Z-Streaming ReportCome here to get current info on what's going on (or wrong) with our internet audio stream. Updated as needed...
Get info on how our live stream works here...
Sunday, June 23, 2002 12:50PM
Weird weekend. If you're trying to listen with our ASX link (http) and getting a white page instead of the player, just choose one of the other links (labeled mms, netscape, bbq). Reason: Our local provider swapped servers and is having a problem getting this file to work, however, the stream itself is working. Yesterday, our streaming provider on the coast had a problem and the stream was actually down. Long and short, if the top link (asx/http) file ever fails to work, try one of the other links.Tuesday, June 4, 2002 10:15PM
As predicted, we've installed a backup radio and our stream is once again functional.. course, we're running on dialup throughout the rest of the studio... but I can live with that for a few more days.Monday, June 3, 2002 10:15PM
As of this writing, we're still down (duh). Don from SisqNet came in to the studio twice today trying a few different ways to get our signal out but to no avail. We'll take another shot tomorrow. Argh.Sunday, June 2, 2002 10:10PM
As of tonight, it doesn't look like we'll be up online for the morning show. Damn, yer gonna have to listen to other music on the web (unless you have a BIG FM antenna). We're trying to dig up another wireless transmitter which feeds this antenna which relays our signal to our ISP. Hopefully, we'll have it on line by tomorrow afternoon to once again bring you the best Classic tunes on the planet. Course, you could always move here and hear us on your radios all the time.. like in the bathroom and garage and bedroom and car.. Anyway, I'll give ya an update tomorrow right here, so stay tuned.Saturday, June 1, 2002 1:40PM
Had a major lightning (power surge) situation last night and it seems to have blown out one end of our wireless microwave radio system that feeds our signal to the internet. It also took our FM transmitter off the air for a short period.After checking the studio end last night with no problems, our ISP had no results in getting the receive system at his facility to function today as the surge apparently fried his radio. It's unknown whether his antenna took a direct lightning hit. We're using special (expensive) Lucent radios and there are no backups (they go for around $1400.00 a pop). Hopefully, we can get the stream back up using a less expensive radio until the unit is repaired or replaced. It would figure that since CARP or buffering problems didn't bring us down, it would take an "Act of God". Stay tuned for details and updates here.
Thursday, May 16, 2002 8:45PM
Well, after tweaking, banging, defragging, scandisking, rerouting, debugging and interfacing with our streaming provider, we seem to have a pristine feed going with (don't wanna say this too loud).. NO BUFFERING. Thanx to Kiriki at Streamguys for providing us with the west coast server. Assuming all goes well and something else doesn't choke, soon we'll be pulling the http://wma.str3am.com/kzro feed in Washington, D.C., and available only on the http://aqua.str3am.com/kzro feed from San Francisco/ Berkeley. But to bypass all that, just listen with our locally controlled http://www.z100fm.net/kzro.asx feed, cause it goes where we tell it. Howz it working? Shoot off an email and tell us. The more we know, the happier you will be with uninterrupted music...Thursday, May 16, 2002 12:00PM
Server is back up, we're testing again and trying to debug this puppy. Let us know what you see!Thursday, May 16, 2002 11:00AM
I've pulled down the streaming server for a defrag just in case there's some problem I'm overlooking... should be back up for further testing on the new feed in a few...Wednesday, May 15, 2002 11:00PM
OK. Good news. We've tested (for a few hours) our new server located in Berkeley, CA. and completely dumped the Washington, D.C server. We'll be testing it for the next several days, so give us some feedback and let us know about the performance in your area. We need to know! Cmon' Berkeley!Wednesday, May 15, 2002 10:00PM
I don't wanna jump the gun, but this latest problem may be resolved... we'll see during tomorrows peak traffic periods. Anyway, as of 3:30PM today, our provider issued us a secondary route and server which is still being implemented. Ultimately, you'll be hearing us out of Berkeley, CA vs. Washington, D.C... I believe we're still coming out of DC, but being routed through the Berkeley server to change the path (or something to that effect)... Anyway, give it a whirl and let us know if you see any difference from your location... tomorrow will tell the story.Tuesday, May 14, 2002 10:00PM
Ok. Let me get this off my chest. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! That being said, it appears one of our major carriers (Cogent) has handed off their traffic to Sprint (aargh) and we're dropping packets because of this change. Don't know where they're going.. maybe falling on the floor... then just.. uuh, lost.Seems people with faster connections (DSL, ISDN, T1 etc.) aren't seeing the problem as much. I monitor the feed w/our 1000k wireless at the studio all day without flaw. Get home, fire up the dialup and it chokes. An email from our service provider from Cogent said they're trying to track the problem and reroute stuff to eliminate the bottleneck. So, hang in there and keep tryin' if you're having problems.
