1) I see a spinning circle in the video player and the video doesn't play.

This website uses a Flash Media Server to stream the video content. The videos are being delivered to you via the RTMP protocol over port 1935. If this fails, it will try again over port 80 in an attempt to work around firewall settings. This is called HTTP tunneling. If are experiencing the spinning circle in the video player, try waiting 60-120 seconds before giving up. HTTP tunneling can take up to 2 minutes before a video will start to play.

2) Why do I have to watch videos via Port 80 (HTTP tunneling)?

There are two reasons this could be happening to you.
a) Your Internet Service Provider is blocking you from communicating with port 1935. Check with your Systems Administrator or ISP provider to find out if they have blocked your network from communicating with port 1935.

or

b) The University of Iowa's firewall has blocked you from communicating with port 1935. The University of Iowa has put port blocks in place for certain countries. This was due to a large amount of unnecessary or harmful network traffic being generated from these particular countries. Unfortunately, I do not have a list of countries that are being blocked at this time. If you are being blocked, you will experience a 1-3 minute wait time before the videos will start playing. We're sorry for the inconvience.

3) I am experiencing lag and choppiness while viewing the videos.

This could be caused by a high amount of network traffic going in and out of our media server. Another reason this could occur is due to low bandwidth (slow internet connection). If your computer is connected to the internet via a T1, your internet connection speed will be fast and you shouldn't be experiencing any lag while viewing the videos. If you are using a DSL or cable modem connection, your internet connection will be fairly fast, and you may experience very little lag while viewing the videos. If you are using a dial-up modem, you will most likely experience lag and choppiness while viewing the videos. You can test your connection speed by going to the following web site:

http://www.speedtest.net

Example results of a T1 connection would be a download speed of 24260 kb/s and an upload speed of 12095 kb/s. Speeds will vary depending on network traffic and other similar factors.