How to listen to course materials over the internet in Windows XP.

First of all it is important to note that most of the problems people have been having with listening to the materials is if they are using Windows XP's built in firewall. This is because Real Time Streaming Protocol, or RTSP comes in through port 554, which happens to be closed by the XP firewall.

Note: You may encounter this same problem in other firewalls. If you are running a third party firewall you may need to simply open port 554, for instructions on how to do this consult your users manual.

If you are unsure as to whether or not you are using the built in firewall follow the next few steps.

First of all open the Network Connections by clicking the start button and going to the Control Panel. Inside the control panel menu is an icon that says Network Connections. Once inside of the Network Connections menu you will see an icon for either your Dial Up service provider, such as MSN, or AOL; If you have a high speed connection such as Cable or DSL, or you are on the WSU Network you will see an icon that looks like the one in the picture below.

Notice how it says "firewalled" in the second line next to the icon.

The next step is to disable the firewall, right click the connection icon with the mouse, then click on properties.

The next menu to come up will be the Local Area Connection Properties. Click on the tab at the top of the menu that says "advanced." This will take you to the section that contains the firewall.

If the Firewall is enabled then the button on the left side will be highlighted. If it is not enabled then it will not be highlighted. In either case we recommend that you read the section about firewalls by clicking on the "Learn more about Internet Connection Firewall." It contains useful information about firewalls that may help you to better understand exactly what they do, and how they work.

After disabling the firewall this is what your connection should look like. Notice that it no longer says "firewalled" next to the connection.