Monday, May 13, 2002 9:30PM
Sorry to say that the problem has resurfaced. Keep checking back for details... we'll be working on the problem.Sunday, May 12, 2002 3:20PM
As of this time, looks like the network problem on the Sprint transfer listed below has been resolved, and the feed is back to optimum performance..Wednesday, May 8, 2002 10:00AM
We seem to be experiencing a problem in the transfer of our signal to our server in Washington, D.C., producing stoppage on the player i.e., the dreaded buffering. Still unsure what it is, but our provider indicates they're doing some "load balancing" today... In the meantime, try the MMS link on our website which seems to be working better than the http link. We'll let ya know the scoop right here on this page...Monday, March 18, 2002 05:00PM
Issue: Buffering Problem
Result: ResolvedAs you probably know, we've had this little technical issue going on for over a month concerning the Windows Media stream. This issue would cause the audio to stop, making you have to restart the player. May you rest assured that this problem has been driving me insane for this period, and apparently was caused by not only by our streaming computer but our stream provider making network upgrades.
It's a rough task having the best Classic music on the web and hearing the feed croak. I'm surprised our local ISP and stream provider didn't just drop me for all I've put them through. But the main problem (unless this theory proves me wrong and it starts croaking again) was this: Over the weekend I took a good look at the EMachine WindowsME computer we use to stream with. The manufacturer puts these little message tools and other crap on the bottom toolbar.. apparently they were firing up at random taking up memory. There's more. Since the streaming computer screen is on the StudioA Airdesk and hooked to the wireless internet, I found it convenient to use it for web browsing and (uuh-oh) that Weather Channel tool that loads on your desktop. I'm thinking these were firing up whilst the stream was going, really irritating the Windows Media Encoder which streams our signal. On Sunday, I got rid of these memory sucking tools and whatever else I could find to eliminate, and... this (may) (probably) (hopefully) took care of the problem.
As I've commented, the delivery of audio over the internet isn't perfect.. we'll have little problems and network hiccups which resolve quickly... but this problem far surpassed any sporadic glitch (in degree of irritation). Sorry about that. Hopefully, the resolution of this issue has brought us one step closer to making your experience in listening to our station the best that we can. Thanks for your patience and let us all hope that this page shall hold few future updates. If you see a difference, please email and let us know............dm
Monday, March 18, 2002 10:00AM
OK. I'm going to go out on a limb here and proclaim that the dreaded buffering glitch has been resolved. This is due to a few different factors, including a) over the weekend, I went in after it started doing the 13 minute thing... and modified the settings on the streaming computer plus killed some memory resident programs that existed on it, b) we've totally bypassed our ISPs router and c) our stream provider's moving of their network route that caused last weeks problem is completed and the network is stable.This of course doesn't mean that it won't ever choke.. I mean it's the internet for God's sake taking a 14 hop journey just to get to the computer you hear us from. Yes, there may be sporadic outages. Yes the network could crash again. Yes, a storm could interrupt our wireless transmission. This is all possible. But what I can say after waking up this morning and seeing my computer locked on the stream for 16 hours continuously, I'm reasonably sure that this issue has been located and snuffed out. Now, CARP, RIAA, BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, AFTRA will take us down. Isn't life grand?
