    Problem: You live off-grounds and cannot access the high-bandwidth audio stream.
    Solution: If you use UVa Anywhereyou can access the high bandwidth stream. Warning: if you do this your Internet connection may be swamped. Even a DSL connection doesn't have enough bandwidrh to allow use of the on-grounds signal and be able to squeeze much else onto the connection. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. This is especially true if you share a connection with roommates.
    Problem: You have a wireless computer on-grounds. Your Windows Media Player indicates that it is connecting to the server, but nothing ever plays.
    Solution: Use the off-grounds server. The hardware that provides wireless service does not provide multicast connectivity, and the standard on-grounds stream has combined unicast and multicast characteristics which apparently confuse Windows Media Player under wireless conditions. The off-grounds service has the added benefit that it is a lower-bandwidth stream. A wireless connection is typically on a laptop computer; the audio system on a laptop will do just as well with a lower-bandwidth signal. In addition, it leaves more bandwidth available for other network activities.
  • Other problems
    Problem: WMP is started and there have been no error messages, but I don't hear anything.
    Solution: There are TWO volume controls to check. One is a slider on the WMP window -- if you're viewing one of the skins you'll have to look for it, but it is a standard control. The other volume control is for your computer. It is on the Windows taskbar in the "notification area", and may even be muted.

Why does on-grounds vs off-grounds matter?

The reason that being on-grounds vs off-grounds matters is that access to the two servers differs in order to better control the amount of network traffic moving in different parts of the UVa network. The stream provided by the on-grounds (ie. local) server is consistent with CD quality. The stream provided by the off-grounds (ie, remote) server is still quite listenable, but is not as great a bandwidth. Access from outside the university network is not allowed to the local server. Anyone, including devices on-grounds, may access the remote server.

Network Verification via Internet2 Detective

The Internet2 Consortium offers a suite of tests via a simple web applet. These include Abilene Access (connection to Internet2), bandwidth, multicast configuration, and your computer's IP address and DNS name. It also will test to determine IPv6 capability, but U.Va. network connections do not yet offer this, so this test will currently fail. The web applet is available here.

 

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