4oD router ‘cut-out’ problem? Try updating Flash
13 Comments
Over the past week, we’ve received a few emails and comments from customers of some ISPs explaining that their router seemed to ‘cut out’ after a certain period of time when playing content on the new 4oD Catch Up service
Our investigation into this suggests that updating to the most current version of the Flash player (v 10.0.22.87) stops these router failure problems. Customers of Be*There, BT Broadband, and 02 Broadband have all told us that this has returned their services to normal.
We believe that this has been due to an unfortunate combination of hardware chipset, Flash 9 and being on a Mac OS since all of the routers given out to customers of the above services share the same chipset.
Comments
April 20, 2009
Gonna give this a try, my router reset every 10 mins last night, so I hope it works!
April 21, 2009
Hi Andy,
I have a question for you …
Has the new channel 4 player blocked access to content if it detects a proxy server?
I run a proxy server at home and since the launch of the latest player, I have had the same problem as many others, whereby I can watch the adverts but the actual content does not work and an error message is displayed. As a test, I bypassed my proxy server and hey presto, this allowed all content to be viewed.
I can understand why you might want to block access if a proxy server is detected, but there are many organisations and individuals who choose (and need) to use them. To block content if a proxy is detected is in my opinion rather poor.
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
(PS, sorry if this question is in the wrong section, but I figured it would be best to ask you in the most up to date topic)
Regards
April 21, 2009
hi,
has anyone any more news on countering the juddering. its a bit like watching everything done as bad stop motion. any help would be much appreciated
cheers,
dan
April 24, 2009
Hi,
Trying to watch the inbetweeners but it only plays the adverts then says “an error has occured trying to play this programme”, how do i rectify this problem?
Cheers
April 29, 2009
@Tom what is the version of Flash you are using?
April 30, 2009
Hi Andy,
I am still interested to know know your thoughts on the question I asked you above? I am based in Edinburgh and am using the most up to date version of Flash + IE7.
Up until the recent change in the website, I have been an avid user of the channel 4 player, but I am now very disappointed that it does not work. It would be great if you could give me a suggestion as to why it does not work.
Regards
April 30, 2009
I would also be interested in a reply to Coco’s question as the proxy settings on our university campus (University of Nottingham using JANET) also seem to fall foul of whatever restriction there seems to be and we don’t have the option of bypassing (or going with a different ISP – we would literally have to move accommodation to get 4oD catch-up).
We also get adverts then the error.
I would seriously question the sense of cutting out campus-based university students from using this service which seems to be the effect of the current setup as we must make up a fairly sizable user-base. Given that the changes were implemented over the Easter break and we have now come back into peak coursework deadline and exam time I suspect you will yet to hear from a fair number of users who find themselves without service next time they try and use catch-up (but haven’t yet had the opportunity to since the switch to flash).
Whatever the problem it must be rectifiable as iplayer, demand five and ITV catchup/player all work fine.
May 2, 2009
@coco
Are you using your proxy or not thought? Does it work without the proxy turned on?
Regards
May 10, 2009
Hi,
I’ve been trying to catch up on a series but I seem to have the same problem as Tom. I also have updated Flash.
Please advise!
Thank you.
May 18, 2009
Catch up is not working at all there isn’t a button to click to be able to watch any programmes. It’s been like this for almost a week now. What’s going on?
May 18, 2009
@natalie – That seems very strange. Have you got Flash 10 installed? Failing that, to get help with the web site, please try the help form here: http://tinyurl.com/ouom9r .
May 19, 2009
Hi,
I will try this one last time … If anyone at channel4 would like to be of assistance, it would be greatly appreciated. I know you must all be busy, but I am just asking for some brief help as I was a huge fan of the previous C4 player and now I do not use it all.
Can you please confirm why I cannot see programmes on the new player when connecting via a proxy server? Is this intentional or not? If so, why? I have no problem connecting to the ITV player or the BBC iplayer, but I cannot seem to get anything from the C4 player.
Yes, I can disconnect from my proxy server and watch the C4 content with no problems, but I do not want to do this, as it kind of defeats the purpose of the proxy server in the first place.
As ‘Dav’ above has highlighted, there are is a huge viewing population who will only be able to connect to the internet in such a manner, so to disable this would in my mind be rather unfortunate.
As I said previoulsy, I am based in Edinburgh, UK, but if you would like any more specific information, I would gladly provide this.
Thanks in advance!
May 19, 2009
We feel for your frustration on this one. Unfortunately, your IP address which as you say is a public proxy, is registered from the Netherlands. Here’s what our engineers have said about this issue, for what it’s worth:
“Proxy servers themselves are not a problem (most organisations have some kind of proxy server – the whole of channel4 is behind a single address). The problem exists when people are behind a known ‘public’ proxy server. In this situation anyone can use a public proxy server (rather than just the people belonging to the organisation) so we have no way of knowing what country those people are from.
Do these reports include IP addresses that are not being detected as inside the UK? We do not explicitly disallow proxy servers – our software simply disallows access to people it believes are outside the UK and this can include people using a public proxy where it is impossible to tell a user’s real location.”
So unfortunately it appears that it is indeed a problem to do with the registration outside the UK of that public proxy. We’re sorry that we can’t be of more service for you in this instance
Unfortunately it’s not possible to make exceptions to the service.
We hope that you can enjoy the service whilst not being connected to the public proxy.
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