Multimedia:Technical:Installation issues

Overview
When installing multimedia applications either on the Web or from a CD/ROM there are many issue that can arise. This page describes some.

Internet

 * Web hosting - in order for a web site to be alive on the internet you must have it hosted on a server that the Internet can access. Issues that may arise
 * Language support: PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, Coldfusion
 * Database support: MySQL, SQL Server
 * Element support: Allows audio/video (often restricted on free servers
 * Plug-in support: Flash
 * Domain name:
 * This includes the choice of domain name, e.g. if you have the co.nz domain what happens if your users type in the .com address?
 * Necessity to renew. Domain names are generally renewed annually, or the web host will offer extension plans.
 * Who owns the domain name? Some web hosts give one free domain name. What happens when you want to leave the web host?

CD/DVD

 * Legacy programs: Unfortunately with the rapid change in technology, some multimedia applications can be left behind.
 * DOS multimedia: In Windows you will need to run an emulator (e.g. DOSBOX)
 * Windows
 * Earlier version of Windows than the one you are running: If you right click> Properties > Compatibility you can select a different version of windows to try. Remember early PCs had a restricted colour range (256) so on old CD applications you may have to reduce the colours (See Figure 1). Note this does not always work. You can also use virtualisation to create a "Machine" that runs in you current environment (e.g. VirtualBox).
 * Windows 7 on a multi-core CPU allows you to install Windows XP alongside (actually a virtual machine)