copmom
offlineMember
Good morning.. got an email saying there's a program on GOTD called Internet Radio Fan:
Internet RadioFan allows you to listen the radio and watch TV broadcasts online.
Posted: 19 Jan 2009 02:00 AM CST
When I click on it this is what I get: Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.
Any ideas? Where is it?
Sarahbeth
offlineMember
This is from the Project Team's Blog.
January 19, 2009Problems with Internet RadioFan
Hello everybody!
Today’s giveaway (19/01/2009) will be halted because the developer has some major problems - server is down and because of that most of you cannot get Internet RadioFan properly registered.
We are sorry for this inconvenience and hope that as soon as all the server problems will be solved, ZazSoft would offer Internet RadioFan as a giveaway for our users once again.
Regards,
GAOTD
http://blog.giveawayoftheday.com/
Sarahbeth
Buzz
offlineMember
Their site is up and running perfect right now, 8:30am PST!!
http://www.zazsoft.com/
To bad I didn't check earlier and get to d/l it...
PS: Sorry, just tried again and it ain't workin again, oh well.
I'm thinkin maybe they just wanted a lot of free advertising.
R2D2
offlineMember
I downloaded the program. It installed ok. It activated ok. But it doesn't work. Although I am online, I get an error that says that I need to be online to use it.
Evidently, the server is sitting in someone's garage & won't be fixed untill the owner returns from their day job at Walmart.
linkchaser
offlineMember
I downloaded it. It installed ok on WinXP sp3. Has never in the past 20 attempts registered. Just a 'database error or check your internet connection' message. The attempt to download the database of stations also met with check your internet connection. I have sent an email to the support people. If I get any answer at all I will be surprised. I think R2D2 is right. Can't say it is a simple fix if the server is still down...I got the program installed this morning a 4 am Eastern time and it is now 8 hours later.
IF...and I say that with tongue in check, IF they get the server back up before the 24 hours is up will the registration provided be worth anything or am I wasting my time and harddrive space for this - up to this point - useless piece of software?
How do I get an error message sent to them...."check YOUR internet connection!!!"
RosnSC
offlineMember
Do y'all reckon there is any difference in this program and any of the other web sites you can go to and listen to online? Those can be minimized to the task bar, as well. As for watching TV online, there are a lot of places you can do that, already, and without having to install 'things' on your computer. I'm not asking all this in the usual spirit of criticism, but just pondering on it.
Sue
Internet Explorer has a link already in your favorites called Radio Station Guide that will help you find radio stations and play them on Media Player. I have used it in the past. I have never used the software that was offered so I am not criticizing either, just offering an alternative in the mean time.
For those who don't use IE here is the link:
http://www.windowsmedia.com/Mediaguide/Radio
One could also do a goggle search for radio stations.
Just thinking outloud... HOSS
BuBBy
offlineAdministrator
The program was working and installed just fine for me last night. It was slow to start - but that was obviously because each time you run it - it connects to their database to load a copy of the stations once again.
Now they have turned their server off - my copy is also crippled - and will not work because it is trying to load a list of stations (and there is nothing at the other end to provide that list).
Under no circumstances would I ever consider purchasing this software that is entirely dependent on some startup company having their database working. Downloading or updating should be entirely optional and lists of channels should be cached and updatable by the user with no requirement of calling home for any reason whatsoever.
I suggest (and use) either Screamer Radio - http://www.screamer-radio.com/
or Winamp - http://www.winamp.com/ playing back either Shoutcast Radio or Shoutcast TV.
Furthermore - the user interface for Winamp is much more informative - showing not only available stations - but at a glance you can see what tracks the other stations are playing at any time - and Winamp supports dozens of additional plugins and visualisation extension.
Both Winamp and Screamer-Radio are entirely free (winamp does have a CD-Burner Pro version that is available for a fee - but it is not required to listen to radio or watch TV via Shoutcast).
