Karaoke Forums

First off I want to thank ALLLLL for the help in getting me-self hooked up with a laptop.....We did it last night and OMG....unbelieveable....super duper the best thing I think I have EVER done with my life........luv luv luv the laptop!!!  The only question I have now is with the program Compuhost.....I noticed it skipped on a couple of songs.....not karaoke, just the music that I play in between.  And this is music I had ripped to my computer off my regular cd's.  Not sure why it only did it to a couple of songs....but enough for me to notice.  And when it did "hiccup" it would at least only do it once during a song.  Hmmmm....wondering if having the internet on the whole time had anything to do with it, or well...I just dunno.....any one else had this prob???

Happy Laptop user, Tray-ZZZZ...!!

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YES it had EVERYTHING to do with it.

Resources are based on what you're using at the time. Windows Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Mozilla, whatever form of internet access you're using take up LOTS of processing power and memory.

If you want to use the net, you should probably use a 2nd pc, and use one dedicated only machine to playing karaoke, music, etc.

Once again...
Rule #1 of using a laptop for your kraoke business....
USE IT ONLY FOR KARAOKE!!!!!
Don't let the kids play games on it!
Don't use it to balance your checkbook!
And of course DON'T let it have internet access!!! Just think, in the middle of a show and a virus /worm/trojen/spyware take over????

Shouldn't be the problem -- depending on what you mean by "had the internet on". The usual
suspects for causing skips is running out of memory and causing paging. There are any number
of things that can cause that.

I think having the internet on is fine if you are using it to download user requests for songs
you don't have, i.e. buy they from tricerasoft.com or such. If you aren't using it for that,
I wouldn't stay connected. It can cause trouble.

I wouldn't worry about viruses -- you will be at very,very small risk for a virus or spyware
if you are up to date, behind a wireless router, and you don't use Internet Explorer to browse
random web sites. I would avoid the internet because it can take resources and cause glitches
in the music.

But there are some things I would make sure of:

  1) Don't just browse the internet while you are doing a show. You
     never know what Javascript or Flash thing will consume memory and
     cause problems.

  2) Don't use Internet Explorer. It's security record is so poor it
     is incredible. Use Firefox instead. And just keep one window
     open ready to download the song you need for your singer. Don't
     close and open it while music is playing -- it is OK to
     download something, but don't open up a new window. New windows
     take memory.

  3) Get rid of all that junkware on the computer, the stuff that loads
     into the icon tray. There are always things like Quicktime, Nero,
     Anti-virus "control panels", and other things that try and stay
     there and stay active. They just consume memory, and you will find
     that in almost all cases they are not necessary while you are
     running your show.

  4) If you have Vista, it takes a lot more memory that XP. Most laptop
     makers are offering XP restore/backgrade disks -- if problems
     continue consider canning Vista and going to XP. It will make your
     memory go farther.

  5) Double-check that the songs were actually ripped correctly -- I
     have had glitches from time to time myself -- all it takes is a
     little CD defect.

Thank you for the replies!!  I only have the internet to use when downloading song/karaoke requests.  And I use Tricerasoft to download karaoke requests for songs I don't have!  I will try turning off the internet during the show and only turn it on when needed and see if that helps!  Again thank you sooo much for all of your help, it is greatly appreciated!!!!

Thanks and take care,

Tray-Z

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I still think it is INSANE to put you $$$$ maker on the net, you NEVER know what program will/can be vurnable to an attack.  The only TRUE protection is to NOT be on the internet.  Sure the odds may be low, but ya just never know.

Instead of downloading the song from tricesoft when the customer ask, tell em you will have it on your next gig there, and download it on the home PC.  And then you have a return singer for the next gig.

Again, IMHO, NEVER NEVER put your gig computer on the WWW

Very good advice for an average KJ. But if you know what you are doing and know how to minimize the risk, then yes, a net connection can be an advantage.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

man, I'd rather have the discs - just to have the backups and prove you're legit!

If I WERE to do it with downloads, I'd rather have a 2nd pc doing that, and leave the show pc totally net free.

Yes, you said it, MINIMIZE the risk, you can never be 100% safe when connected to the net.  How many security updates have there been for Windows/IE????  HMMMMM????

I would say the AVERAGE KJ would be the one that puts his hosting machine on the net to get downloads on the fly.  If you can get the song at at home and have it ready for the next show, you could get a return customer, and that is an ABOVE AVERAGE KJ since you made the venue/bar MORE $$$$.

Oh yeah, one other thing.  What if you get a bum download, and the song messes up 1/2 way through cause a ONE and a ZERO got switched around.  I would prefer to verify first that the download was good before playing it at a show and making a fool of myself because a song messes up.

Oh one more/last thing....What if your internet connection drops off, and you can't get that song you siad you would have in 15 minutes?

In this day and age, I find all of these objections weak.

