This beta release of Microsoft NetShow includes executables for the following platforms:

x86 Linux ELF "netshow_linux"
SGI Irix 6.x "netshow_sgi"
Sun Sparc SunOS 4.x "netshow_sunos"
Sun Sparc SunOS 5.5+ "netshow_solaris"
Sun Sparc Solaris 2.5+ "netshow_solaris"

Table of Contents

I) Installation

NetShow may be copied to any directory where you keep your other executables. Common places are "/usr/local/bin" or a "bin" directory in your home directory. For example if you wish to install the linux version of "netshow" into the directory "/usr/local/bin" you could type:

  1. "cp netshow_linux /usr/local/bin/netshow"

    NOTE: the executable was renamed from "netshow_linux" to "netshow" in the process shown above.

    In order to run NetShow, type at your prompt:

    "netshow"

    or

    "netshow file.asf"

    where "file.asf" is the name of an ASF file.

II) Setting NetShow up as a Helper Application for a WWW Browser -- There are three things you need to do in order to get your WWW browser to properly call up NetShow to view ASF files.

  • Platform Specific Notes
    1. Linux
      Requirements
      • Configured with X11.
      • Configured with an audio card(ie kernel correctly compiled).
      • tcp/ip and multicast support compiled into kernel. Multicast support is only needed for the multicast features of NetShow.

      Notes


      In order to successfully use multicast on Linux, you need to compile the kernel to enable multicast support. You may also have to do the following as superuser:

      1. run the command "netstat -i". This will give you a list network devices(under the heading "Iface") currently configured on your system. You can ignore "lo" and "dummy". The rest of this example use "eth0" as the ethernet device. If yours is different, just substitue your inplace of eth0.
      2. "route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask 240.0.0.0 dev eth0" NOTE: you may get a list of current routes with "netstat -r" and may do a "man netstat" for more info on this command.
      3. Some ethernet chips/cards require you to put them into "promiscuous" mode before they will capture multicast packets. The following command will turn this feature on:
        "ifconfig eth0 promisc"

      Bugs

      - XFree86 and Matrox Milleniums. At depth 24 XFree86 packs pixels into 3 bytes. This is nonstandard and not yet supported. You may run your Display at depth 16 or 32 or use commerical X11 servers from Metrox and Xinside(now TBD), both of which correctly implement depth 24 on Matrox Milleniums.

    2. SGI Irix 6.x
      Requirements
      • Most SGI systems support everything needed by NetShow. Nothing special is needed by the user.

      Notes

      Bugs

    3. Sun Sparc SunOS 4.x
      Requirements


      With the exception of multicast support, the user shouldn't have to configure anything.

      Notes


      SunOS 4.x does not have multicast support. There are patches available that allow an advanced user or sysadm to compile support into SunOS 4.1.3 or newer kernels.

      1. You may obtain kernal patches for SunOS 4.1.3+ from the following ftp site: ftp://parcftp.xerox.com/pub/net-research/ipmulti/ipmulti3.5-sunos*
      2. For information about Multicasting in general, see the site below(NOTE: MBone stands for IP Multicast Backbone): http://www.mbone.com/

      Bugs


      Some Sparc 5's require a patch in order to get audio working correctly. Please contact Sun for more information.

    4. Sun Sparc Solaris 2.5+ / SunOS 5.5+
      Requirements


      Multicast support wasn't added to Solaris until Rev 2.3. With Solaris 2.5+(same as SunOS 5.5+) the user shouldn't have to configure anything special to run netshow.

    5. HTTP Proxy/Firewall Support: If you access the Internet through a proxy server (through a firewall) you will need to make the following settings in order to get HTTP streaming to work.
      • Start the NetShow Player
      • Select File/Properties/Advanced
      • Verify that at the bottom of the page the HTTP option is checked.
      • Under HTTP, check the "Use a proxy for HTTP streaming" option
      • In the Server field enter the name of your proxy server (Note that the proxy server setting should match your browser's proxy server setting. For example, Proxy Server settings under Options or Network Options in your browser).
      • In the Port field enter 80.
      • Select OK and close the NetShow Player
      • NetShow HTTP streaming through your proxy is now enabled.

      [Download links snipped.]

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