Real Audio Problem
 

Hello to All ---

This is my first posting here because I have run into a strange problem involving Winamp, Real Audio and IE6.

First the specs:

Running WA 2.81 and Internet Explorer 6 with SP1 under Win2k with SP3.
I have the relevant codecs for Real Audio 8 installed. Following instructions from previous threads here, I unistalled RA8 but left the necessary files to allow Winamp to play RA files. Finally, I have Tara's Plug-In 1.0.3b installed to run the RealAudio files. All the necessary file associations have been made so that Winamp runs .ra and .ram files by default.

OK. Until recently I had no problem. I go to a website and click on an RA file link. The Windows download file box pops up and asks if I want to save it or open it. I usually open it. Winamp opens up and starts playing the RA file. No problems. The same thing would happen with an MP3 file, except the actual MP3 file would be downloaded if I wanted.

Well, MP3 still works great, but now when I click on an RA link, the URL of the link appears all by itself in my browser. It does not play and no download window pops up. All I get is the URL sitting all by itself in the upper left-hand corner of my browser. For example,

http://161.58.151.163/kurtelling/files/Sugar.rm

Now if I go back to the web site and then right click on the link and then use the "Save Target As" feature, the download box pops up, the URL is saved to my drive, and I can then click on "Open" in that box. At this point, Winamp opens up and plays the RA file. Or else, I can close the download box and then play the file later by going to my download directory, clicking on the RA filename that was downloaded, and Winamp opens, connects to the URL and plays the file.

Can someone please explain what is happening here? Is there some way for me to fix this? It is driving me nuts. As I said, until recently it worked fine, but now this nutso state of affairs has emerged. If further info is needed, just holler at me. And if I haven't been too clear here, just holler again and I'll try to be a little more lucid.

Thanks to all for your help.