

FERC Free
Live
Webcasts Technical Support
Webcast technical support provided by The
Capitol Connection. FERC webcasts are provided in Windows Media and
RealPlayer formats. If you are still encountering technical problems
after testing your player, please contact the Capitol Connection at capcon@gmu.edu
or 703-993-3100.
Technical
Information:
Test
Your Webcast Connection
If you have a multimedia computer,
you can play the webcasts on your PC or Macintosh using Real or Windows Media
Player.
It is important that you test the
webcast player you will be using before a webcast begins.
One or both players probably already are on your PC or Macintosh– if not, either
one can easily be downloaded at no charge. Just follow the two steps
below.
Step One:
Click here
to test if you have Windows Media Player and/or RealPlayer already installed
on your computer.
Step Two:
If you do have a player already installed on your computer, then click a link
below to test your webcast video/audio connection. If you do not have a player
installed, please scroll down to the “How to Download a Webcast Player at No
Charge.” After you have successfully installed a webcast player, then
return here to test your connection.
Please note: if your computer is behind a network
'firewall' you may be unable to receive streaming video/audio.
Please have your system administrator review the firewall section below.
Encountering
technical problems? Please contact the Capitol Connection at capcon@gmu.edu
or (703) 993-3100.
How to
Download a Free Webcast Player – PC Users
Windows Media Player:
If you do not already have Window Media Player installed on your
computer, click on the "Windows Media" button below. Doing so will
take you to the website of Microsoft.com. Click the “Download Windows Media Player
10” link in the center of the page. On the following page, click the 'download
now' button appropriate to your Windows operating System Follow on screen installation
instructions.
To
download the free Windows Media Player. Click on the following link and follow
the download instructions.

RealPlayer:
If you have not already downloaded a RealPlayer in
the past, click on the "RealPlayer Free" button below. Doing so will
take you to the website of Real.com. Click the orange "Download RealPlayer"
button. On the next screen you will see two choices. On the left
hand side of the screen you will be offered the paid version of the RealPlayer.
Toward the bottom of the right-hand column you will see a smaller
"Download the Free RealPlayer" link. The choice is yours, but the webcast
can be accessed with the free RealPlayer.
To
download the free RealPlayer. Click on the following
link and follow the download instructions:

