Return to Audio Surfboard Master List of Links

Audio Surfboard Setup: Help!

Welcome to the Christ.com audio surfboard! We have collected some of the most popular internet audio/video links into one location to help you surf for the Word of God!



Requirements for Operation

To use the audio surfboard, your browser must support streaming audio or video. In most cases, this means you will need to use either the Microsoft Media Player (which comes with Windows) or the Real Audio Player, which is a "plugin" for your browser. If you do not already have the Real Audio player, you may download it from the link below. Real.com offers a free version, and a premium version with a 14 day free trial (the free version is good enough, so look for a link to the totally free version on the Real.com link below). Once you have downloaded the player, following the installation instructions to have it installed on your current browser:

Download the FREE RealAudio Player

Other Requirements

Java Script:
In addition to having a streaming audio/video player, your browser must support Java Script, and have it enabled. Java Script is a computer language that runs small programs directly from your browser. Consult your browser documentation for instructions on enabling Java Script.

Frames:
To use the Christ.com Audio Surfboard, your browser must also support frames. Frames allows your browser to divide a window into multiple sections.

Proxie Servers/Firewalls: Using the Surfboard at Work
It is very common for large companies and institutions to establish security procedures to protect the company's computers against attack (snooping from outsiders, hacking, trying to break into private records, etc.). Large companies will usually have the PC's inside the company connect to the internet through a "firewall" or "proxie server". Unfortunately, this usually prevents the employees from using real audio/video. There is no way to get around this security protection - you will need to listen at home, or outside the firewall to hear a real audio broadcast!

Requirements for "Customized" Lists of Favorite Programs:

Cookies Required for Custom Lists:
The Christ.com Audio Surfboard allows you to build your own list of favorite shows in the top frame of the browser window. The first time you access the Surfboard, you will get a list of popular shows in the upper frame. This list includes a wide variety of popular shows - more than most people will ever have time to listen to! The lower frame includes a list of ALL audio/video links, along with a short description of most programs that are in the list.

You can customize the upper frame of the Surfboard by clicking on the link that says "Make your own list of favorite shows". This link will take you to a page designed to help you custom design your own list of audio/video links for the upper frame!

Once you have selected a list of favorite shows, your personal list will be stored on your hard drive (usually the C: drive) as a cookie. Your browser must be able to support cookies if you want a customized list of favorite shows. Most browsers support this, although some browsers like the basic WebTV browser do not. Consult your browser documention for further information on cookies, and make sure that you have cookies enabled on your browser.

How to Use the Christ.com Audio Surfboard

Using the surfboard is very straightforward! The Surfboard is divided into two "Frames", an upper frame and a lower frame. The first time you access the Surfboard you will get a list of popular shows in the upper frame. This list includes a wide variety of popular shows. The lower frame includes a list of ALL audio/video links, along with a short description of most programs that are in the list. In the Lower Frame, we have links listed in two different formats. The first list is a selection list-box, with links organized by program name. The second list is also a list-box, and lists the shows by author. On a separate page we provide a list that is organized alphabetically by the name of the show. Each summary lists the show name, author or program host, approximate length of the show in minutes, a link to the shows website (if it has a website), and a short text description of the program.

To listen to a show, you can either click on the link in one of the list-boxes and click the "Go To Link" button, or click on the show name in the show summary section. Once you do this, a small window will open in front of the Surfboard. Look for a small button that says "Play" or something similar to listen to the broadcast!

In some cases, you may have other windows on top of the small window that has the audio/video information. This is occasionally a problem for new users of the internet - getting lost in a maze of windows. To find ANY window, use the following "trick" to find your window (actually it is a standard windows procedure found in the windows documentation - but then most people do not read the documentation!):



Finding Lost Windows with Windows 95, 98, 2000, and XP:
To look for a particular window, hold down the "Alt" button on your keyboard. While the Alt button is held down press the "Tab" button once (quickly), and release the tab button (while the Alt button is still held down). A small gray window will pop up in the middle of your screen, with two or more small icons. Each time you press the tab button while the Alt button is held down, a small rectangle will move from one icon to the next, surrounding the icon. Each icon represents a window. If you release the Alt key, the window that has the icon surrounded by the rectangle will move to the foreground. Try it! This is one of the easiest ways to find a window when you have multiple windows open.




Cookies: Additional Information

Cookies expire and go stale! If you are using the customized version of the surfboard, your customized list of links is stored in a cookie on your PC's hard drive. A PC will store up to 300 cookies maximum, for all sites visited by that PC. A given domain, like www.Christ.com, can store up to 20 cookies on your PC, and each cookie can be up to 4 kilobytes in length. If another site comes along and tries to store a cookie after 300 have been stored, the new site will store its cookie, and it will delete the least recently used cookie. Suppose you store your audio list from Christ.com as a cookie, and then visit 300 other sites that store cookies before returning to the Christ.com audio browser. When you return to the audio browser, your custom list of audio sites will be gone! Since not all sites use cookies, you might actually have to visit 1000 web sites to find the 300 that use cookies (for example)... of course, if 15 web sites store 20 cookies each, then that will also fill the 300 cookie quota!

If you have a regular selection of shows you listen to, and return to the audio surfboard on a regular basis, this will not be a problem. For example, if you listen to a particular show once a week, and don't visit hundreds of other sites between shows, you can be reasonably confident that your custom audio list will be intact the next time you return to www.Christ.com. However, if you set up a custom list once, and then don't return to the surfboard for six months, you can bet that your cookies have gone stale - and your list has disappeared!

So there you have it --- if you are a frequent listener, then feel free to create your own custom list of audio links. It is a great way to keep in touch with your favorite audio ministries. You can modify your current favorites list at any time. If you are not a frequent listener, and visit hundreds of sites between visits to www.Christ.com, then it is likely that the custom list will expire between visits.

Sound Quality:

Note that slow connections will cause problems with the sound/video quality of a broadcast. For example, during "rush hour", around lunchtime or early evening, when most people surf the net, you may experience a slowdown. When this happens, several things may occur. During slowdowns, the Real Audio player may pause, while it downloads more of the program. In some cases, you may actually lose the connection to the broadcast, and have to hit the "Play" button on the Real Audio Player again. Another problem during internet slowdowns is that you hear a crackling sound, or the audio starts repeating itself. This occurs when the Player is losing pieces of the broadcast, and it automatically tries to recover the broadcast by backing up a little bit in the broadcast.

Another problem with sound quality occurs when you are trying to download another site as a standard webpage at the same time you are listening to a Real Audio broadcast. When this happens, the line between your PC and your ISP (internet service provider) gets overloaded, and you may hear crackling, audio repeats, or pauses in the broadcast. The best sound quality will occur when you are only listening to a broadcast (without downloading other pages), and during "non-rush-hour" times.

Have We Missed a Show???

We have tried to make the majority of popular audio/video internet shows available through the Christ.com Audio Surfboard - but we may have missed a few. If you know of a Christian audio/video show on the internet, let us know about it! Send us the URL (internet address) of the show and we will consider adding it to our list. The only requirement is that it be part of mainstream Christianity (no links to mormon sites or jehovah's witness sites). To send us your suggestions, click on the link below after making sure that the show is not already in our list of shows:

Send Audio/Video Suggestions to Job

Return to Audio Surfboard Master List of Links