Flash, Firewalls and Frustration

‘I can’t see my streams…’ is a cry that we sometimes hear from clients using our on demand or live flash streaming services.

Whilst most business users and almost 100% of home users can see flash movies with no issues, there are some instances where the correct port to allow flash streaming is blocked by the network security settings.

Without wishing to bore those who don’t need to know, or lecturing those that already do, here’s a quick rundown on how flash is delivered to the end users desktop.

Most user’s set up looks something like this…

So the firewall that is necessarily designed to protect you can also cause issues when trying to view streaming flash.

Ports & Protocols

The internet runs using as series of rules (or protocols) that allow data to be passed over the internet. This website address http://www.flashstreaming.co.uk like all others uses the http (hyper-text transfer protocol for those who need to know) and uses port 80 on your network. Flash Streaming however uses the rtmp protocol (Real Time Messaging Protocol) to communicate and therefore needs port 1935 to be accessible.

If this port is not available you will not be able to see flash streaming content – either live or on demand.

Your network administrator will be able to open this port to allow you to see your streams.

Other types of streaming need other ports to be open – this and a range of topics for other streaming media formats are covered on our main Streaming Wizard site here: http://www.streamingwizard.com/services/faq/index.asp

If you need further information regarding Flash, or opening ports just drop us a line at blog@flashstreaming.co.uk

Until next time…..