Overview

You need to get up to speed as quickly as possible on the basics of streaming media and Windows Media Series. Maybe you're on a tight deadline or you have to learn this stuff in between 63 other projects that were due yesterday. You've come to the right place!

This chapter walks you step-by-step through a number of important installations. By the time you're finished, you'll be streaming a video file. Just to make things extra fast, the instructions assume that most default settings, automatically set by the installer, work for you. However, for this chapter to make sense, the text makes a number of further assumptions:

• You have a source audio or video file in a "raw" format, that is, a file with the extension .wav or .avi.

• You are allowed to install software on your system.

• You are familiar with the basics of using an FTP client.

• You are running a computer with Windows XP operating system, preferably Windows XP Professional.

• You have access to a computer running at least Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition with Windows Media Services installed.

• You have permission to upload files to a Windows Media Server and a Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) web server.

• You know something about writing HTML.

Even if you're not sure about all of the above, we can still get started. By the time you finish this chapter, you'll know how to:

• Update Windows Media Player

• Use the main player features

• Prepare your...