Windows Media Player 7 has come out of beta

[xortam]

For gaming, I wouldn't want to bring down the whole firewall even for just one system, just punch a hole in one or two ports. Tunneling wouldn't work unless the game server supported it. I'm not sure what you mean my port redirection; are you saying that the box will remap the port address? How does this help?
How much is this box? Do you have a URL for the product so I may learn more about it. (I suppose I could do a search, but thanks).

[Walrus]

Dr. Mordid: Thank you for the report on the switch/router.. unfortunatly it's making the wait until I get the one I'm buying from a friend all the harder
Xortam: Port mapping is a feature of Proxies/NATs that allows you to run an internet server behind the firewall. Basically it will route any outside request for a port to a specific computer behind the firewall. Thus you can run public servers from any machine. For instance, if you want to run a web server on a machine behind the firewall with an IP of 192.168.0.100 you just tell the NAT/Proxy/Linksys box to map it's port 80 to port 80 of machine 192.168.0.100. The nice thing is, as far as 192.168.0.100 is concerned, it is directly on the internet and no redirection is occuring at all. This should also work for games that communicate over specific IP ports that need to act as servers and be totally transparent to the game players.
As for the URL go to: http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...prid=20&grid=5
It retails for $200, but if you look around hard enough you should be able to pick it up for closer to $150.
BTW: It's not only a router, but a fully functional 10/100 switch (which is better than a hub in that the 100mbit speed is available to each and every port regardless of the activity of the other ports)

[Dr Mordrid]

SOME games like Quake and Unreal are explicitly supported by the Linksys router. I'm not sure about the whole list though...

Dr. Mordrid

[xortam]

I was concerned about running the game as a client behind a firewall. I understand about switches versus hubs. I'll check out the URL to see if it answers my questions ... thanks all.

[This message has been edited by xortam (edited 24 July 2000).]

[dchip]

That Linksys is definately a hot item. It's been recommended to me by two friends for implementation whenever I can upgrade to cable modem. I also saw it on amazon.com recently in the $150 range. It was/is the hottest selling electronic item they carry.

[Frank Marshall]

Okay guys,

I'm paranoid enough now not to try installing WMP7. I don't have the time to go do a complete system/software reinstall if things don't work out.

Thanks.

[Dr Mordrid]

dchip;

I got mine for $158 from http://www.buy.com .

One thing you should know is that there are two versions, one having a 4 port switch and the other a 1 port. The latter is for those who already have a switch and just need to uplink to the router. This model is also cheaper, running about $100-110 USD.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 24 July 2000).]

[xortam]

Say Doc, can you share your experience with that firewall in the What's a good firewall for Win2K? thread?

[This message has been edited by xortam (edited 26 July 2000).]

[Sciascia]

So whats the latest? Still no good or has anyone had success with the Marvel and MP7?

[Dr Mordrid]

MP6.4 works fine so why rock the boat?

Dr. Mordrid

[mikiem]

FWIW:

I've been using Winmedia 7 encoder for a while, without problems, though it definitely works beter with non-matrox products, such as the osprey line.

There is one nec. & irritateing work-a-round: it seems you have to change two tags in the header of the avi file (I use avi.exe) to MPEG, or else the encoder will not accept the file.

The v.8 Beta doesn't seem to have this limitation, but throwing a 4 gig file at v.8 with a lot of processing turned on crashes it so I haven't done more then a few quick tests.

Results wize: the encoded files are pretty much comparable to the real encoder -- real seems to soften the background more -- so the choice is prob'ly a matter of personal preference. Winmedia 7 includes a ISO MPEG 4 codec, which they claim should be compatible with future, non-PC devices. Either way, beats the devil out of DIVX in quality.

Both real & winmedia 7 are able to capture and encode in real time, if you don't ask them to do too much, but with winmedia's dislike of Matrox stuff, haven't had much success going this route with a g400TV.

FWIW: media player 6.4 IS NOT deleted with media player 7's install, so if you like 6.4, you can continue to use it. Also, there is a small file (part of the resource kit) that installs the v.7 codecs in 6.4 for playback on machines without or incapable of v.7.

Hope this might help answer a few ?

mike