There are two common problems that Jazz on the Tube subscribers report to us:

1. “My email has stopped coming”

2. “The videos no longer play sound (or have some other weird problem”)

First, please be assured of two things:

1. We never unsubscribe anyone unless they ask us to

2. We never “turn off” anyone’s sound or block their videos.

So what’s going on?

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Email problems

Some Internet service providers (ISPs) assume the “right” to block you from receiving mail from any source any time they feel like it.

Because JazzontheTube is a subscription service, some ISPs think that it’s OK to block our mail as suspected spam. I know: This is crazy because you subscribed and want to receive the emails. They don’t care.

Major offenders include Earthlink, AOL, Yahoo and Comcast, but they all do it from time to time.

If you’re not getting your emails, it’s because your ISP blocked delivery (or had a service outage) and failed to deliver our mail so many times that you were automatically unsubscribed by our email service provider. (Three failed deliveries and our service provider assumes your address is no longer working.)

The email solution

Try subscribing again

If that doesn’t work, trying subscribing using a different ISP.

You might also check your junk mail folder and/or make sure that you indicate to the email software on your computer that you want to receive our mail. There are so many email programs, I’m afraid we can’t describe the process for every one and you’ll have to figure it out locally.

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Audio and other playback problems

This is a local problem so first try another browser. If that doesn’t work, try a different computer. If that doesn’t work, try a different computer in a different location (at your public library for example.)

This won’t necessarily solve your problem, but it will help establish whether the problem is browser-based, computer-based, or location-based.

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We know that none of these solutions are great…

If it’s any consolation, I am routinely blocked for periods of time lasting from ten minutes to three days from accessing Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and/or sometimes even my own server by a technical problem with an external router owned by my ISP (that would be Time-Warner.) They deny the problem and refuse to do anything about it.

The fact is that the Internet works, sort of, but it does not work all the time, and the people in the business of providing services generally don’t care about your individual problems. If a block or section of town loses its Internet connection, they will do something. Otherwise, they don’t have a clue and aren’t likely to get one.

I wish I had better news, but this is how things work. Sometimes I miss the old dial tone…

– Ken McCarthy