[SOLVED] Some of my internet radio stations aren't playing on my computer
EDIT: The problem has been solved. @Sill identified the problem here and @cfabbro found a work-around here. Crisis averted!
I listen to some internet radio stations on my computer, but a couple of them aren't working any more: they appear to play, but there's no sound coming from my computer's speakers.
It is only two stations. I've tested other internet radio stations I listen to, and they still work: I can hear them. I can play and hear YouTube videos. I can stream Spotify on my computer. I can play and hear my music files stored on my computer's hard drive. So I know my speakers work. I know Chrome works as a music player for other sources, including other internet radio stations. It's just these two radio stations.
One of them is this radio station. Also this radio station. I know their digital streams are working, because I can listen to them via an internet radio app on my phone. So I know their digital signals are being sent out. But, while my phone app can play them, my computer browser can't play them.
I've tested both non-working stations in Chrome and Internet Explorer. They both don't work in Chrome, but this station also doesn't work in IE.
I'm using Chrome 80.0.3987.122. And I'm running Windows 7.
This problem only started a couple of days ago.
What's going on? How do I fix this?
What console? I'm not using a game device. It's a desktop computer.
I just tested this: I paused the ad-blocker on the joy.org.au station, but nothing changed. It still didn't work.
The ad-blocker has been installed for ages. I would be surprised if it suddenly stopped blocking radio signals a couple of days ago.
That link wants me to download a file, rather than open a web-stream.
Insecure/mixed content scripts and connection refused errors are happening on Crooner.fr radio too.
That would be my guess too. So you may be SoL accessing them via a browser like Chrome, that now requires full HTTPS and blocks mixed content resources by default, until the stations fix the issues on their end, @Algernon_Asimov.
Edit: Apparently you can manually allow insecure/mixed content on certain pages in Chrome by doing the following on those pages: https://filtermusic.net/listen-to-internet-radios-with-chrome-in-2020
So that should at least allow you to temporarily get them working again.
Ah-hah! That works! I haz radio again! :)
(I listen to this station a lot because it's Australian and gay.)
Thank you for this. Without going into too much detail, this jibes with another problem I'm aware of with their websites interacting with Chrome's security settings. I'll send them this feedback.
EDIT: "jibes" not "jives"
Open the link with a media player such as VLC, not your browser.
It's okay: @pseudolobster managed to explain it for me.
Do you have any adblockers that are common to both browsers, like a PiHole, or a HOSTS file?
That's a pretty strange combination of things working and not working. It kinda defies logic. Here's a couple things I can think of to try. In chrome, right click the tab, ensure "mute site" isn't selected. Can you access this link, or this one directly? If not, can you access this or this?
Edit: Looks like I was beaten to the punch, but I do have another workaround. In case all else fails, you should be able to play the above streams in VLC. If you go to file, open network stream, and paste the URL it will play. To get the URL for the crooner.fm stream what I did is open the F12 console, go to the Network tab, click play, and watch for a "media" request. Then copy and paste that URL. screenshot
I have AdBlock on Chrome, but there's no ad-blocker on IE because I only use that for one particular website which doesn't work in Chrome.
I checked. It's not.
That first link wants me to download a file, rather than open a web-stream. The second link works.
I forgot I had VLC installed (I don't even remember why it's there). I pasted the "https://joy.org.au/player/index.html" link into VLC and clicked on Play, but nothing happened.
So the first link is Joy 94.9. If you're getting a file download box, at least that means your computer is able to contact the server. So that's good, it rules out network and adblocker issues. In VLC, you'll want to paste http://stream.joy.org.au/proxy/joy949?mp=/live, which is the direct link to the stream's audio. For me it plays within firefox, though chrome is trying to download it.
That link in the VLC software works. Thank you!
Is that now the only way I can listen to this radio station on my computer - by opening VLC?
I'm still trying to wrap my head around what could be causing this. All I can think of right now is perhaps it's ghosts, the phase of the moon, cosmic rays, or some combination thereof. It's just so odd that one works in one browser, one stream works in neither, yet you can access both directly.
Using Firefox sounds like it'd have a high likelihood of working, but it doesn't solve the underlying problem/mystery. You can try clearing your cache and cookies and whatnot. In each browser, hit
Ctrl+Shift+Delto do so. You can try disabling all your extensions and plugins and whatnot. If neither of those things work, I'm at a loss. Maybe try a scan with malwarebytes.Chrome recently started blocking all insecure/mixed content on sites by default, which is what is causing this. See: https://blog.chromium.org/2019/10/no-more-mixed-messages-about-https.html
Good catch! I wasn't able to replicate it, but I'm testing with Chromium on linux via my distro's repositories, which could be behind by a version or several.
IE loading one but not the other is still a mystery though, as far as I can tell.
Yeah, it's likely your distro's repo is just a bit behind, and IE could also be using a previous (or poorly implemented/buggy) version of Chromium as well, which would explain the differences in behavior. Between version 79, 80 and 81 there are quite a few changes being made to the new 'HTTPS by default' system, so this changeover will probably take a while for everyone to get on the same page.
@Sill has solved it.