You can configure either a broadcast or an on-demand publishing
point to stream files from a directory.
For a broadcast publishing point, set the publishing point path
to reference the directory that contains the files you want to
stream, such as C:\WMPub\WMRoot. All of the digital media files in
the directory are streamed to connected clients
automatically. To play the stream, users type the URL for the
publishing point in their players;
for example,
mms://servername/publishing_point_name.
For an on-demand publishing point, set the publishing point
path to reference the directory that contains the files you want to
stream, such as C:\ WMPub\WMRoot. Users can either receive a single
file or all the files in the directory. If you want to stream all
the files in the directory, you must enable the Enable access to
directory content using wildcards property on the
Properties tab of the publishing point. This property
enables you to use wildcard characters in the URL of the publishing
point. The following examples show how you can use this to provide
different content streams to users:
Stream all digital media files in a directory. Use the
asterisk (*) wildcard character in place of the file name in the
connection URL to stream all of the digital media files within a
directory; for example,
mms://servername/publishing_point_name/*.
Stream only certain file types in a directory. Use the
asterisk (*) wildcard character in place of the file name in the
connection URL but specify the file extension to stream all of the
digital media files of a certain type. For example, you can use
mms://server_name/publishing_point_name/*.wmv to stream only
the video files or
mms://server_name/publishing_point_name/*.wma to stream only
the audio files.
Notes
The asterisk (*) wildcard character cannot be
used to replace portions of a file name or extension.
The server does not use your user account to
access files and streams; it uses the Network Service account by
default. If you are sourcing from a file that is in a folder other
than C:\WMPub, make sure that the folder is shared and that the
Network Service account has at least read permissions for the
folder. If the Network Service account does not have permissions
for a folder, the server will not be able to connect to it. For
more information about rights and permissions, see Understanding rights.
Content streamed by Windows Media Services must
meet the minimum supported content length of the player to ensure
reliable playback. The minimum supported content length for Windows
Media Player 9 Series or later is 5 seconds. The minimum supported
content length for previous versions of Windows Media Player is 30
seconds.
If your publishing point is accessing files on a
computer running Windows 2000 Server as a source of content, you
may have difficulty streaming the content due to differences in the
way that Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 handle user
account authorization and privileges. If the two computers are
members of the same domain, on-demand publishing points that have
the WMS NTFS ACL Authorization plug-in enabled and attempt to
retrieve content from a computer running Windows 2000 Server will
cause remote clients to receive an "Access denied" error message.
Local clients, such as the Test stream feature of Windows
Media Services, are not affected. If the two computers are not
members of the same domain, see To access
content on a computer running Windows 2000 Server.
Notes