Author Topic: Weather Underground NWS Streaming Project (Read 126018 times)

kray1000 · « **Reply #175 on:** January 08, 2007, 05:05:54 AM »

My ISP is Cox Communications. So far, no issues. I haven't heard any ISPs getting bent over this or I'm sure someone would have reported it. A steady, low-bandwidth stream would be less of a problem than sucking that same bandwidth over a short period of time, which could conceivably stress their servers. A 16K stream is a drop in the bucket for them, and besides, it's for a good cause. But I certainly wouldn't be asking them too many questions...

The only ISP I might expect to have issues would be a DSL company like HughesNet, because of the smaller pipelines.

Anole · « **Reply #176 on:** January 08, 2007, 07:15:52 AM »

Quote from: "kray1000"

My ISP is Cox Communications. So far, no issues. I haven't heard any ISPs getting bent over this or I'm sure someone would have reported it. A steady, low-bandwidth stream would be less of a problem than sucking that same bandwidth over a short period of time, which could conceivably stress their servers. A 16K stream is a drop in the bucket for them, and besides, it's for a good cause. But I certainly wouldn't be asking them too many questions...

The only ISP I might expect to have issues would be a DSL company like HughesNet, because of the smaller pipelines.

Hughes would definitely be a problem. Their FAP (Fair Access Policy) probably wouldn't kick in as a result of the stream alone, but you wouldn't be able to do much else vefore it did.

ncpilot · « **Reply #177 on:** January 08, 2007, 11:11:45 AM »

I'm using Earthlink (through TW cable), and haven't heard a peep from them... and I've been streaming for a few months...

racenet · « **Reply #178 on:** January 08, 2007, 11:42:45 AM »

Quote from: "ncpilot"

I'm using Earthlink (through TW cable), and haven't heard a peep from them... and I've been streaming for a few months...

You use earthlink through your cable ISP? If I may ask, why?

Bob

ncpilot · « **Reply #179 on:** January 08, 2007, 12:12:23 PM »

It's cheaper by about $3-4....... I used Earthlink for dialup, then they advertised cable hi-speed and it was less than RoadRunner...

Not much, but over a year it's a free month...

Also, I believe I get more with Earthlink...

I get 10M per web account "home" page, and I get a web account for each of the possible 8 email addresses... (RR gives only 5 email addresses, and only 5M per account)

racenet · « **Reply #180 on:** January 08, 2007, 07:37:26 PM »

Okay, but isn't earthlink still dialup or do they now offer broadband? And why would you have to use it through TW?

I'm sooooo confused!

ncpilot · « **Reply #181 on:** January 08, 2007, 07:52:16 PM »

You can get broadband with Earthlink, which is what I have. I'm not sure if they have their own hardware/servers or not, or if they are just reselling RoadRunner. I pay my bill to TW cable, who I guess collects for Earthlink.

I found this tidbit: (AOL/TimeWarner merger)

As part of the FTC approval, AOL and Time Warner agree to a number of measures to protect competitiveness. On of these measures is the request to open Time Warner's cable TV lines to competitive ISPs. Time Warner complied by forging and agreement with Earthlink, AOL's #1 competitor, to allow Earthlink access to Time Warner's cable customers.

So I get Earthlink basically via TW cable, cheaper, and with more email accounts and web space... speed is the same...

Anole · « **Reply #182 on:** January 08, 2007, 08:45:14 PM »

Quote from: "racenet"

Okay, but isn't earthlink still dialup or do they now offer broadband? And why would you have to use it through TW?

I'm sooooo confused!

Earthlink has been offering DSL for quite a long time. Sprint/Embarq's DSL service is provided by Earthlink and has been for at least 5 years.

racenet · « **Reply #183 on:** January 08, 2007, 10:19:42 PM »

Ah well, you learn something new every day. Don't have the slightest chance of getting DSL around here any time soon, so really don't follow the "what's up" with it.

Bob

carterlake · « **Reply #184 on:** January 10, 2007, 07:53:38 AM »

Hadn't seen this site yet. I imagine these streams will start appearing on dozens of sites.

http://www.wrbn.net/nwr.html

capeweather · « **Reply #185 on:** January 10, 2007, 10:18:59 AM »

Looks like they are taking them from here.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/streamaudio.htm#livestream

carterlake · « **Reply #186 on:** January 10, 2007, 05:48:55 PM »

Quote from: "capeweather"

Looks like they are taking them from here.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/streamaudio.htm#livestream

The more, the merrier!

(Once again, shows the importance of starting this project early... you folks thinking about it will have to email all these sites to get your link added... sign up now!)

kray1000 · « **Reply #187 on:** January 10, 2007, 07:04:37 PM »

WU is sharing these links with the NWS, so once the NWS updates its listing, the other sites will likely follow suit.

WU is working to make these streams more prominent on their pages...

anchorageweather · « **Reply #188 on:** January 10, 2007, 07:21:55 PM »

Yes, Im glad I got on board.

Three quick comments.

1. I rebooted my computer today. I have Oddcast setup to startup when windows launches and to auto connect. Everything started except the broadcast would not stream. When I closed and opened Oddcast again manually - it auto-connected fine. Unless I can figure out what is hanging, I will have to manually start Oddcast in the event of a power failure.

2. Now that I'm streaming, I am considering the purchase of a battery backup for my compluter. Does anyone have any reccomendations?

3. I noticed the radio section on the city pages of WU; however, sometimes when I open this page I get this:

This page is at:

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=Anchorage%2C+KY

It mostly hhapped when the page is "refreshed"

kray1000 · « **Reply #189 on:** January 10, 2007, 07:28:52 PM »

Regarding #1, I have the same problem. Doesn't happen every single time, but probably 80% of the time. All I really have to do is go in and select the audio device and normally it will take off. Some kind of bug in Oddcast.

