IPlayer says bandwidth not sufficient???

[MaggieW]

Our Iplayer isn't working - it shows the cursor cirle thing in the middle and then comes up with a message saying bandwidth not sufficient. It used to work perfectly so I'm not sure where the problem lies? Can anyone help please?

You may have tried to view an HD version of the video - I find that fails on mine.
You may have a slow connection currently, broadband speed varies during the day.

BBC servers may be having a problem - last night I got an error 500 at one point. Tried again a few minutes later and it was fine again.

Other things can affect it, such as background downloads for example a Windows Update. Also anything else using the same broadband connection.

Are you doing it over wireless?

Yes, doing over wireless - is that a factor? No Nannynick, didn't try HD version, just normal stuff. It's been doing this for a few weeks now but not sure what to do. TIA.

Run the ThinkBroadband SpeedTest then link to your results.

Example... here is my result, done a couple of minutes ago.

It is the Speed Down figure which is of interest... how fast are you getting?

Wireless sucks ass. Can you try a wired connection?

"Wireless sucks ass. Can you try a wired connection?"

While I am often in favour of a wired connection for reliability and troubleshooting, unless you need to download / transfer data at speeds higher than around 5 Mbps, 802.11 b/ g/ N will work fine. 801.11 a is slower from memory, but unless there are lots of devices all trying to use the same router, 'sucks ass' is not a description I'd use (whatever you want it to mean).

Most kit is 802.11 g/ N anyway these days, offering speeds of 20 Mbps in one direction as a minimum (assuming a reasonable signal) even with encryption in use.

There should be nothing the wireless link will introduce in the way of delay to cause a problem, so I would dismiss that as a concern, MaggieW (at least so long as you have reliable use of the internet most of the time, and it's only iPlayer causing a nuisance).

The problem is 'assuming a reasonable signal'.

Wireless is prone to so many different types of problems from transient interference from your neighbours wireless/microwave/phone, how many walls you are going through, if another device has joined the network and it's on 802.11b so all your g devices have also switched down to b, what channel you are on, etc. etc. that troubleshooting it is a pain for even a fairly technical user.

If you plug in a cable and the problem goes away then you know it's a problem with the wireless and can take the time to troubleshoot it - if it doesn't you have eliminated that as a source of the problem.

It's a pretty sensible first step.

Wireless is fine for web, email and youtube - to stream video at any reasonable quality you need a pretty optimal setup.

This is why it sucks ass and if you can't get reasonable performance you use powerline networking or run cable.

It's probably only worth worrying about the wireless connection once it is clear that the router connection to the local exchange and thence to the ISP is giving sufficient speed for video streaming.

If that connection speed is poor, or the ISP artificially slows down the traffic, then it will make no odds whether there is wireless, powerline or a cable between the router and the person's PC.

It depends on how easy it is to do each test really - if testing a wired connection involves going to the shop and buying a cable, then yes, you might as well check other things first, if It's just a question of plugging it in, or trying a different machine, then it's worth doing that. A speedtest won't tell you if the problem is with your wireless or the router/isp.

I would also turn the router off, wait 30 seconds and turn it back on.