when listening to streaming media from the internet, why does it cut in and out at times "buffering" ?

Answer 1

very good question. Basically, buffering is an intentional delay in the playback of an internet stream. When you first tune into a stream, the software builds up a cache of the stream data before playing it back, so that if you have a temporary delay in getting the stream data, the stream will play from the buffer and you won't hear a gap in the stream. If your computer is buffering often, it could mean several things. Your internet connection could be too slow to keep up with the stream of data coming through it, the stream which you are trying to listen to doesn't have enough bandwidth to stream to all it's listeners, your media player might have the buffer set too low, or you might not have enough memory in your computer. Try listening to a different stream or a lower quality stream and see if that helps

Answer 2

Streaming media is dependent on your internet connection. If your connection is not stable or if you are downloading something or you have other pages open which eats away your bandwidth, these kinda issue arises as streaming media requires a stable internet connection.

Answer 3

Your internet connection is too slow to keep it streaming

Answer 4

Your bandwidth may be too narrow OR you may be pushing your PC to its limits and it has to pause to catch up sometimes.

Yahoo have some Widgets that are great to use in telling what your PC is doing behind the scenes. I recommend netstat, cpu monitor, net monitor, disc monitor, minimon CPU and sys monitor. They are easy to set up, they provide different ways of seeing the same thing as well as acting as a double-check on each other, and they don't use a lot of your cpu while running.

Answer 5

your connection may be too slow and it has to stop to keep up with the media player.