Marketing on the Internet--FAQ

E-Business Courses / Marketing on the Internet /

Frequenty Asked Questions

What is a FAQ?

It is a frequently asked question. When you have a question or a technical problem, you should come here first. Also check here for updates as I will keep this site loaded with new questions.

What is the Macromedia Authorware Web Player?

I used Macromedia Authorware 5.2 to write all the lesson files and interactive exercises. In order to run these from the web, you need to download and INSTALL the web player on your machine. Note that all the machines in the University Labs have the webplayer. This is a big file! It could take as long as 45 minutes to download.

I am an AOL user? Can I still work with these files at home?

The answer is YES. Here is what you have to do. Connect to AOL, then minimize AOL to your taskbar. Then open a seperate window of Internet Explorer. Then logon as you normally would. Running the webfiles directly from AOL is problematic. AOL uses some special and proprietary protocols which make the files run a bit strangely sometimes. However, by opening the seperate window of Netscape, you avoid these problems.

I have downloaded the Authorware Web Player and correctly installed it, however whenever I login to the modules, all I get is the following logo on the small window:

What is happening is fairly common. First, let me tell you why and then what to do about it. The reason the Authorware file is failing to load is that you have not given it the correct "security clearance". Remember, that I am tracking your usage of these files. In doing so, the system has to write a very small and temporary file (which is deleted upon exiting) to your harddrive. Authorware will not let me do that without your explicit permission. Therefore, if it does not have the permission, it simply sits there until you give it the permission.

Now, the way that you would give it the permission is to close the loader window that contains the logo above, then hold your CONTROL key down on your keyboard and click the link to the module again. This will bring up the following window:

Click OK and the file should open normally.

When I tried to access a lesson that I had already been in before, I got an error message that says that "I have the wrong or missing segment file" What gives?

Well, what it means is that I made some slight modifications to the program and had to reload the lesson to the server. When your browser saw that you were going to do that lesson again, it simply said "Oh wait a minute, I already have copy of that file in my cache, I will use that one". Unfortantely, this was the wrong file and the Authorware Web Player did not know what to do with it. When this happens, simply close the file and then clear your cache (see the FAQ above). This will solve the problem.