How to Download a Free Webcast Player – Macintosh Users
Click here to download and install the free Windows
Media Player
Click here to download and install the free
RealPlayer
-
Once you click on the above link, to download the free version of
the RealPlayer, locate the light grey “Free RealPlayer” link in the upper
right-hand part of the page.
-
The download should start
automatically. If not follow the instructions on the page.
-
Click the box labeled "Download Free
RealPlayer"
-
Follow the Installation
Instructions
The following are the minimum
system requirements your computer will need to install either the RealPlayer
or Windows Media Player:
|
Minimum Computer (Windows):
- 350MHz Intel Pentium II processor or equivalent
- 64MB of RAM(128MB on Windows XP or later)
- 52MB available disk space
- 56-Kbps modem
- 16-bit sound card and speakers
- 65,000-color video display card set to
display at 1024 x 768 or higher (video)
- Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0
with Service Pack 6 or later(playback only), Windows 2000 with Service
Pack 2 or later, or Windows XP
- Internet Explorer 5.0
or Netscape 6.0 or later (Mozilla
Firefox will only work with the RealPlayer version of this presentation)
- Display resolution:
1024 X 768 or higher
- Windows Media Player 9.0 or later
- RealPlayer 10 or later
Minimum Computer (Macintosh):
- Mac OS X 10.2 (with Safari installed)
or later (10.3 or later recommended)
- 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM (512MB recommended)
- G3 or faster, Mac OS X compatible
- 56 kbps modem
- Windows Media Player 9.0 or later
- RealPlayer 10 or later
|
Recommended Computer (Windows):
- 500 MHz Intel Pentium III processor or
greater (supports simultaneous record/playback features)
- 256MB of RAM
- High-speed Internet connection (audio/video)
- Full Duplex sound card and speakers
- 65,000-color video display card set to
display at 1024x768 or higher (video)
- Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000
with Service Pack 2 or later, or Windows XP
- Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
- Windows Media Player 9.0 or later
- RealPlayer 10 or later
- Broadband connection
- 16-bit sound card
- Internet Explorer
6.0 or Netscape 6.0 or later
- Display resolution:
1024 X 768
or higher
Recommended Computer (Macintosh):
- Apple Mac OS X version 10.1.5 or later
(latest release of version 10.2.x recommended)
- Any computer supported by Mac OS X version
10.1.5 (450 megahertz (MHz) PowerPC G3 processor or higher recommended)
- 128 megabytes (MB) or higher
- 256 colors (Millions of colors recommended)
- Microsoft Internet
Explorer 5.1 for Mac, America Online for Mac OS X, Netscape 7.1, MSN
for Mac OS X version 2.0, or Apple Safari 1.0
- Windows Media Player 9.0 or later
- RealPlayer 10 or later
- Broadband connection
|
Troubleshooting - RealPlayer
- If you player stops in the middle
of the meeting, please either refresh the webpage or hit the start button
on your player
-
If you are unable
to connect to a webcast program in RealPlayer, please try the following:
- In your browser, Click on 'View' and then 'Preferences' and a new window
will appear.
- Click on the tab labeled "Connection".
Check to make sure that you have the correct connection speed. If
you are on a network that is normally the LAN/T1 setting, for a Modem
it is normally the 56k Modem setting, etc. Click
here to see a picture of the Connection Tab
- Click on the tab labeled "Transport".
Choose the 'Automatically choose Best Transport" and then "Auto
Configure" go through all the prompts accepting the default information.
Click
here to see picture of Transport Tab
- If this does not work and you are still getting errors,
especially errors which make statements such as 'make sure you are connected
to the Internet', 'timed out waiting for server', etc. There is a large
probability you are on a system with a Firewall. You will need to
check with your Network Administrator to see if they have a firewall
and if the administrator is willing to open the firewall for webcast video
traffic.
- Systems with firewalls can still
get some types of 'Archived' real video files. The files they are able
to access are normally 'archived' using an HTTP protocol on a Web Server.
Any live streaming files use RTSP or PNM (we use RTSP) and use only TCP
or UDP connections and must be able to have certain ports on a firewall
‘opened’.
If you are experiencing difficulty
viewing our LIVE streaming video or archived video content (pulsing, flickering
or intermittent video or audio), we suggest you do the following:
- PC Users
- Click on the Start
menu button on the Windows' Taskbar.
- Go to Programs,
then Real, followed by RealPlayer.
- Once the player launches,
click on Tools.
- Select Preferences.
- Select the Content
category.
- Under Media Types,
click the Advanced button on the right.
- Scroll down on the
list of media types, to the listing: Real-Time Streaming Protocol
(RTSP).
- Click on the check
box to enable the RTSP media type for your video player.
- MAC Users
- Open Internet Explorer's
web browser.
- Go to the web browser's
Properties menu.
- Select the Protocol
Helper option.
- Scroll down the list
until finding the Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP).
- Change the application
type to RealOne Player or RealPlayer, depending
on which application you have downloaded.
- Close and exit the
browser and then reopen and try a video link.
If your connection is poor or
you are getting static and varying sound quality.
- This is most likely a problem
with your current RealOne preferences. To reconfigure your RealOne settings,
launch your RealOne player from your desktop and:
- Click Tools and select
Preferences.
- From the left-hand side
of the next screen, click Connection
- Ensure that your Maximum
bandwidth is configured to match your minimum bandwidth connection
- Set your player to buffer
every 30 sec when needed.
- From the left-hand side
of the screen, Click Network Transport
- Click "Manually configure
connections settings"
- From the left-hand side
of the screen, Click General
- Uncheck "Enable a
history list in the File menu"
- Click "Clear History",
then Click OK.
Troubleshooting
- Windows Media Player
- If you player stops in the middle
of the meeting, please either refresh the webpage or hit the start button
on your player
If
you are trying to Open the Windows Media embedded player in Mozilla Firefox,
you will need to reconfigure your Mozilla Firefox browser to allow Active
X. Click
here for detailed instructions
If
you are having difficulty with the audio or video stopping or excessive buffering,
please try the following:
- Click
on Tools
- Click
on Options
- Click
"Performance" tab
- Click
on the dot beside the word 'buffer' and increase the time in the box from
5 seconds to 10 to 20 seconds
- Hit
Okay
Viewing video using Mozilla Firefox Browser:
Real Player
files play automatically on the Firefox browser. Windows
Media files may require changes to your system configuration, so we recommend
your IT administrator assist in correcting the problem (the proper Windows Media
and Active X plugins need to be installed). Go to:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=206213 and follow all
of the steps exactly. After doing so, you should be able to view
the Windows Media files via Firefox.
Firewalls
If your computer is protected
by a network or stand-alone firewall, and you are having trouble receiving the
broadcast, the firewall may not be configured to allow webcast viewing.
If you want to view a webcast, your system administrator must "Open"
the firewall to allow the webcast to stream through it. There is nothing
that can be changed in webcast signal itself system to allow a webcast signal
to penetrate a firewall unless the firewall is configured to accept it.
For more information concerning
firewalls and RealPlayer, please go to:
http://service.real.com/firewall
For more
information concerning firewalls and Windows Media Player, please go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/Netshow/deploy/fwconfig.mspx
Encountering
technical problems? Please contact the Capitol Connection at capcon@gmu.edu
or (703) 993-3100.