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Broadcasters your Net may be in Danger PLEASE READ!!

T

thelegacy

The Legacy has constantly experienced better performance with our upload speeds using a 3G hotspot (You read it right 3G @ an upload of 800K) than with Road Runner Cable's so called "Ultimate Internet Tier in Elizabeth City, NC (sick). After an hour we'd start getting less than 128K up and our station would be thrown back to Auto DJ and when calling tech support and having a tech come out because of poor speeds their response was "it'll move dude". This is the case that your speeds will very but not from 5M/S to less than 64K up. Even when using different server providers the same occurred. This went on since 2011. Then one day we got Cut Off completely (that's right Cut Off). Then I called tech support and they told me my internet was in quarantine for excessive use and told me I may have to purchase Business Class Tier @ $220/Mo. What??? Unlimited Data is limited? Plus there is no mention of how many GB's your allowed and not only that but I had to cut my Live broadcast's to 4hrs/day or less and when I do go Live more than that I started to use my prepaid hotspot (3G). I'm getting a 4G one from Verizon in the next month or so with 2 $90 cards. This will give me 20GB of data to broadcast with. But even when I have dropped my usage to less than 4 hrs for the past 10 months they still tell me I use too much 128K folks for 4 hrs/day is far less than say 2 movies on Netflix (HD) @ 700 MB/hr or sometimes 1GB/Hr. What about games. A common Ps3 game can be over 4GB.

The reason I'm writing this is because Time Warner and Comcast cable have plans to Merge. Oh Oh game fans, Youtube fans, Internet Radio Listeners, Netflix subscribers, VOIP users (Magic Jack, Skype, Vonage, Straight Talk Home Phone) your in deep doo doo if this happens. You all need to petition for a Comcast Hostile Take Over of Time Warner Cable Not a Merger for if Time Warner takes it and imposes this secret data rule you may as well not have net at all in your home.

If you have Time Warner Cable and found your station constantly buffering its not your computer, Server provider, listeners's internet not having the right speed but more likely your ISP playing God and screwing you without a kiss first. You'll have to save for a Hotspot (I don't recommend a contract for your station. Staight Talk's 3G hotspot uses Verizon's towers and you can get 7GB's for $75/Mo so when Time Warner plays God you can switch to that. Verizon has 10GB/Mo for $90 which is 4G and you can find it at Wal Mart super centers or Best Buy.

You'll need donations from your listeners because your Internet will be NO LESS than $180/Mo. But giving Time Warner their business class Tier for less than 2MB up is not the way to go when you can broadcast with Verizon's prepaid hotspot and enjoy 10MB/S all day up and 10-15 down all day long (even when your uploading 700MB files as I've put to the test).

I don't want to see the pain and suffering I've experienced for more than 4 yrs this is why I'm telling you that if you can get another provider in your area please do yourself a favor and treat yourself to it. Even CenturyLink DSL could work for you if you only use this for your Radio only. I'm broadcasting this warning to my listeners when I have to go to AutoDJ a few times per hour so they know why this is the case in hopes for donations for the prepaid hotspot.
 
I have complained for the last 4 yrs which has done no good. Maybe a letter to the FCC could change all of this. I think there needs to be new laws that would stop ISP's from playing God for net is net especially when you pay top dollar for so called ultimate Internet. What is worse is when some old geezer comes to your house and calls himself a tech when he can't even tell you what frequency WiFi transmits on (everyone knowing basic Radio and electronics knows its 2.4 Ghz). the moron then begins to tell me that a TV I never even had connected to the system was interfering with the Internet (sick indeed). In my opinion no installer or tech should be connecting one's service if they don't have at least a general class (preferably advance class Ham Radio license). An amateur Radio Operator has to study and pass a test to be able to operate a Ham Radio and knows an elementary understanding of how Radio transmissions work so they can begin looking for a culprit of interference. I've even taken a police scanner and programmed the birdie signals (signals cable operators use to test for leaks or signal loss) into the scanner and went out looking for leaks that may cause this issue.

More and more its looking like bandwidth capping and only an FCC petition could stop this. Its also interesting to note that Time Warner Cable does have their own Internet Radio stations (Music Choice) that The Legacy's Classic Rock and Progressive Genre is in direct competition with (oh oh).
 
So.. If I'm understanding you correctly, you are running a live streaming server on a residential account? You know that running servers on residential accounts are usually against ToS don't you?
 
Also...a real broadcaster doing streaming will already be using a business class connection with a SLA (Service Level Agreement) that requires certain conditions are met, such as latency and jitter. It usually also guarantees a response time for outages. No such thing exists on ANY level of residential account, because it is meant for a home user who doesn't have high demands, or requires high network uptime.

I also disagree that all installer/techs need to have a ham license. They have test equipment that reads the signal level, etc They just need to know what is in spec and what is not.

