FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ABACAST PLUG-IN
AND WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER
What is Abacast? Why do I need to download their Plug-in for Windows Media Player?
Every live-streaming listener to Wisconsin Public Radio utilizes bandwidth
which must be paid for by Wisconsin Public Radio. The more bandwidth our listeners use,
the more expensive it is for us to provide a quality webcasting service.
Abacast has found a way to utilize "distributed networking" to minimize these bandwidth costs and
still provide good quality streaming for almost all computer platforms including Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
The system also provides WPR the connection information we needed. It does all this using only 25% of
usual bandwidth - meaning less cost to the Wisconsin Public Radio.
The free Abacast Plug-in is ONLY needed by Windows-based users and is ONLY necessary if you want to use
the broadband-quality 48kbps Media Player stream. Since Windows users represent the majority of our streaming
listenership, the system addresses our greatest source of bandwidth usage and cost.
Non-Windows users can connect directly to our Windows Media server without the Abacast plug-in.
How do I download and install the Abacast plug-in?
When a Windows user selects the 48kbps connection for the first time, Abacast detects whether they
have the plug-in installed or not. If it's not already installed, the user is asked if they want to
download the plug-in. The Abacast Plug-in is only about 1MB in size and downloads and installs
quickly and easily. It only needs to be installed once and only by Windows users with broadband
connections.
How does Abacast work?
Abacast's small client-side plug-in for the Windows
Media Player performs several important tasks:
It communicates with our streaming server in real-time on the status of the end-user's stream
quality. If the plug-in finds any problems with the streaming data such as missing data (skips),
delayed data (buffering), or a dropped connection (breaks), it will automatically redirect the user's
streaming connection to fill-in the missing data BEFORE it plays on the user's Media Player -
creating a more stable streaming connection between you and Wisconsin Public Radio.
The plug-in allows peer-to-peer networking between listeners in order to distribute the bandwidth
load, resulting in lower costs to Wisconsin Public Radio without sacrificing audio quality.
Unlike other peer-to-peer or distributed streaming technologies, the Abacast plug-in also sends
important technical information to our server so we know how many listeners we're serving and how long
they listen. This information helps us detect outages and gives us the information we need to better
serve our on-line listeners. Note: No personal information is recorded by this system.
Sometimes I click on the 48kbps Abacast-enabled Windows Media Stream, but I
get the lower-quality 20Kbps stream. Why?
If you are using a dial-up internet connection, or your provider is
experiencing high traffic, there may not be enough bandwidth to maintain the 48kbps
connection. The Abacast plug-in recognizes this and will automatically re-direct your player to the
20kbps stream.
If the 48kbps stream is not available or impaired, you will also be re-directed to the 20Kbps
stream.
Note that if you attempt to use the Media Player's "connection history" in the file menu to connect
to WPR's 48kbps Media Player streams, you may instead be re-directed to the 20kbps stream. Always
return to the links on our Live Webcasting page to start your Abacast-enabled Windows Media Player.
I'm using Firefox and it won't automatically install the Abacast plug-in.
When I click on a 48k link, Firefox asks me if I want to download a program called ns_abasetup.exe.
What should I do?
Go ahead and download this setup file. The Abacast plug-in is supported by the Firefox browser.
When using Firefox with an Abacast-enabled webcast for the first time, the browser may not automatically
start the plug-in installation. See
Abacast's Firefox Help File.
After you install the plug-in using this method, return to our webcasting page and try connecting again
to our 48kbps links.
I'm using Firefox and I've installed the Abacast Plug-in, but when I click on the
stream link, it brings up a warning box. What should I do?
 The warning box probably looks something like this. It's simply
Firefox's way of making sure you really want to enable a link it hasn't seen before. Clicking the "Launch Application"
button will start Windows Media player and connect it to our stream.
If you don't want to see this every time you request one of our streams, you can click the check box immediately before
"Remember my choice For all links of this type" and then click the Launch button.
I'm using an "Internet Radio" and I need the direct address for your Windows Media streams
in order to hear them. What are they?
There have been several Internet Radios manufactured in the past few years. They use WiFi or a direct
ethernet cable connection to the internet and allow you to receive live streams from all over the world without a computer.
Here's the direct addresses to our Windows Media server's 20kbps streams below. Note that our higher quality 48kbps streams can only be
used on a PC.
- Ideas Network (20kbps only): http://asx.abacast.com/wpr-music-20.asx
- Music Network (20kbps only): http://asx.abacast.com/wpr-ideas-20.asx
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