Most often, the user’s ISP is the reason for excessive buffering. High network traffic or network maintenance can lead to an inconsistent stream, even if you are viewing from within the station or at home. When you experience buffering, have someone outside of your ISP’s network monitor the stream and provide feedback.

When users are experiencing problems with your stream, it is important to ask them the following questions:
 

• When were you experiencing buffering?
• How frequently would it buffer? For how long would it buffer?
• Are there drops in the audio or does it sounds like a skipping record? Are there pauses or excessive pixelization in the video?
• What is your download speed?
• Ask them to visit http://chicago.mcs.streamguys.com/myspeed/testmyspeed.html
• Run the test on this page and report the download speed and quality of service (QoS)
• What is your IP address?
• Ask them to visit http://www.whatismyip.com
• Their IP address will show on the top of the page 

Computer savvy users who are willing to provide additional information should perform the following steps:
 

• Download and install WinMTR, available for free from http://winmtr.sourceforge.net/winmtr_bin.zip
• Uncompress the .zip
• Start the program WinMTR.exe
• In the Host text box, enter ‘azul.streamguys.com’. Click Start.
• This program will run until the user stops. We recommend between 3 and 20 minutes. (If the program does not appear to be working, temporarily disable the Windows Firewall).
• Copy the Text to the clipboard, paste into an email, and send the results to you, which you can then forward to support@streamguys.com.

If you get complaints from multiple listeners, email us their feedback. We will use their data to pinpoint why they are experiencing problems with your stream.