In short.. Pony up for a business level account if you want to be a true streaming provider or stop your complaining.
 
techguy1975 said:
So.. If I'm understanding you correctly, you are running a live streaming server on a residential account? You know that running servers on residential accounts are usually against ToS don't you?
Click to expand...

In my case, I am not running a server. I encode a stream from my location and send it to Live365. Listeners connect to my stream on Live365's network. It does looks like the OP is trying to run his own server, and yes that's likely a ToS violation.

R
 
Last edited:
Robert Bass said:
In my case, I am not running a server. I encode a stream from my location and send it to Live365. Listeners connect to my stream on Live365's network. It does looks like the OP is trying to run his own server, and yes that's likely a ToS violation.

R
Click to expand...


Yes. my post was directed at the OP, and not you.
 
Even CenturyLink DSL could work for you if you only use this for your Radio only. I'm broadcasting this warning to my listeners when I have to go to AutoDJ a few times per hour so they know why this is the case in hopes for donations for the prepaid hotspot.[/QUOTE]
 
" I'm telling you that if you can get another provider in your area please do yourself a favor and treat yourself to it. Even CenturyLink DSL could work for you if you only use this for your Radio only. I'm broadcasting this warning to my listeners when I have to go to AutoDJ a few times per hour so they know why this is the case in hopes for donations for the prepaid hotspot."

Well - I did the above posting wrong, wanted the quote in my post - but I must emphatically say that all the problems reported in the initial post will be magnified 10x's in my experience with CenturyLink - CenturyLink provides the most unreliable, absolutely worst imaginable user experience possible.

Got a big audience? Great! You can count on CenturyLink to drop everyone, maybe for days, totally unresponsive service -have elevated service calls and gotten phone calls from reps apologizing for crappy service, giving me their e-mails, phone direct numbers "call me next time" - total BS of the first magnitude. Typical service response, send you a new modem, next want tech to come to your location, must be your wiring - uh, could it be the little connection box dangling, blowing in the wind on the pole outside for the last twenty years, dropped regular old fashioned land line calls when it rains ... no kidding, it is endless with this company. CenturyLink is our ONLY provider, period, in this rural community - to keep GulchRadio on the air requires two, as in two DSL connections, so we can switch back and forth to keep the stream running - dedicated connections, I might add.

I have spent, seriously 100's of hours trying to get problems resolved, mysteriously sometimes thinks get all smoothed out, our record - 559 hours on line - then everything falls apart, internet poo storms start and line drops happen every minute or two ...

Okay - I have vented ... for those who can remember, we yearn for the service quality and standards of that beloved, long gone monopoly of Ma Bell, American Telephone and Telegraph - CenturyLink - just maybe in this century they'll get a link to work.

It is my opinion the internet radio provided by small guys like many of us is seriously threatened by several factors, one the really poor state of the USA internet system at large, and two, the ever tightening strangle of SoundExchange that makes it really tough for hobby broadcasters who want to comply to do so. Eventually, to stay alive you'll be forced to go begging for bucks and for me, that's when the fun ends and so does our stream.

The stars do not seem to be aligned for music radio in any form, these days.

rickity
www.gulchradio.com
 
no I am NOT running a server I am simply streaming from my broadcast software at 128 K 2 DJC medias Icecast server which is not I repeat NOT located in my home. So that being said you should be able to upstream 128 K. After all games take more than that. If you can't even upstream at 128 K your damn ISP is a POS that being said there is no excuse for the poor service I experience with Time Warner none and I would not give them one dime towards business class if residential can't even hold a 128 K upload. I'd hate to think of wasting $200 a month on service that's not even as good as 3G cellular yes that's right I've been able to stream on prepaid 3G cellular not 4G but 3G. I will be getting a 4G hotspot real soon and that my friends is what I will be using to broadcast with in this area. I know there may be plenty of time warner employees reading this oh well too bad so sad. But I have been able to stream on cellular which I've been told can't be done and I've proven that to the wrong.so I would rather give Verizon my 180 per month then to waste any more money with Time Warner.
 
one more thing I would know better than to try and run a server in a residential environment hell you would need at least a t1 or a business class fiber optic connection to even think of running a server with say 52 Or a hundred listeners. I could see some people trying it though there are plenty of people that have no clue when it comes to Internet and how it works. However I'm not one of those people. but I've even seen technicians who don't have really have a clue when it comes to the Internet especially when they tell you a non HD TV which was never connected to the cable system in the first place what's causing trouble with the Internet. This is why I think it must be mandatorythat every technician who works for a cable company must have in advance class amateur radio license. Then and only then will customers actually receive good service. You would be surprised at the leakage from some cable companies Where their signals are actually leaking out over the air. But even a novice class ham radio operator would probably know what to do and what to check for when there are continuous problems with the cable service or Internet and it's not the box or the modems.
 
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