ChoiceRadio.com is designed to be viewed in a Internet Explorer 6.0 browser or higher. We stream all our music in Windows Media. Internet Explorer 6.0 comes bundled with the Windows Media Player plug-in. IF you don't already have Internet Explorer 6.0 or Windows Media Player, you can download them here using the following links.

Step 1: Verifying Your Player

Check to see if you have the Windows Media Player installed.

• Check: Start >> Programs >> Accessories >> Entertainment
• Verify that you have the player installed
• Verify that you have version 7 or better by choosing Help >> About on your player menu

If you do not have the player installed, we suggest that you click on the following link to get the version 9 player:

Step 2: Verifying Your Connection Speed

After logging in, check to see that your Internet connection speed is set correctly. NOTE: Although you may be connected at work or have high speed access (cable or DSL), it is advisable to check and see what your "true" network connection speed is

• Launch the Choice player, let a song buffer up and place your mouse on the black bar at the bottom of the player
• Right click and choose statistics
• This will show the speed at which the clip is being played. Our broadband clips stream at either 48 or 64kbps. If it indicates that there is not at least 48kbps through-put, your stream may buffer from tim eot time.

Step 3: Player Operation

Checking to see that your ChoiceRadio player is working properly

• Click on a channel/format that you would like to listen to
• Click on the channel name in the listen box on any channel/format page
• This should launch a pop-up window with the ChoiceRadio player
• The player should begin to load (automatically), then an alert message should pop up (see below)
• After the alert message, the player should then begin to load music and you should see the following messages in the black player status section
• The player should begin to play your station automatically - Do Not press the play button
• If these messages do not appear, use your mouse to right-click inside the black status section and choose "error details" - please copy this message and proceed to Step 5

Step 4: Addressing Inconsistent Playback

Symptom: Your player consistently "buffers" causing music to temporarily stop, or the music stops for no reason.
Please Note: The steps outlined below are an attempt to deal with a complex problem. ChoiceRadio's content (radio) is streamed from two national datacenters, and you are connecting from one of a thousand-plus Internet service providers. For example, your local AOL system may be slow today and thus it appears that our service is not up to par. Thus, this step is by no means perfect and may require some effort on your part.

• Verify your connection speed and adjust your preferences accordingly (see Step 2)
• If the problem persists, there may be a problem with your ISP. Please check with your provider to see if there are any problems in your area.
• You might also want to check the "Internet Weather Report" to see if there are problems in your region http://www.mids.org/weather/
• If all of the above does not provide an answer, we suggest that you help us "road-map" your Internet connection to us. This "road-map" will help us to determine why music is not reaching you in a seamless fashion. You can provide this road-map by running a program called "Traceroute". If you know how to use Traceroute, we ask that you run the program and proceed to Step 5. If you are unfamiliar with Traceroute, we suggest that you download "NeoTracePro" from Downloads.com. NeoTracePro will allow you to visually map your connection and copy the results into an email or other text document. When performing a traceroute, we ask that you connect to "media.choiceradio.com"
• You can download NeoTrace Pro at http://www.downloads.com/ - Search for NeoTrace

Step 5: Contacting ChoiceRadio Support

If you have completed steps 1-4 and continue to experience problems, we ask that you contact us at support@choiceradio.com. In order to serve you better, we ask that you provide us:

• Your name
• Your location (city, state)
• Your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox) type, and version number
• Your Windows Media Player version (See Step 1)
• And, a detailed description of the problem

Additionally, it would be extremely helpful if you could provide us the results from Steps 2, 3, and 4 above.