Self-paced courses - Help & Frequently Asked Questions
Help / Frequently Asked Questions
[1] The video stops & starts repeatedly instead of playing smoothly
[2] The video stops partway through, always in the same place, and refuses to continue playing
[3] I'm using an iPad, iPhone or Android phone or tablet, and the videos will not play
[4] I cannot open the downloaded files
[5] I can't figure out how to download the videos
[6] The software changes my answers on the quizzes!
See also the general Help document for this site, at
http://whncourses.com/mod/page/view.php?id=4
If your question is not addressed in either of these places,
please contact WHNcourses support staff, at:
whncourses@whnow.com
[1] The video stops & starts repeatedly instead of playing smoothly
This can result from
- a slow internet connection,
- other computers sharing your intent connection,
- or other running processes demanding resources on your computer
Solutions:
- If you have a teenaged son gaming in the basement, get him a good book (right!)
- Check the speed (bandwidth) of your internet connection, at
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ (it does not matter which city
you select for your test). Note that actual download bandwidths are not
always the "up-to" speeds promised by internet service providers.
Our videos should stream smoothly at a download bandwidth of 1 Mbps or better.
- If you cannot improve your internet bandwidth, do this:
Start the video playing, then Pause it, and go make tea, which will let the video
"buffer" in the background.
When you return, the video should stream smoothly.
If it does not, Pause it again, and go make scones to go with your tea.
If it is still starting & stopping to buffer after the scones, Pause it again,
and make some biscotti.
This is most commonly an issue with the "pseudostreaming" video links, which are intended for mobile devices. If this is occurring with the .rtmp true streaming links, it is more difficult to resolve, short of improving your internet connection. In that case, use the Pseudostreaming video links, with the tea/scones solution above.
[2] The video stops partway through, always in the same place, and refuses to continue playing
This occurs with the Pseudostreaming version of the video, when there is insufficient continuous free space on your device to fully buffer the video. It should not occur with the .rtmp true streaming version of the video, so if you are using a device which is capable of streaming .rtmp video (any standard computer or laptop), use the .rtmp link instead.
You'll need to clear up some free space (~500 MB in all) on your device, to provide sufficient space for our rather large videos to buffer - this may require removing removing unused apps or archiving files that you no longer or seldom use.
If you are using a Windows computer, and wish to use the Pseudostreaming links rather than the .rtmp links for some reason, you may run into this problem even tho it appears that you have sufficient free space on your hard drive. This free space, on a Windows system, can be fragmented into a number of smaller chunks of free memory, none large enough to buffer the video. In this case, you'll need to defragment your hard drive. To do this, (1) First, remove unnecessary programs and files, or archive seldom-used files on an external hard drive, so that your hard drive is no more than 2/3 full; (2) Run the built-in Windows Defragmentation application (find this in the Applications/Utilities folder). The first time you run this, it might need to run overnight, or even for a couple of days, if the disk was particularly full and badly fragmented; (3) Keep your hard drive now never more than 2/3 full, and (4) Run the Defragmentation application every week or two (these runs will now only take a few minutes). These last two points are "good practice" for any Windows system, and you'll see much improved performance of your system in many respects if you follow them.
[3] I'm using an iPad, and the videos will not play
Be sure to use the 2nd link provided for the video, labeled "Pseudostreaming - for mobile devices". iPads do not yet support .rtmp streaming video, and need instead to use our .html pseudostreaming link.
See also FAQs 1 & 2, above
[4] I cannot open the downloaded files
First - Be sure to download our files with only a simple single click on the link.
Don't use a right-click (control-click) "save as" command - this will not work on our files, as this will only result in a blank .php file, and not the actual document you wish to download.
Make sure your .pdf reader is up to date.
We recommend using
- for Mac, the built-in Preview application
- for Windows, Foxit Reader http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/
(we think you'll like this much better than the default Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Many of our files - especially our Handouts - are rather large, and occasionally may be broken in the download process, especially on a slow internet connection or one that winks off & on during the download process. If you've received a broken .pdf file, try completely deleting it (this is important), and then downloading again.
If you're using an iPad to work with our site, it might be a great idea to drop in to the local Apple store and get a crash course on downloading, organizing and working with downloaded files on an iPad, as file management is rather different than on a regular computer.
[5] I can't figure out how to download the videos
We don't intend the videos to be downloadable; these are versions optimized for streaming on the 'web, and you may return to this site any time during your enrolment period to review them.
We do offer a combined DVD/CD set with high-definition versions of the videos, as well as audio-only .mp3 files for listening on-the-go; bundled with all of the handouts, cases, and readings of this course. These are available at a special discount to participants in this class, from a link at the bottom of the course page.
[6] The software changes my answers on the quizzes!
You are most likely using the down-arrow key to move from question to question. In some (not all) browsers, the answer you selected retains focus for the arrow keys, so rather than moving down to the next question, the arrow key first moves your response to the next choice in the list. Don't use the arrow keys to move down to the next question - instead, use the scroll bar to progress through the quiz.
- user your browser's BACK button to return to your previous page -