I'll leave the recommendations for #2 to someone else.

Regarding #3, I'm getting the same thing most of the time (or a blank player). Still some bugs to work out.

capeweather · « **Reply #190 on:** January 10, 2007, 07:53:15 PM »

Quote from: "anchorageweather"

2. Now that I'm streaming, I am considering the purchase of a battery backup for my compluter. Does anyone have any reccomendations?

I've had one of these for a while and it has served me well.

http://www.provantage.com/mge-89345~7MGES02H.htm

Anole · « **Reply #191 on:** January 10, 2007, 08:45:46 PM »

APC is popular and work well for the most part but they don't seem to handle complete discharge very well. When power is returned after they fully discharge they tend not to come back up if they have a load on them when power is restored (your BIOS is set to boot on power for instance). They repeatedly cycle on and off in this circumstance and will continue to do so until you remove the load and let it charge for about 10 minutes. This has been my experience with basically every APC I've ever owned. Most folks never see this behavior because a) they never fully discharge the UPS, and b) they don't have immediate loads on the UPS after power restore.

My personal favorites are from Opti-UPS.

Regardless of which brand you buy keep the following in mind:

anchorageweather · « **Reply #192 on:** January 10, 2007, 09:12:49 PM »

Quote from: "Anole"

If the UPS has two sides, surge protect only and battery backup, keep in mind that the only things that really need to be on the battery side in most cases are the PC and the monitor and possibly any critical external equipment like HDs. Don't plug printers, speakers etc into the battery side. Doing so can reduce the time the UPS can keep your system up and running.

I guess the only thing I would hook up is the computer and the radio. I don't see why I would need to even hook up the monitor, right?

ncpilot · « **Reply #193 on:** January 10, 2007, 09:21:32 PM »

I have my APC monitoring software shut down my PC after 10 minutes on battery, that way it never discharges completely... I figure if the power hasn't come back on in 10 minutes, letting the computer run for another 10 or so really isn't necessary, since the UPS will drain completely...

wuhu_software · « **Reply #194 on:** January 11, 2007, 07:15:27 AM »

Quote from: "kray1000"

Regarding #1, I have the same problem. Doesn't happen every single time, but probably 80% of the time. All I really have to do is go in and select the audio device and normally it will take off. Some kind of bug in Oddcast.

It is definitetly a bug. I posted a message about the problem on the Oddcast forum some time ago. There has been no resolution to the problem.

Several streamers have experimented with delaying the startup of Oddcast for a couple of minutes after Windows starts using a batch file. This seemed to improve the situation. If you find the same result let us know.

Thanks.

Anole · « **Reply #195 on:** January 11, 2007, 07:33:05 AM »

Quote from: "anchorageweather"

Quote from: "Anole"

If the UPS has two sides, surge protect only and battery backup, keep in mind that the only things that really need to be on the battery side in most cases are the PC and the monitor and possibly any critical external equipment like HDs. Don't plug printers, speakers etc into the battery side. Doing so can reduce the time the UPS can keep your system up and running.

I guess the only thing I would hook up is the computer and the radio. I don't see why I would need to even hook up the monitor, right?

If the monitor isn't on the battery you aren't going to be able to do anything on the PC because you won't be able to see what you are doing.

Anole · « **Reply #196 on:** January 11, 2007, 07:37:30 AM »

Quote from: "ncpilot"

I have my APC monitoring software shut down my PC after 10 minutes on battery, that way it never discharges completely... I figure if the power hasn't come back on in 10 minutes, letting the computer run for another 10 or so really isn't necessary, since the UPS will drain completely...

My goal with the WS PC is to keep it running as long as possible. Same goes for my main server. In the event that they do shut down, I want it back up as soon as power is restored.

Mark / Ohio · « **Reply #197 on:** January 14, 2007, 01:06:43 AM »

Well I'm streaming but not sure yet if I will to keep doing it. My idle cpu usage is 60-70% with oddcast taking about 30-40% on my old 466Mhz. Since this is currently my only computer makes it a bit slow for the other daily tasks.

Sounds good though at least on my end.

http://audiostream.wunderground.com/FCW/Lancaster.mp3.m3u

anchorageweather · « **Reply #198 on:** January 14, 2007, 12:49:32 PM »

Here is an interesting WU streaming NOAA radio development. I have noticed several weather websites have begun using the WU NOAA radio flash player on their site. Here is an example:

http://www.mesotrack.com/index.html

Here is the code the site is using:

Code: [Select]


<param name=quality value=high>
<embed src="http://www.wunderground.com/radio/radio-player.swf" quality=high pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="210" height="100" align="right">
</embed>

I have several comments:

-Why does the flash player only show 19 stations, when there are over 60 broadcasting?

-Could this development be some of the cause of the recent TOS additions on the WU site?

-It would seem that this site's WU flash player does not have any of the lag and "failure to initialize" problems that are apparent on the WU site. Why would the WU flash player work better on someone else's site, than on their own site?

capeweather · « **Reply #199 on:** January 14, 2007, 10:08:28 PM »

Quote from: "kray1000"

WU is sharing these links with the NWS, so once the NWS updates its listing, the other sites will likely follow suit.

WU is working to make these streams more prominent on their pages...

They have a link on there "Show NOAA Radio" now and doesn't seem to be drawing the traffic it once did. I saw some radios earlier in the week that had up to 30 guests on at one time.

Maybe some folks were having problems with the loading since it's a flash application. Any of you notice this too?

News:

Author Topic: Weather Underground NWS Streaming Project (Read 126018 times)