Thursday, March 14, 2002 04:30PM
So I went to bed last night with everything running right thinking, yep... it's fixed this time. Wake up this morning w/emails up the ying yang.. seems this morning, our ISP made some changes and made an error on our address, rendering the dreaded "server not found" error. Thanx to those of you that emailed this morning who intuitively thought to paste http://love.str3am.com/kzro into your browser to make it work when nothing else would. This in turn made me realize the stream WAS actually working, just not our asx file that we use to send you to it. This getting too confusing?Anyway, seems the changes, mods and maintenance done last night did indeed fix the dreaded buffering glitch... (of course, I'm afraid to say this too loud as it'll choke again). Hopefully, neither of us will be coming to this page anytime soon. Happy listening!
Thursday, March 14, 2002 10:30AM
For some reason, our main link on the wma2 server isn't responding, but the mms and love servers (is this greek to you?) are. I've re-pointed the .asx file (where most people listen) to our alternate love server... I don't get it and I can't get a hold of our provider... but it's working now...Thursday, March 14, 2002 10:00AM
I'm starting to think the Gods don't want us to stream. For some reason this morning, the MMS link seems to be the only link that will activate the stream... the asx and http links are coming up unable to find the server. I've got the powers that be working on this.. in the meantime, use the mms link (if you use Microsoft) until we figure this one out. Maybe it's the record companies doing covert operations on us to shut us up...Wednesday, March 13, 2002 08:55PM
OK. Before leaving the studio tonight, I yanked down the streaming computer and did scandisk and defrag and turned the wireless transmitter off and the hub off. Turned it all back on and it fired up and kept going. Don't know if it was from the change listed below from our ISP or the maintenance above but as of this entry, it's humming along and not crashing. But not being a chicken counter we'll have to see how it acts over the next 24 hours. I know it's a pain with the buffering, but we're not one of those multi-dollared radio chain outfits, we gotta fix this crap ourselves... but.. the music's worth it, isn't it? He he.Wednesday, March 13, 2002 08:55PM
Well, it's March 13. And the #13's also significant because it seems it's the longest time in minutes that our stream will run for without crashing. I'll be running traceroutes all night to isolate the problem.. thought it was a router as when it was rebooted it worked flawlessly for 14 hours. Rebooted it again but the second time it didn't help. Pulled it out of line, straight to the hub and now.... 13. Anyway, if you can't get past 13 (wish I was 13 again), that's why. Lucky it's not Fri. the 13th, the world would probably explode.Wednesday, March 13, 2002 10:40AM
This morning we had a crash on our network. This issue appears to have been resolved. However, it looks like our local router is acting up again... so if you see the buffering every 13 minutes or so, this is why. Our local ISP is in the process of replacing this piece of equipment... sorry.Tuesday, March 12, 2002 3:00PM
After having our local ISP head to his local office and reboot the router we're connected to, we've seen a vast improvement and hopefully the glitch has been resolved.Tuesday, March 12, 2002 1:15PM
Looks like our network connection is solid, but we've tracked some loss in the transmission of our signal from the station roof to our local ISP, meaning for some reason it goes perfectly for 10 minutes (sometimes more, sometimes less), then the signal times out... meaning it stops for 20-30 seconds, then restarts. We're doing all we can to track this problem that first appeared on Saturday... we'll be rebooting servers and routers today trying to eliminate the glitch.Monday, March 11, 2002 1:30PM
Well, after our streaming provider got our new route established, wouldn't ya know it, another little bug pops up... over the weekend, I've been seeing the stream STOP every thirteen minutes... it's the weirdest thing.I'm still trying to run it down by rebooting everything here at the studio I can find a switch for.. so if it's doing this to you, hang in there.
=========================================
==========================================Big Tree Communications
PO Box 1234
Mt.Shasta, CA 96067
530 926-1332 Fax: 926-0737
Big Tree Communications 2004