Internet Video Not Working

[rboynton]

My users cannot play videos from different websites, this is regardless of whether the video is Windows Media or Real. The sites are not blocked, but when the page comes up, the place on the page where the video should play is just showing a black box.

I tried one of these links from the Proxy PC, and it works just fine. I went to another machine (behind the proxy) and tried, but I had to install Real Player. As RP is trying to download, a box pops up intermittently saying the internet connection has been interrupted, and download will resume when the connection is restored. In a moment, the box disappears. The RP download never completes. I see the connection attempt on the proxy activity screen.

This seems like a strange mix of symptoms. What could be causing PC's behind the proxy to not allow video, and for this system to not allow downloads? Everything else seems to work normally (email, internet browsing, etc.).

[jasona]

Hi,

Are you using Kaspersky antivirus at all? If so you may want to enable "drip feed" this option is on the plug-ins tab of the WWW Proxy in Gatekeeper.

Services >> WWW Proxy server >> Plugins >> "Drip feed data to client if..."

[rboynton]

Hi Jason,

No, we're not using Kaspersky. Only Puresight.

[logan]

Can you give us an example of a video that doesn't play?

[rboynton]

Sure, here you go...

http://www.christ-chapel.org/main/worship_video.asp

[labull]

Tested these behind WinGate with no problem. Running KAV and PS.

Often, if you see the black screen the video has at least started to load - but I don't know where it's getting hung up.

Could this be a bandwidth issue?

[rboynton]

That is possible. Our network email server is being continually beat up, so I have no doubt that consumes a healthy amount of bandwidth. During the day, the external NIC stats (on GateKeeper) shows the NIC is handling is 1.5mbs, which is the maximum burstable speed of our circuit.

I found another interesting twist while troubleshooting the NickJr link I provided. It seems the video rides on an advertising site. I have lots of advertisers blocked by PureSight (to keep those ads from running and consuming resources). When I looked in the PureSight log, I saw where the NickJr URL was being blocked. I ended up removing those sites from the manual classification list in PS and the problem went away. I guess that is one way for advertisers to ensure their ad shows, huh?!

I'm not finished with this problem, but believe I'm making headway. bandwidth is my next target, so I'll have to connect later in the evenings when no one else is using systems, and the email attacks typically subside for a few hours.

[labull]

Not familiar with NickJr.

Did you ever get WinGate handling your SMTP traffic? I think you were working on that last year.

[rboynton]

You might be thinking of someone else on the SMTP. All I do for SMTP is to forward it to our email server on another box. This has worked flawlessly from the beginning. Biggest issue I've had is with setting permissions using NT Authentication and blocking and/or allowing access to certain sites. Hope the new release comes out soon. Would make my job much easier!

Thanks for your help.

[labull]

Must be someone else. Sorry.

Church IT is special animal - believe me, I know.

[rboynton]

I love serving, both in the commercial world and that of the ministry. I agree, it is special... but I would not trade it!

[labull]

On a side note, have you checked out OpenDNS? It's a great resource for controlling where your users browse to.

Highly recommended.