With Microsoft Internet Explorer, right-click on the link, and select "Save Target As..." from the pop-up menu. You can also alter the File association of ASF and ASX files to prompt you to open or save by viewing the file association information under View / options/ and Filetypes. This suggestion if ONLY if you feel comfortable changing system settings and is for advanced users.

No, they are set automatically when you install Microsoft Media Player. This is true even when you install Internet Explorer after installing Media Player.

You don't need to if Netscape Navigator is installed prior to installing Media Player. If you're using a browser other than Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator (or if you've installed Netscape Navigator after installing Media Player), you must set the MIME types manually. Refer to your browser documentation to determine how to add the following settings:

MIME type: video/x-ms-asf
Extensions: asf,asx
Helper application: nsoplayr.exe

In order to have the ASF file stream rather than be downloaded an .asx (advanced stream redirector) file needs to be called via the link rather than the .asf file. An .asx file provides the information that Microsoft Media Player needs to receive either unicast or broadcast ASF information. When excecuted, .asx files launch Media player and then seek out the server that contains the .asf file or that is broadcasting the ASF stream. The server then begins streaming the .asf file to Media player. Without the .asx file the .asf file will be downloaded.

When a user hits a link to an ASX file, the user's browser downloads the entire ASX file to the user's cache directory (these files are small -- about 1 KB in size). Then the user's computer looks in its file associations table and sees that when it hits an ASX file it should launch the Media player. The Media player launches, looks in the ASX for instructions on where to get the ASF file, and starts the stream playing.

If you have an ASF file that you want users to be able to access on-demand, or in a unicast fashion, creating an ASX file is simple. Just go into your favorite text editor, such as Notepad, and type the following:

Where Path is one of the following, depending on where you are streaming the content from:

Example:

Once you've entered this into your text editor, save the file as filename.asx. Check to make sure that the ASX is working by double-clicking on it in Windows Explorer. It should bring up the Media player and start the content streaming.

In Microsoft NetShow there are 2 types of ASX files. There are encrypted, machine-generated files and non-encrypted, handcrafted ASX files.

Non-encrypted .asx files can be created by anyone with a text editor and are used to receive unicast information. The .asx file can contain reference and description sections depending on what information you want to send to the browser; see the example above.

The encrypted .asx file allows you to publish an announcement that will support broadcast. They are generated in the NetShow Station Manager and are created by right-clicking on an existing NetShow program and choosing Announce. This will create an ASX file that you can link to in the stand-alone player, use with an embedded object on an HTML document, use with a anchor tag in a HTML document, or distribute as appropriate. You need to use encrypted, machine-generated ASX files that are created from the Station Manager if you wish to broadcast.

The reference section provides the path(s) to an .asf file(s). Media Player reads the .asx file and attempts to find the first .asf file listed in the reference section. If it cannot find the .asf file, or some problem prevents the .asf file from playing correctly, Media Player looks for the next URL, called a rollover URL. NetShow continues looking for URLs in the .asx file to play until it successfully starts one. Rollover URLs can be a path to the same .asf file hosted on a different server, or the URL can be the path to a different .asf file. The processing order of the URLs in the reference section is from the top downward. If the first URL fails, the next URL is tried until one that works is found.

When defining the URLs in the reference section, you can specify either the MMS or HTTP protocols. When listing multiple URLs, give each one a different reference number. The reference section of a sample .asx file would look like this:

Each URL in an .asx file should specify:

An optional description section provides additional text information about the .asf file. The information in the description section appears in the Media Player title bar or on the Media Player Properties page. A description section looks like this:

To add a description section to an .asx file, on the line following the reference section, enter the description section. If the reference and description sections above were part of the same .asx file, it would look like this:

Assuming that you are using Internet Explorer, you can click on a link that calls an .asx file and choose Save Target As.... This will create an ASX file for future use.

Use an embed tag inside an object tag. This calls the Microsoft Media plug-in. Here is some sample code:

<OBJECT ID="NSPlay" WIDTH=160 HEIGHT=128 CLASSID="CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95" CODEBASE="http://www.microsoft.com/NetShow/download/en/nsasfinf.cab#Version=2,0,0,912">

<PARAM NAME="FileName" VALUE="http://server/path/sample.asx">

< Embed type="video/x-ms-asf-plugin"

src="http://server/path/sample.asx"
filename="http://server/path/sample.asx"
pluginspage="http://www.microsoft.com/NetShow/download/player.htm"
ShowControls=1
width=160
height=128

</EMBED>

</OBJECT>
<a href="http://server/path/sample.asx">Start the NetShow Presentation in the stand-alone player.</a>

Add parameters to your embed tag (see embed example above). Here is a list of parameters, organized by availability status, showing their value types and what the different values indicate or render.

The following parameters are standard:
SRC: String-location & name of the asx file
WIDTH: Integer-width of the player, in pixels (not necessary for audio-only)
HEIGHT: Integer-height of the player, in pixels (not necessary for audio-only)

The following parameters are supported and tested:
AutoStart: BOOL-0 (default) or 1
DisplaySize: Integer-0 (standard), 1 (half size), or 2 (double size)
AutoRewind: BOOL-0 or 1 (default)
ClickToPlay: BOOL-0 or 1 (default)
PlayCount: Integer-Number of repeat play, default is 1
CursorType: Integer-Type of the cursor used, default is 0
AllowChangeControlType: BOOL-defaut is TRUE
ControlType: Integer-0 (no control), 1 (simple) or 2 (complete), default is 0

The following parameters are accepted by NetShow's Netscape plug-in but do not make into effection (the Microsoft Media Player OCX does not allow them to be set dynamically):
TransparentAtStart=1
TransparentOnStop=1
CurrentPosition=10
EnableContextMenu=0

The following parameters are supported by NetShow's Netscape plug-in but are not fully tested:
Rate: Integer-default is 1
InvokeURLs: BOOL-0 or 1(default) note this param is not well tested
CurrentMarker: integer-default is 0
AllowScan: BOOL-default is TRUE
AnimationAtStart: BOOL-default is TRUE
AnimationOnStop: BOOL-default is FALSE
SendKeyBoardEvents: BOOL-default is FALSE
SendMouseClickEvents: BOOL-default is FALSE
SendMouseMoveEvents: BOOL-default is FALSE
SendStateChangeEvents: BOOL-default is TRUE