The TQS support team ROCKS!!!

Thank you, Lotti, for replying. Good to know that it wasn't only me having problems although I am sorry to hear that others couldn't access the site either. Let's just be grateful it all works now although I think I will revert to the other version of Firefox I have on my desktop. It does seem like Firefox 5 is having more problems than is good for my stress levels. From what you say it certainly sounds like Mozilla has a lot of work to do before it is up and running as smooth as Firefox 3. I will give Chrome a try at the week-end and see how I find that. A lot of people are very happy with it but up to now I have been very happy with Firefox so never really looked into it. Thanks again for getting in touch
Marianne

Thank you, Bob. I will tinker with the modem setup but from from Lotti says it must have been a problem here in Europe this morning. It is always nice to know that you are not alone even though I wouldn't wish it on anyone not to be able to wake up with the TQS blog in full working order!
Firefox 5 seems to have a mind of its own.
Marianne

hello marianne
i couldn't get onto tqs at all early this morning (between 5:30 am and 7:30 am central european time), other websites worked fine.
all back to normal now.
i use google chrome - find it works best - and another plus with chrome is - that it automatically synchronizes on all my pc's (laptop home / pc home / laptop office / pc office) that way i never have any problems with finding favourites / passwords / whatnot from one place to another - with my job i travel frequently and depending on where/how long i might not take the office laptop with me - but still have all the websites i need (tqs for myself - and all the various exhibition stuff for work).
we've been having a lot of problems with the latest version of firefox at work - need it to work on our website - and can't watch any of our own videos on it - wierd. they work on ie, but i find it's much slower than chrome )

Marianne,

It sounds to me like either your ISP or your internet connection at home is either having problems or just being slower than normal for you. If it does not clear up, first thing I would look at would be your wireless connection. If you do not have a strong signal, it will greatly slow down your speed.

Bob Bigelow - The Web Guy

I had no idea that the checker board had anything to do with speed. I will try that out. I have used the buffer method in the past but didn't think of it today because the video never loaded. Thanks for bringing that up to the forefront of my mind again!
Enjoy your day!

Two more ideas. First in the lower right of the player is a checkerboard looking icon. This allows you to set it for fast-med-slow running. I don't know how well it works. Let me know if it helps. But more important is that you can start the video and then pause it. Then the video will buffer in. Something as short as Alex's classes should completely buffer in. So by waiting a minute or so you can see the whole video without pauses. (After you stop the player it does take a few moments to get back to a fully clear picture.)

Thank you for your reply, John. Maybe it was just a fluke last night/this morning my local time. I did notice when I finally got IE 8 to show the video that there isn't an option for faster/slower speed on the classroom video. I usually have the shows set for slow internet connection - I rarely get above 4.0Mbps. As soon as I saw there was a problem I made a speed test and that was as usual. I have just tried Firefox 3.18 again and the class video shows up there now but still not in Firefox 5. As I said to Margo I am pleased I have more than 1 option for watching and I hope I am the only one who has had problems last night and today.
Thanks again for taking time to help out

I wrote to our webmaster Bob to see if we are running anything to slow down the site. Alex's classes are in our usual player system so there is nothing different about them. Thank you for the heads up.

Update: I am now able to watch the video in Internet Explorer 8 but still not in Firefox. Can you tell how impatient I was to watch this I will now use Internet Explorer to visit TQS in future to avoid being disappointed. Why it did not work this morning I have no idea. I am not a fan of IE but sometimes it pays to have several option for the same thing.
Thank you again, Margo, for replying to my posting

Thank you, Margo! I did think at first it might be a Firefox problem but seeing that exactly the same happens when I try with Internet Explorer I think it might be something else. We have different versions of Firefox as I mentioned in my post on different computers with different OS and they are all the same. Same goes for Internet Explorer 8. Sadly we have not Chrome on any of our computers so I cannot try that out. I must just be patient and leave it for a while and hope that some day it will work for me. Technology is such a great thing when it works; very annoying when it doesn't
Marianne

Marianne, John is out of town today. Please try again and post here if it is still slow for you. I'm using Google Chrome (in the US) and am not having any trouble with any of the videos so I'm thinking that it may be your browser.

I don't know if this is the right place to ask but I have tried to get to watch the "Summer School is in Session - Handquilting with Alex - Lesson 1" since yesterday and all I get is a black screen after the web site has times out several times. I am logged in and although I don't have the fastest internet connection in the world I have hardly ever had problems with TQS before. It seems like the whole site is so slow it is like wading through treacle. I don't know if it has something to do with the time of day I log in (8am Central European Time) or you are doing some maintenance at the moment. I had problems getting to watch the Sharon Peterson market report 22 too. I use Firefox 5 but have tried IE8 too and Firefox 3.18 and it isn't any different there; the site times out or loads with basic html Anybody out there who could point me in a direction so I can get to watch my daily quilt-fix?
TIA
Marianne

John...thank you! I just ask for something and it happens? Can I live here in TQS land all the time?

Barbara