--- Forwarded Message from "Harris, Leslie" <[log in to unmask]> --- >From: "Harris, Leslie" <[log in to unmask]> >To: "'Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum'" <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Problems with Browsers, Sound Files, etc. >Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 16:11:57 -0400 ------------------ Hi, Folks. This past semester, some Goucher seniors were involved in a course that had "oral history" as one of its main themes. As part of a final project, the students interviewed members of two communities in Baltimore in order to give a kind of profile of those communities. They created a Web site as one of their final projects, which you can find at the following URL: http://www.goucher.edu/harbel/ The students finished the site by the end of the semester, and they did a great job. My task since then has been to make the site a bit more modem- or low-bandwidth-friendly, since it takes forever to receive any of the audio content over a modem line. I've run into a few problems which have been driving me batty, and I've basically reached an impasse. I thought it was time to ask for help. :-) Here are the problems: 1. On my computer, I've set up Norton Antivirus to screen files before they're downloaded. I noticed that when I link to an MP3 file in Netscape, it thinks that I'm downloading the file; NAV checks the file out, says the file is free of viruses, and asks me where on my hard drive I want to save the file. That's not how I want the link to work. Instead, I want Netscape to recognize the file type from that MP3 extension and launch my favorite MP3 player. I have clearly associated an application with the MP3 dot extension, but NAV seems to be overriding that choice. This doesn't happen when I use Netscape on other computers, even when they have NAV installed. This also doesn't happen using Internet Explorer. I've even tried hard-coding into the HREF statement that the type is mpeg/audio, and that doesn't solve the problem. I want the site to work even for people who have NAV on their computer as I do, so here's the question: is there a way to make sure that Netscape doesn't try to download the file, but instead plays it as I want? 2. To make the site more modem-friendly, I have both MP3 and RealAudio versions of the sound clips. I've had a devil of a time getting those RealAudio clips to play from off-campus, because our firewall is so restrictive. I tried using a copy of RealServer that our Webmaster installed on our server, but the firewall got in the way of that. Also, I learned that it's just a beta, test copy of the program, so we can't really use that until we buy a full copy. :-) I changed the links so that they'll stream via http:, but I haven't been able to test it from outside our firewall. Here's question #2: when you click on those RealAudio links on the site, do the sound clips stream o.k., or do you run into problems? Have you had success using RealServer for streaming audio content on your campus, even if the server is behind your firewall? Or have you followed the company's advice and put your RealServer outside the firewall? I appreciate your help with this. Leslie (who's at his wits end on this one, having run into the same wall again, and again, and again. . . . or is that the firewall?) :-)