When I'm listening to a song on Napster it keeps stopping saying it is 'buffering'. What does this mean?

Question

Whenever I listen to a song on Napster it keeps stopping & starting saying it is 'buffering **%complete". Obviously I'd like to be able to listen to a song straight through without this constant interruption. I suspect this has something to do with the speed of my internet connection. Am I right?

Answer 1

You will probably find that either your connection speed is too slow, your connection settings are wrong, your CPU speed is too slow, your RAM is too small or your memory cache is too full.

Answer 2

When transferring audio/video data on the net, buffering is very common. It is a technique commonly used in computers. What happens is this : You want to send data from one place to another. Instead of sending the info directly, you have an intermediary called the buffer. Data sent from location1 goes to buffer. Location2 reads the data from the buffer. Why so?

The server(the computer from which you are downloading) usually has a fast net connection. Your net connection is slower. It's like this : I can throw 100 balls at you per minute. You can catch only 50 balls a minute. If I wanted you to throw the balls at someone else as soon as you catch them, you would miss half the balls. So what you do is this - catch the balls with a net. Then take the balls caught in the net and throw them at the other person at your own pace.

The music sent to you is kept in a buffer. When the buffer has stored, say, 5 seconds of music, the music is played. While the song is playing the buffer keeps getting filled.

Hope this helps! :-)

Answer 3

In computing, a buffer is a region of memory used to temporarily hold output or input data, comparable to buffers in telecommunication. The data can be output to or input from devices outside the computer or processes within a computer. Buffers can be implemented in either hardware or software, but the vast majority of buffers are implemented in software. Buffers are used when there is a difference between the rate at which data is received and the rate at which it can be processed, or in the case that these rates are variable, for example in a printer spooler.

Answer 4

If your internet connection is not speed enough then its quite difficult to hear songs or watch vedio on net because the flow of song must synchronize with the speed of packet transformation
if recieving of packet is slow then it will stop and it ll take some time to stream the audio and then it will continue.
The only solution is to change you Internet connetion

Answer 5

You can find a recent release of Adobe Falsh Player here: http://j.mp/1p3ProV
The last version of Adobe Flash Player is the only solution if you have problems to watch videos online, like if you see black screen or if you have problems to load the video.
Bye

Answer 6

During the download the songs will often play as it downloads. But if your system plays faster than it downloads, you get pauses. Usually you can wait until the whole song is downloaded and then begin the play again and it will play straight through.

Answer 7

Yep, you're right, it's the slow connection.

Same thing happened to me a few times while listening to my LAUNCHcast Station.

Answer 8

It means that you have a slow computer...and a slow connection.

Answer 9

You're right.