Transfer Rate Problem?

[Lester]

Can't listen to net radio; think speed is too low.
I got it Thurs and Wed and coundn't Fri thru now.
Transfer rate was 28kbps while I am trying to listen and 53kbps while it was working OK Wed.
Did I anwser my on question? Is it because of full useage and or slow transfer rate or would more memory help? What causes such a wide range of the rate ? 14kbps to 53kps was the highest I've seen. I'd like to listen and surf. Can I do it with W98se or should I concentrate on updating comp and obtaining XP ? And can I reuse recent PCI modem and sound card in new comp?

[Spock]

The difference in speed can be attributed to many things. The biggest, as I mentioned in class, could be due to dirty connections in the phone company-to-house wiring block. There could also be slightly corroded connections in your computer. Try cleaning the card edge connectors.

Since any Internet connection goes through multiple relays between you and the host, it may be that your computer is routed through a particularly slow link. The only way I know of to solve that problem is to log off and log back in. This terminates the current link path and institues a new, hopefully faster, path.

Any time you do more than one thing, it will slow everything down marginally. If you need to listen to online radio, then don't do anything else or get a faster computer. Windows98 is not renowned for its speed.

You should be able to at least listen and browse using Win98. More memory may help but your connection speed is probably your biggest problem. If you get a new computer it will probably already have a modem and sound card installed.

[Krank]

On tip though, if possible dont trow any old parts of the computer out.
If needed stack em up in a box on the addict or something for the time beeing.


I did and a couple of years later i had enough to rebuild a system from the old parts i had, wich got to far and now i have four...

[Repr]

also keep in mind that during prime time (fryday - sunday and between 8pm and 10pm) all connections are slower then at other times. especially on dial-up this can be a huge difference

as for win98 - xp, it shouldnt make a difference. the transfer of 28kbs is neglectable compared to any process that runs in background, and normal IE surfing doesnt take much of your computer either. so getting a faster computer wont work. and although win xp is a bit mroe efficient in memory usage, the program alone takes more computer power then good old 98

[Lester]

Repr,I thought that was a possibility about prime time useage. I wanted to confirm that and to make sure I was working on the correct problem. Will work on cleaning phone connections when I can get to it and will report the results. Running 37kbps at the moment Tues. 9:45pm. Trying to figure out what range I need to be in to operate the internet radio and possibly surf when I have enough speed. All I have right now so have to deal with it.

[Repr]

after thinking about it i think it will always be hard to listen to internet radio with dial-up. a normal song is about 64kb/s minimal. check most mp3's and youll see that that the bitrate is. im not sure what bitrate internetradio uses for broadcasting, but i doubt itll be much lower then 50. with a 56k modem that means that you need close to the max speed of your dial-up modem alone for listening to radio.

im not 100% sure about this, maybe someone else can confirm it. but im pretty sure that on dial-up its hard to get a stable radio connection

[iissmart]

The one radio station I listen to on the internet (which is an actual copy of what they are playing on the radio, at real-time) streams at 32 Kbps.

[Lester]

Thanks for , I have a better understanding now of the ranges.
Iis, Does the station play at the same time as on the radio or is there a delay?
And tell me if I should post this somewhere else. Where do I go to begin to learn more about how all these bits turn into the same sounds that where generated and then produced by a computer? How do bits turn into sound?

[Spock]

The sound card in your computer contains two special chips. One, the Analog-to-digital converter, converts sound from your microphone or other input device into digital signals the computer can understand and use for output.

The other, a digital-to-analog converter, changes a digital sound signal from the computer to an approximation of an analog sound signal. This => Link <=, while talking about CD players, should give you an idea how the computer does the same thing.

[Luke]

Does the station play at the same time as on the radio or is there a delay?

There will be a delay when listening to a radio station over the interenet. An (analogue) radio doesn't have to process the signal it recieves, the actual radiowaves generate the current that is amplified and makes the speakers in the radio work. With internet radio, like digital radio, the signal is encoded at the radio station, which takes some additional time. (The time the signal takes to reach you will be longer too as it will be routed by several servers) When your computer recieves the signal it will "buffer" it, that is store it in memory, and then it will read it from the buffer as it plays. Some radio stations broadcast their digital signal a couple of seconds ahead of their analogue signal to minimise the delay, but it will always be slightly out depending on your distance from the station, your connection speed, and the speed your computer can access the memory buffer.

[iissmart]

Iis, Does the station play at the same time as on the radio or is there a delay?

I just tested it, and the sound from my computer is delayed by a good 2-3 seconds compared to the real radio.

[Spock]

I just tested it, and the sound from my computer is delayed by a good 2-3 seconds compared to the real radio.

Isn't that called stereo!?

[Lester]

Thanks for delay explanation and will study CD's.

[Luke]

I just tested it, and the sound from my computer is delayed by a good 2-3 seconds compared to the real radio.

Isn't that called stereo!?

I thought that was when you turn the radio on while the wife is talking...

[Lester]

Let me get back to definition a min. Is this defined as bit speed or bit rate or bit tranfer rate or streaming bit rate or all of above? Would any of these have been more accurate for a topic?

[Spock]

They all refer to how fast information is transferred from one computer to another, so your Topic Subject is fine.

[Lester]

Say the bit rate stream is 40kbps. Am I to presume this is serial transmission because of two wires through dial up? Is it bits for serial since there is 1 circut? Bytes for parallel since we need 8 circuts?
Just need a confirm.

[Spock]

All Internet communication is perforce serial communication since no single phone phone-lines use more than 2 wires.

[Ben Last]

Is it bits for serial since there is 1 circut? Bytes for parallel since we need 8 circuts?
Just need a confirm.

Is isn't necessarily bits for serial and bytes for parallel, if I remember there are 8 bits in a byte, and 1024 bytes in a kilobyte, and then 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte.
When referring to the speed of a connection you might say it is 40kbps, this simply means you can send or recieve 40 kilobytes of information every second.

I think I'm correct but I'm sure Luke will know. Hopes this helps.

[Spock]

... I think I'm correct but I'm sure Luke will know. Hopes this helps.

You are correct. It just goes to show how fast those single bits are transmitted and received when you realize that, even with dial-up, you can possibly receive up to about 53 KB per second!

Or is it Kb per second? Will have to look it up. If it's 53 KB that would work out to be 53 x 1024 x 8 bits per second. If it's 53 Kb that would only be 53 x 1024 bits per second.

KB = Kilo Bytes
Kb = Kilo bits

[Ben Last]

I think it's kilobits a second, ie 56kbps.

If it was 56 kilobytes a second you'd download a megabyte relatively quickly, which would be out of character for dial-up!

[Lester]

All Internet communication is perforce serial communication since no single phone phone-lines use more than 2 wires.

Clear on all that but don't you need eight wires for parallel transmission to transmit one byte?
Luke--- Luke--- Luke (Changed circuts to wires)

[Spock]

... don't you need eight circuts for parallel transmission to transmit one byte?

Quit trying to show off your knowledge, especially when it's not that complete yet.

Internet comm is Serial meaning one bit is transmitted at a time but it is stored in a buffer until there are 8 bits whereupon it is shunted off into byte land and the buffer starts loading the next 8 bits. That's not 8 circuits.

[Lester]

Not showing off just trying to be clear. Shunted off to byte land? Does byteland transmit in parallel? Sounds like byteland is in memory somewhere, is it?

[Spock]

Probably, yes. It depends upon what the CPU is doing with the data. In any case, there are multiple types of memory. Some even that you wouldn't normally consider memory ... such as buffers.