Computer experts please help

Question

Im having a problem on viewing the spanish lessons here on spanishdict, usually i visit here regularly and im using my computer at my office but the videos and audios are disabled and even the words theselves are restricted, so i cant view them whenever im at work, but when i got home i tried to view it on my laptop but im surprised that i cant watch it either at home, im using firefox 4 and i also have an internet explorer, both have the same problems, it lags alot when im on this website and it shows this error "HTTP ERROR: 504

Gateway Timeout

RequestURI=http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/comment/answer/514673" what do you think is the problem bec

Please remember to use proper capitalization and punctuation in your posts. Thanks! - --Mariana--, Sep 16, 2011

I'm sorry --Mariana--, i am not that good in english too, please correct me if possible. Thank you. - MEALazarte, Sep 17, 2011

Answer 1

"Gateway timeout" or Error 505 means your computer and the computer which hosts SpanishDict are having trouble talking nicely to each other.

Here is a list of possible things you might want to check (check in Firefox first):

(1) Just in case, clear your browser "cache". In FireFox it will tell you how to do this from the Help menu option.

(2) Do you have "http" or "https" at the beginning of your URL address to the SpanishDict site? If https, then get rid of the "s"

(3) In your browser software check your preferences (or default settings) to make sure you have HTTP networking set to HTTP 1.1 and not 1.0

(In Firefox it should be under the "Advanced" section of your preference settings.) Also make sure you have "enable keep alive".

(4) If the above three don't work and you have just installed/enabled some "anti-virus" or other internet protection software, disable it and see if that helps. If it behaves differently, you will have to tweak your protection software to allow "popups", "cookies" and other such things till it begins to play nice with SpanishDict.

(5) Have you changed internet service providers? Sometimes your provider has not configured their internal servers/your router/modem, etc. correctly. Call them up and speak to their tech guy.

(6) Reset your router (your internet provider will tell you how to do this), but basically, you remove power and the cable going to your computer for a couple minutes, and then plug them back in and wait for all the lights to come back on before turning your computer on again.

Although there are other things which can be causing your problems, the most likely is your computer/browser software and SpanishDict's computer disagree on the level and implementation of security protocols.

The steps I gave you above usually solve the conflict. Should you continue to have trouble, or not know how to perform one of the actions, please PM me (send me a "private message") and we'll go from there.

¡Buena suerte!

I'm impressed Terri:) - ianta, Sep 17, 2011

Gee, thanks Ianta. By the way, I'm impressed with your avatar! ;)) - territurtle, Sep 17, 2011

Wow, thank you for taking the time to write all of that. Thanks alot territurtle. - MEALazarte, Sep 17, 2011

Hoped it helped Lazarte? Feel free to ask any time you experience problems. :-) - territurtle, Sep 17, 2011

I think I must change the picture because I used to play chess but not anymore. It's not even one of my favourite games. I should have chosen a minesweeper picture:) - ianta, Sep 17, 2011

minesweeper??? - territurtle, Sep 17, 2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minesweeper_(video_game) - ianta, Sep 18, 2011

Answer 2

Can you open "www.blip.tv"? If you can't, probably your government has banned it. So you cannot watch the videos. Try Google DNS. I solved the same problem with this method.

But if you can open "blip.tv", I don't know. Maybe it is browser problem...

Thank you for the response, yes i can open that website. And by the way, i just noticed that i always have a run time error every time i go to the lessons and then it lags alot - MEALazarte, Sep 16, 2011

Answer 3

You should have mentioned which browser that you use. Not all videos are made in the same format. You must have a player and/or browser that allows you to watch videos in that particular format.

Do you have a Flash Video player (browser plug-in) installed on your computer? (Like Adobe Flash Player 10?) [free to download and use]

Not having a player that supports the format of the video that you are trying to watch is the usual reason that you cannot watch a particular video. (or if you do have one, that it is not your default player and you have not set up specific programs to open specific file types).

What player/browser is trying to play the video lessons? Quicktime players seem to have a problem viewing Flash videos without a Flash Video Plug-in. Some browsers need Plug-in's before you can watch videos in certain format. Firefox for example uses a Shockwave Flash plug-in to allow you to see certain games, etc.

The other problem could be the ability of your browser to run javascripts, but that is not very probable as most of the newer, major browsers support JavaScript and have it enabled, but for security reasons it may have been disabled (like at your work).

My recommendation would be to download Adobe Falsh Player and see if that solves your problem. If not, try a different browser. If that doesn't help, try downloading one of the lessons from iTunes (not Flash video format) or another site and see if you can watch it. Some of the lessons are on YouTube. See if you can watch those. If you use RealPlayer download the lesson from BlipTV which downloads them directly into the RealPlayer library.

If you can see the lesson when they are in a different format than they are on this site, then the problem is that you need to install a Flash video player.

I have a firefox 4 and internet explorer both have problems qfreed. - MEALazarte, Sep 16, 2011