Download errors on both TV and Radio

[C E Macfarlane]

Some suggestions interleaved below ...
--
www.macfh.co.uk/MacFH.html

>     -----Original Message-----
>     From: get_iplayer [mailto:get_iplayer-bounces at lists.infradead.org]On
>     Behalf Of Dave Widgery
>     Sent: 18 March 2017 15:36
>     To: get_iplayer
>     Subject: Download errors on both TV and Radio
>
>     For some while now I have been getting lots of problems recording TV
>     with RTMPDump timing out [...]

1)	If you have a dynamically assigned IP, has it been changing recently?

>     I live in the sticks and only get a 2mb download speed but it always
>     used to be slow but fairly reliable.
>
>     I have spoken to my ISP who assure me that they have not detected any
>     problems on my line but have swapped out my modem anyway with no
>     effect.

2)	Do a quiet line test.  If, as I presume despite the use of VPN, you're in
the UK, dial 17070 and when the menu options have been listed, choose option
2.  Listen for a while, and if there is any crackling or other noise, log a
VOICE fault with your ISP.

3)	If you still have a dongle type filter, try swapping it.

4)	Examine the logs of your router, how to do this will vary with the make
and model of your router.  Look for things like bursts of errors, etc.
Consider ...
	a)	Running a monitoring program such as Routerstats or RouterstatsLite.
		http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm
	b)	Setting up a ping service to your router (helps if you have a fixed IP),
such as
		http://fruk.net/index.php?fruk=f8lure
 ... which between them will monitor your connection both from within and
without.

>     I am not happy with the line and I am sure that I am getting problems
>     when browsing the web etc unfortunately get_iplayer is the only thing
>     giving me hard errors.

5)	I still have in my GiP options file ...
	rtmpradioopts --timeout 100
	rtmptvopts --timeout 100
... which certainly I've found useful in the past when my connection has
been at its dodgiest.  However, I'm not sure whether the latest versions of
GiP are actually still applying these options, perhaps others can comment;
if not, you'd have to search the file for where rtmpdump is called and edit
it to add them manually.

>     -----------------------------------------------
>     TV RECORDING LOG
>     -----------------------------------------------

The log does look like broadband issues, as discussed above.

However, I'd also make a more generally applicable point, that it's a good
idea to download large files to somewhere other than the system drive  -
that is the one with your operating system, XP I think you said, so
somewhere other than the C: drive.  The reason is that if a download fills
all the available disk space on the system drive, it can create many more
problems than filling up a drive that only has data on it.