Help! I am running out of patience..
wildyaks
November 13, 2007, 05:19 AM posted in General DiscussionI just managed to listen to half of the Dear Amber show with Bazza in it. Since when it came out (2 Nov) I have not been able to download any lessons. I sometimes manage to open them online. Usually I have to start over at least three times to get the whole thing. And - without exaggeration - it takes HOURS to just get one full lesson going.
Can't work like that... Any advice, suggestion anyone???
It can't be because I live in China. The internet is working at normal speed on all other sites
wildyaks
November 13, 2007, 07:24 AMIn Sichuan. Was in Chengu last week. Am now back home in the countryside (10 hours busride north of Chengdu). The problem is the same in both locations
amber
November 13, 2007, 07:31 AMI wish I was a techie nerd so I could help you! :(
John
November 13, 2007, 08:26 AMHmmm, it would help if we had other users in Sichuan (or other parts of China's "wild, wild west") in order to compare experiences. I know Lantian was having real problems for a while. Anyone?
wildyaks
November 13, 2007, 08:41 AMYeah, I just thought to contact some people who I know occasionally use Cpod. I get the message that download failed because the source was faulty.
steve
November 13, 2007, 03:00 PMHi wildyaks, We serve up all the files from Amazon S3, because it provides pretty much the most reliable service out there, so the problem is occurring somewhere between Amazon and your computer (ie - could be anywhere!). Therefore, it's tricky to identify it exactly. I can give you some recommendations on how to get your files though. I recommend you subscribe to your personal feed in iTunes, and then just let it sync everyday whilst you are doing other things. It might take a while, but if it is automatically doing it in the background on a daily basis it won't be so annoying as having to wait. Just go to your home page, and then click the 'Your Feed' tab. Select the level of lessons you want to study, what file sizes and supplementary stuff you want delivered, save, and then copy the link and paste it into iTunes (in the Advanced tab, under 'subscribe to podcast'). Then just leave iTunes open when your computer is on and it will download whatever is in your feed. Your feed will automatically download the latest lessons in the levels you have selected, plus every time you bookmark a lesson it will get added. Hope this helps!
steve
November 13, 2007, 03:00 PMAmber, Careful what you wish for!
phil
November 14, 2007, 01:27 AMI have also experienced download problems, albeit in the not quite so wild dongbei. If you are using Firefox you could also try installing the DownThemAll plugin, a download accelerator. I find quite a significant improvement with download speeds. You'll find it here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201
wildyaks
November 14, 2007, 02:48 AMSteve, Phil, Thanks a lot. For the first time this month I was able to download a lesson (the infamous Jizhou series). Very happy. Took me an hour. I have now also installed DownThemAll plugin. Thanks for the tip. Now I just have to figure out how to use it...
wildyaks
November 14, 2007, 02:49 AMAnd: Those days without lessons weren't lost time. I did a lot of review...
John
November 13, 2007, 07:01 AMWhere are you in China, exactly?