To play sound files, Netscape Navigator must be told (a) the
file extension that signifies it as a sound file, (b) name of the
computer program (called "helpers" by Netscape) that plays it, and (c) where to find this program.
Currently, we record the sound files in two different formats: Microsoft (wav) and
Real Audio (ram) formats.
When you see the icons: -
the same sound track is available in both formats.
(a) At the top of the Netscape screen, locate the word "Options"
and click on it.
(b) A drop-down menu will appear. Among the list of optons is
"General Preferences". Highlight it and click on it.
Near the top are a row of words. These are "Tabs".
(d) The screen changes and looks like this:
At the center there is an area (white background) with 3
columns: File type, Action, and Extension.
You can download RealAudio Player, free, from Real Audio company site's
Engish page .
The latest version is v.5. (Spring 1998)
This RealAudio player is necessary, if you wish to play the files
marked as
You only need to do these once. 
You have the option to choose whichever format you prefer by clicking on its icon.
Microsoft Windows plays sounds itself (for example, it plays a
chime sound when the program starts.), so the necessary player
program is already there. So there is no need to obtain the program.
However, The Netscape Browser may not be configured (told) to
locate this program. If this is true, then follow the procedure
below. 
Click on the tab with the word "Helper" on it.
Scroll down until you see "wav" in the Extension column.
High light it, and look at the Action column.
If the Action column shows "MPlayer.exe", then you need to
do nothing. Cancel and done.
If the Action column is blank, or "Ask User" then you need
to set the Action column to "MPlayer.exe" as follows:
In the lower part of the screen, make sure the "File Extensions:"
shows "wav".
Below this is "Action". Click on the Radio button in front of
"Launch the Application".
Below this is another white area. This area may be blank, or it
may have texts left over from a previous session.
You want to set this to say
Mplayer.exe with its full path. A safe way to do this is to
click on the "Browse" button, and change the directory repeatedly
until you come to the \Windows directory. Search for Mplayer.exe
entry and select it. Click until it shows up in the white area.
Click ok. You are done. ok and exit.
Sound files recorded in RealAudio format must be played with a RealAudio
Player plug-in program. This program did not come with older versions of
Microsoft Windows - but is included in the latest verison. .
ram files are 10 to 20 times shorter than files, which
means that ram files can be downloaded much faster and begin to play
much sooner. Highly recommended.
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