Help with Macintosh and the New Silverlight Player
We are happy to address your questions, but first please review the following list of common problems. Before you attempt to diagnose problems on your computer, please check the following:
Are you having trouble listening on a Macintosh?
We can send you a separate instructions for listening on a Mac. Please send us a
Trouble Report including your email address and the Call Letters of the station you are trying to hear. This method will use the Windows Media player in
stand-alone mode, so please check to be sure you have that as well.
Newer Macintosh computers (OS X 10.4.8+) are supported by the new Silverlight platform from Microsoft.
What are the Mac requirements for the new Silverlight platform?
System RequirementsMacintosh Computer with Power PC Processor
Macintosh Computer with Intel Processor
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Do you have Silverlight properly installed?
Go to Microsoft's Web Site
to download Silverlight, then follow the
installation instructions provided. If you need help with installation of Silverlight, go to
Microsoft's Silverlight installation help page.
How do I know if I need to install Silverlight?
You may have already installed Silverlight for other applications. If you need to install Silverlight, you will see the image on the left when you click on the broadcaster's Listen-Live link.
If you already have Silverlight installed, you should see a player similar to the image on the right.
Top Reasons You Cannot Access the Stream:
- Firewall software on your computer or network - If you are on a network where the network administrator could have blocked streaming or restricted the bandwidth available for streaming, please contact them.
- Pop up blocker or anti-virus program on your computer - Many firewall, anti-virus, and pop-up software packages block streaming. If you have any of this software on your computer, please try disabling them one at a time and try to access the stream. If you are able to access the stream when one specific software package is disabled, streaming will have to be "allowed" through that software. Please consult the software Help or manual to learn how to allow streaming.
- "The specified server cannot be found" OR the stream plays the same 5-10 seconds of audio - Most of our stations have solid Internet connections but at times they can go down. The most common symptoms for this problem are error messages saying "Server not found" or frequent dropouts. Sometimes the stream will replay the same 5-10 seconds of audio over and over again. Unfortunately sometimes it is difficult to tell if the problem is on your end or the station end, but by filling out a Trouble Report, we can better manage stations with frequent problems.
- The stream is buffering a lot - Internet connection is too slow or is cutting out - This is similar to above but is more common on home networks. Common symptoms are constant buffering and disconnects. Call your Internet Service Provider and have them check your line if you believe this to be the problem. If your line is ok, and the stream is buffering more than normal, or every few seconds, please fill out a Trouble Report telling us the Call Letters and a short description of the problem.
- The stream is buffering a lot - Bandwidth limitation on your network - This could be a company security or bandwidth-usage policy. It could also mean that your network is busy with file transfers or downloads.
- Something on the Internet is broken - We are served by a number of providers and they are connected all over the web. Once in a while traffic from one or more of our stations can be affected by a bad router or connection at one of these intermediate connections.
- We are rebooting the server for maintenance or upgrades - This is not a likely occurrence. We rarely take the servers down during busy times. Outages would only last about 3 minutes.
Other Questions
- The player opened but I don't hear the stream.
- Are your speakers on and the volume turned up?
- Can you hear other sounds on your computer?
- Does it say "Playing" under the Volme control in the Control Bar at the top of the player?
- Is the mute button on your system volume control activated by mistake?
If you answered "Yes" to all of these questions and still cannot hear the stream, please send us a Trouble Report including the call letters of the station and any error messages that you might have received.
The same audio ads keep playing.
Due to some legal obligations, some radio ads cannot be streamed over the Internet. To accomplish this, we replace these
ads with PSAs (Public service Announcements) or other ads.
Sometimes there are not enough ads to generate a wide enough selection so you hear each ad a lot.
If you are hearing the same ads frequently, please
fill out a Trouble Report and tell us the call letters
and a brief description of the problem so that we can insert more ads or notify the station.
Why is the radio broadcast ahead of the Internet stream?
The Internet stream is usually delayed between 5 seconds and 90 seconds. This is due to regular Internet traffic delays.
If you are experiencing a delay greater than 90 seconds, please
fill out a Trouble Report and let us know the call letters of the station.
If you are listening in an office, is there a firewall, or a proxy server in place that blocks streaming media? Go to Microsoft's general help page look for the firewall and proxy server information.
Check to be sure that any pop-up blockers installed on your system are set to allow surfernetwork.com.
Pop-up blockers can prevent our latest player from opening properly.
If you have pop-up blockers on your system, you can temporarily disable them by holding down the "ctrl" key while clicking the "Listen Live" button.
You can also set the pop-up blocker to allow our player to be launched (without affecting its ability to block other pop-ups). Please follow the instructions below, and/or follow the directions for setting other pop-up blockers you may have to allow surfernetwork.com. This will permit the SurferNETWORK player to launch properly in a new window.
The audio is choppy or cuts out occasionally when I listen.
99% of these types of problems are due to the connection speed of your computer. Dialup access to the internet, even on a 56K modem, is only as fast as the phone
line you are using. Sometimes the connection speed is affected by other factors, which basically means that your computer can't keep up with the speed at which
the audio is being sent.
Keep in mind that if this is a permanent problem with your connection, choppy audio may be inevitable. Unfortunately, the reality is, that a connection speed of anything less than 30Kbps can sometimes experience variations of this problem.