Drop-outs

That's 3-4 X faster download time than I am getting currently on my wireless laptop and I do not have any problem, so it does not appear likely your internet connection bandwidth is a problem.

If you get dropouts at similar intervals on all internet stations, then some thing on your PC may be the limiting factor.

Usually it is either due to insufficient memory and/or other programs running that consume memory and/or cpu time.

I have not tried newer versions of Windows but my experience has been 2Gb or less of memory does not cut it for reliable streaming. You generally need at least 4 Gb.

If you right click on your taskbar and launch task manager you can see what programs are running and consuming resources.

These are likely candidates but unfortunately there are many things that can interfere in that the PC is never fully dedicated just to any one program or function.

Mapman:

My problem is that I don't know what programs are necessary and which ones aren't. I have turned off everything at "startup" that I am familiar with, but I don't recognize a lot of what is running in the background.

How does one know which ones can be either turned off at startup, or uninstalled? I’m using a Netbook as a dedicated server for network streaming, so I could care less about anything that is not absolutely necessary for operation...

Thanks,

_Ben

Lindisfarne -- Before doing any of that, though, try doing what I described in this post. Be sure to follow the instructions precisely. Click "save changes" where applicable.

Ben, that may be applicable to you as well, if the netbook is running Windows 7.

Regards,
-- Al