Common Technical Difficulties - Questions and Answers

1) I cannot see the video. What do I do?

There are four possibilities that can explain this problem:

You don't have the proper Windows Media Player software. To access the video, your computer must have the version that is designed for your type of computer. If you are using a personal computer, version nine or greater is required. If you are using a Macintosh, be sure that the Windows Media Player for your model is installed.

You can download and install the free appropriate Windows Media Player from the Microsoft Web site:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/windows-media-player
Your Internet connection is too slow or is being used by other people. Our webinars are designed to be received at speeds between 28 kilobytes per second (KBPS) and 150 KBPS. This covers most users with either dial-up or high-speed modem. However, if your Internet speed is below 28 KBPS, or if you have a high-speed connection that is part of a network and other people are using the network, you may experience buffering (stoppages). For example, if you are at work and someone else is using the same Internet connection to download large files, this may cut into your Internet capability.
You are using a computer that is more than five years old. Webinar technology is still fairly new and depends on the strength of recently manufactured computers. If your computer is more than five years old, it may not be able to receive all the functions of our webinars properly. For example, text chat and slides may not be displayed.
There is a firewall on your network. Even if you have a new computer and a powerful Internet connection, access to our webinars from your office may be blocked by a firewall. Some organizations use a firewall on their network for security. However, a firewall can sometimes block live media streaming. If this is your situation, you need to speak to your information technology administrator to have the firewall adjusted so that webinars can be viewed.

2) I cannot hear the audio.

Check to make sure you have speakers or headsets properly plugged in with the volume turned up. If you can hear audio from other Web sites or from a CD playing in your computer, then your audio is working properly. If you still cannot hear the webinar audio, your network firewall may be blocking the audio.

3) I cannot see the whole webinar page.

Since there are a number of key parts on the webinar page, such as the video, chat, and slides, your web browser may not fit everything on your screen if the resolution is too low. The lower the resolution, the larger things become. But if they become too large, some text and functionality may not be visible.

To accommodate all of the functions and to minimize or eliminate the need for scrolling, our webinar pages are optimized at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768. Here is how to optimize your view:

Check your screen resolution

Windows XP — On your desktop, right-click your mouse to display "Properties." Select "Properties" and then the "Settings" tab. Then move the screen resolution slider to 1024 x 768, or greater.

Vista — On your desktop, right-click your mouse. Select "Personalize" and next "Display settings." Then move the resolution slider to 1024 x 768, or greater.

Make the text larger

Your web browser will have a setting that lets you increase the size of text if it becomes too small to read at the screen resolution of 1024 x 768. If you are using Internet Explorer, select the page button and choose "Zoom" to increase the text size.

4) Tips for a good webinar experience

Watch in a quiet area — Attending a webinar, while convenient, requires you to be in a quiet area with no disruptions.
Turn off other programs — Depending on the power of your computer, running other programs such as email, during a live webinar, may slow down your computer. This can result in problems such as video buffering (stopping and then restarting) and the slides moving slowly. When viewing the webinar, be sure to close all other programs on your computer.
Turn off your screen saver — If you don't do anything on your computer for a period of time, your screen saver may become activated and make the image disappear. You can easily return to the webinar just by moving your mouse which will disable the screen saver. You can also decide to turn your screen saver off; see your Help Menu to find out how to proceed.
Printing slides — The PDF slides are available before the webinar. You may be able to print out several slides on one page. This is done through your printer settings. Select "Print" and look under either “Properties”, “Advance” or “Preferences” for an option that says "Pages per sheet" , "Page scaling” or “Multiple pages per sheet". Your printer may or may not support this capability.

Still having technical difficulties?