In the last week or so, my system has stopped playing streaming video.

For example I goto CNN and click on a video link. The popup window comes up and that's it. Pressing play has no effect.

My Windows Media player etc seem to work fine on local files.

The problem exists in Opera, Firefox or IE.

Thoughts anyone?

Might be a bad cookie.

The problem is on all browsers that I use and all site.

I have this same problem. On some of my systems it works fine and on some they do not work just as Hugh describes for certain sites (CNN in particular). I have tried to troubleshoot this many different ways and the only thing I can think of is that I don't have a proper codec for something or maybe the codec it is trying to use is not really valid. Sorry, no better suggestions.

GQUEUE, mine just stopped working so it wouldn't appear to be a codec.

I'm wondering if a recent security update made a change. Extremely frustrating.

I can play Google Video's but it appears that the problematic ones are probably using Windows Media Player

What version of media player are u using?

More testing. Quicktime video streaming is fine.

Windows Media Player 10 ...... build 4019

It appears that its only a problem with streaming video that uses Windows Media Player and its across browsers.

hmm, I started up Media Player and click on video and get a message indicating that I have to connect to the net. I click on it and nothing happens.

Somehow WMP won't connect to the net.

One idea would be to try upgrading to WMP11, but there is no guarantee that it will help.

Solved!

I uninstalled Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 and it works fine. That'll teach me to use an MS browser.

If anyone finds this thread and doesn't have IE7 B2 installed try disabling your firewall or anti-spyware software and check if it works.

Here ya go kids.....

3 months and 27 bottles of aspirin later I have the answer.

I recommend METHOD 3 as it is the least technical and time consuming. It worked like a charm!


Problem 1
When you try to stream audio or video from Microsoft Windows Media Services, you may receive an error message that resembles the following in Microsoft Windows Media Player:
The specified protocol is not supported.

Note: This problem does not occur when you play content that is stored on a hard disk drive.

Problem 2
When you click the Network tab of the Windows Media Player Options menu, nothing happens.

Problem 3
On the Windows Media Player Network tab, the "Streaming proxy settings" protocol listing is empty.


CAUSE
This problem may occur if any one of the following conditions is true: The Wmnet...This problem may occur if any one of the following conditions is true:
The Wmnetmgr.dll file is unregistered.

The Wmnetmgr.dll file is located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder.
The Wmsdkns.xml file is corrupted.

The file is Windows Media Player's network namespace file.
The Wmsdkns.xml file has incorrect permissions.

RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, use one of the following methods.

Method 1
Register the Wmnetmgr.dll file by using an account that is in the Administrators group. At a command prompt, run the following command.
regsvr32 wmnetmgr.dll


Method 2
Make sure that the user account that is using Windows Media Player has Modify permissions for the Wmsdkns.xml file.

Note In Windows Vista, the file is located in the C:\Users\Userame\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Media\11.0 folder. In Windows XP, the file is located in the C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Media\11.0 folder.

Method 3
Delete the Wmsdkns.xml file. After you delete it, Windows Media Player will re-create the Wmsdkns.xml file.

MORE INFORMATION:
Steps to reproduce the problem Unregister the Wmnetmgr.dll file by using an acco...Steps to reproduce the problem
Unregister the Wmnetmgr.dll file by using an account that is in the Administrators group. At the command prompt, run the following command.
regsvr32 /u wmnetmgr.dll

Make sure that the user account that is using Windows Media Player has Deny permissions for the Wmsdkns.xml file.