Spotify keeps cutting out.

[idc]

For about a week now, mainly in the late afternoon and early evening Spotify keeps cutting out. Sometimes it is just for a few seconds. Other times it fails all together. I e-mailed Spotify and they blamed my internet provider and 'bandwidth throttling'. They say that does not happen in Sweden and will look at the problem. My internet package is 8mb unlimited broadband and the speed is a pretty constant 54.0 Mbps with excellent signal strength. Are Spotify right? Is it worth getting in touch with my interent provider?

Any suggestions appreciated, thanks.

idc

 

[Dave_]

I've not had any issue's with songs cutting out, but over the last few day's i have noticed that it takes an age to load up any info after doing a artist/album/genre search etc.

 

[Woodruffe]

Hi,

They may be right, don't know if this is 100% but I thought the 54Mbps is the speed of the wireless network, not the speed of your internet connection. Try going to www.speedtest.net to get an accurate reading of your speed. Some ISP's do throttle but could also be your contention ratio, usually 50:1, this means 50 users sharing the main boradband connection. If they are all busy on an afternoon this may have a detrimental effect on your connection. You could always try something as simple as restting your router, if mines been on for a few days or weeks it seems to get a bit 'bogged down' and everything slows, just unplug it, wait 30 seconds and plug it back in.

Ben.

 

[idc]

Ben. I suppose that what could have happened is that some more neighbours have joined the broadband revolution so the contention ratio (?) has gone up/down however it works! I take it that turning the router off and on is like the good old fix for PCs etc. Our router is on all the time on the advice of the provider. Would it be better to go over to it switches on and off when we log on and off?

Dave, as well as cutting out I have had Spotify slow down when doing searches, sometimes to the point that I give up, log off and on again.

 

[Woodruffe]

I wouldn't bother switching it off everytime, not unless your worried about carbon footprints or people piggybacking your connection

Thinking on the spot here I assume you have got security on your wireless network and it couldn't be someone accidently connecting to your network rather than their own and using your bandwith?

And yes, it is just like the good old fix for PCs, and for some strange reason it seems to work so I don't bother trying to work out why

Hope these help,

Ben.

 

[idc]

I had a brief attempt to set up the wireless router, gave up and paid a bloke from a PC company to come and do it and another fix for me. We went for all the security options available. So later, maybe tomorrow I will try the off and on solution. Thanks again.

 

[Craig M.]

the only issue i've had is bizzarely enough, the volume going up and down on it's own. work that out!

 

[idc]

Hi Craig. Bizzare indeed. So far so good with no cutting out since I rebooted the router. But the volume has just gone up and down. It was accompanied by a couple of clicks. I have also had a couple of loud clicks, the music has stopped, Spotify has announced that there is a problem with the computer's sound card and it can't play music. This has been cured by unplugging the USB and plugging it back in to a different port. Hummmm, whats going on?