I have downloaded scores of songs from tricerasoft.com, and not a one of them was bad . Not one. Not to say it couldn't happen, but I think it is pretty remote.

Internet connections can drop, but don't often any more. It is uncommon if you are using broadband, to say the least. And it doesn't make any sense to use dialup for this purpose.

With regard to security, if you are going to a known site and doing non-experimental things, behind a wireless broadband router, your chance of infection is very, very, small. In fact, CD players screw up a heck of a lot more often.

I don't think the sky is falling. The internet is safe when you don't do unsafe things. I have been using several internet-connected machines without a single spyware or virus infection in several years. The reason? I don't visit random dodgy sites, I am behind a router, and I don't use Internet Explorer.  Very simple.

unfortunately, MANY people aren't as safe as you.

Then they get popups, have unsafe machines to begin with (because they go to the local Mart to buy their pc and have NO clue what they're doing with them), and then blame the computer, the software, or the net for their problems!

IMHO, if you're only d/ling songs from a known site, you shouldn't have too much of a problem, however, besides all the other reasons that have just been listed, what if you happen to be surfing the web and you happen to open a site that has some type of sound that automatically starts playing.  It's coming through your computer just like all the music/karaoke files that you're playing and is going to blast over your PA possibly while someone's singing.  That would be terrible huh?

Never had this happen at a show, but while I was playing a file at home to make sure it wasn't a bad file, I was surfing the net and had that happen.  So while I'm working, I just don't connect to the net at all... that's besides the fact that the venue doesn't have any internet access.

try increasing Ram, says singingsam

Totally agree with you on this one. Case in point: I recently bought Chicago's "the only one" for personal use and it had gliches in it. Glad I wasn't doing that at a show.
That said, it was the only song I got from tricerasoft.com that had glitches.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

RAM isn't the problem, unless you have under a GiG. I have TWO Gigs, and still wouldn't want to surf the net while I was playing stuff.

PROCESSING Power is my guestimate on what makes it skip like that.

I would NEVER rely on untried downloads from a legit source or not. That's why I buy discs. I rip at home, try out the songs (those I can stomach, by the way), and then put them on the show computer.

For those that think that just by going to known, GOOD sites will keep you safe, uh uhhhh! There are vulnerabilities in microsoft operating systems (that get patched all the time)... I wouldn't CHANCE it by running a system without a virus protection, and that takes processing power...

Again, IF I were to do a net based show, I'd have a seperate system running the karaoke, and surf on a good laptop. yes, you heard that right. A LAPTOP! !

Yeaaa...it truly was the internet connection at the time....I was using the bar's internet wireless service the first time I brought out the laptop before I had my own wireless and it was cause some of the workers at the bar were using the internet while I was hooked up to it.....and since I have had my own wireless connection....NOOOOO problems!!!  Now I just gotta work on getting rid of the computer/digital sound coming from my speakers!!!!!

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Sorry again, you are STILL wrong.  You can have all the virus/spyware protection in the world and you are still verunable to attacks.

You don't have to download anything to be attacked, there are sooooo many holes in Windozes, it is insane.  Check how many security updates there are for just XP, let alone IE and all the other proggs out there.


OK, now I will try to quit beating this dead horse

I am not Windows fan-boy -- I use Linux. But you are wrong, and you are just spreading old FUD. There has not been a common worm that reaches behind a wireless router for almost 4 years. Lots and lots of vulnerabilities that require action by the user, but not worms.

No one is ever 100% guaranteed of anything. But in general, you are pretty safe if you just do what I said. You cannot cite any instances in the press, can you? Yup, there is a reason for that. There aren't any. All recent compromises have required some action by the user, at least to the point of visiting a compromised web site.

We can all get struck by lightning. And you may be right for people who are stupid enough to be superstitious about computers -- when you know that little you probably can't set up your system properly anyway.

dude, I got attacked at home just the other day. Suddenly my wireless router said there was two of me on the system. A quick network check found someone or something that was hacking my router, trying to get in. I can only guess where, but I guess it was in my neighborhood.

I'm glad you're a genius with Unix... but the most of the rest of us schmoes have to do with what we can BUY out there to accomplish what we need. Just because you are doing it doesn't mean I can or someone else can, and I am cracking up reading why you continually think there are no vulnerabilites out there!

And the people that get into your systems get into them by checking for windows vulnerabilities. Why do you think they continue to update XP? Because every time an update happens, it's patching a previously unknown vulnerability that someone somewhere exploited.

So no, in a show, I will NEVER go with an online pc, at least not one that's hooked up to my sound equipment.

The point is, that if you *ever* have the system hooked up to the net and do anything with it, you are just as much as risk when you are disconnected as when you are connected. Most people get infected and don't even know it.

So if you ever hook up to the Internet with the system, you likely have as much chance of having a problem as if you are hooked up right then and there.

Run scared if you want. But I am here to tell people the sky is *not* falling. I won't say any more than this. You all can chime in once more and say the sky is falling.