Grumpy1
offlineMember
Thanks for info BuBBy. I will have to try Screamer-Radio. I managed to dl and install internet radio last night but was not impressed by the quality of the TV images that i did get. The radio portion worked ok. Program ran slow but might have been their server problem.
linkchaser
offlineMember
BuBBy, thanks for the info. You are right. What good is it where it always has to check for updates before it can be used at all. I'm going to delete the copy I downloaded...the server is still down anyway. When it is offered again, I will download it ONLY if it keeps the previous database and lets one check for updates when I feel like it - not as a prerequisite to it working at all.
You provided the best info. At least you were one of the few who even got it to run - short lived as that was. Thank you BuBBY.
dmb3777
offlineMember
Hi Everyone:
The download link for Internet RadioFan is:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/download/?id=4640
The direct download link for the above link is:
http://files.giveawayoftheday.com/IntRadioFan.zip
Just copy and paste either of them into your browser address bar and you should be able to download the zip file for Internet RadioFan.
After extracting the contents of the zip folder into a regular folder, I tried running "Setup.exe" about 30 minutes ago (about 10 pm), but I got a message stating something to the effect that the Giveaway period for the software has ended.
However, about 10 minutes ago (about 10:20 pm), I just got done clicking on Setup.exe again and this time it went through and a small "Select Setup Language" appeared, and after clicking OK on that, the Internet RadioFan Setup Wizard window appeared.
In the readme file (that comes along with the package), there is a Registration key used to register the software after it is installed. I've heard that there has been some problems with registering it, so whether or not it registers after entering the key, I would not know. The implication is that it worked for some and did not work for others.
dmb3777
offlineMember
I installed the software and after entering the registration key, the message "a database connection error has occurred!" shows up. I get the same message after I click on "Load/Refresh Station List". It seems that the developer did not get their server working yet.
Well, the thing is installed and ready to connect whenever the server gets back up.
No1
offlineMember
No matter what issue they have with registration, the way this was handled, with no post to replace the giveaway, all the comments with alternatives wiped, is just not good enough.
If you can't make it work, by all means remove the giveaway, but leave the damn comments!
Chip
offlineEnglish Mod
Well their site (http://www.zazsoft.com) is up and running as of 7:00 A.M EST. However, I still receive database error on the program itself. So if the stream database and website were on the same server they should BOTH be working right? I wonder why it's not...
BuBBy
offlineAdministrator
I don't think it is a matter that they didn't want users to try their software - In my opinion the problem is they just aren't able to handle a large number of users running their software.
It started when it took multiple attempts to activate their software They call back to their own server to verify the serial number - so many users had to try 2, 3 or more times to actually get through.
Then each time you start the program - the program again calls home to get a list of all the stations. Both I believe are a major flaw in the design of their program. The list of stations should be available as a download list (XML perhaps?) that can be hosted anywhere. Retrieving an updated list should only happen maybe once per day at most - or when requested by the user.
Their software probably runs just fine with 100 or 200 users - but having 1000 or 2000 new users per hour - doesn't appear to be something they were able to handle.
The dependence on their servers to play radio stations hosted elsewhere is a flaw that I think makes the software much less viable than other programs (screamer or winamp) that are able to function when supporting many more users.
At the end of the day, the result is the same - you are listening to the same stations that are broadcasting at the same quality. It is only due to ignorance in alternative free solutions, that I think a user would actually pay for RadioFan. It offers far less than the free alternatives - and performs (significantly) less reliably.
BuBBy
offlineAdministrator
@Buzz-
Kinda wanted to see what the TV part on it looked like though.
Install WinAmp and (under 'Online Services') in addition to Shoutcast Radio, try out Shoutcast TV.
BuBBy
offlineAdministrator
Sure. You have the standard "disk writer" output plugin, or there are several other output plugins featured at http://www.winamp.com/plugins/browse/7 that should do the job.
Going from 2.61 to 5.4x is quite a step up (I have a copy of 1.91 archived off just for nostalgia sake but I've not looked at it in several years).
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