Advanced Support: School IT administrator's guide

Overview

To set up your school’s networked computers to use WMA Downloadable books, you will need to:

• Install and configure the RFB&D Download Manager software on each computer that will be used to download AudioAccess books
• Check the version of Windows Media Player^® on the PCs that will be using the books and upgrade if necessary
• Set up Internet security settings to allow download and licensing of the books

Sharing files among users: By default, the WMA Downloadable service is set up to download and license books in a user’s “My Documents” space; however, it is possible to share a single copy of WMA Downloadable files for multiple users. You can even share the files among multiple PCs on a network, although a separate license will be required for each PC. Instructions for doing this are given below.

Installing RFB&D Download Manager

RFB&D Download Manager is a small Windows-based application that simplifies the download of WMA Downloadable books. Each book consists of many Windows Media Audio (.WMA) files (one file per book page); these are packaged in ZIP files (one per chapter) to facilitate download. RFB&D Download Manager keeps track of how many ZIP files are in each book; allows users to pause, resume and re-order downloads; handles interrupted downloads; automatically unpackages the ZIP files and adds the individual audio tracks to the Windows Media Player library.

The installer for RFB&D Download Manager can be downloaded at the following URL:

https://custhub.rfbd.org/Download/RFBDDownloadManager.exe

The installation is fairly simple; see the Installation Guide on the WMA Downloadable support website for full details. Some key points to consider:

• Proxy support. RFB&D Download Manager downloads files using HTTP, and needs to know about any web proxy you may be using. If you use a proxy, choose the “Advanced” installation option to set up proxy support at installation time. You also can set up proxy settings at any time by choosing the “Options” item from the “View” menu.
• Download locations. By default, RFB&D Download Manager will download ZIP files to “My Documents\RFBD Downloads.” When it unpacks these, by default the audio tracks will be placed into “My Documents\RFBD Media.” If you wish to change these locations, use the “Advanced” installation option to set them at install time, or choose the “Options” item from the “View” menu after installing the software.

Windows Media Player

Learning Ally WMA Downloadable books use Windows Media DRM technology that is supported by Windows Media Player version 10 or higher. If the PCs on which WMA Downloadable books are to be used have an older version of Windows Media Player, you will need to upgrade. The latest version of Windows Media Player is available at the following address:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player 

Internet Security Settings

In order to download WMA Downloadable books, users will need to be able to download ZIP files from our content delivery network sites:

http://rfbd.vo.llnwd.net/o41/

Be sure that firewall and other internet security settings allow download from this site. In addition, books must be licensed in Windows Media Player before they can be played. This requires Windows Media Player to contact a web page at Learning Ally:

As is usual for Windows Media Player licensing, users will need to be able to run a Microsoft ActiveX control on this page in order to receive a license. Be sure that your Internet security settings allow access to this site for users who will be reading WMA Downloadable books.

Sharing WMA Downloadable Files Among User Accounts

By default, RFB&D Download Manager downloads WMA Downloadable books to folders under the user’s My Documents folder. However, it is possible to download to a different location that is shared among users. To do this:

1. Configure RFB&D Download Manager to extract files to the shared location
2. Be sure that all users have permission to read this location
3. For each user who wishes to share the books, configure their Windows Media Player Library to monitor the shared location:
   1. Select the “Add to Library…” option under the “File” menu
   2. If necessary, click the “Advanced Options >>” button in order to add locations
   3. Click the “Add…” button, select the shared location, and click “OK”
   4. Under “Skip files smaller than,” set the audio files limit to 25 KB

By using a shared network location, you can use this method to share a single set of downloaded files among multiple PCs. Note that licenses are associated with the PC, not the files. If the files will be played on more than one PC, you will need to get a separate license for each PC, even if all the PCs are sharing the same files.

https://license.rfbd.org