Hey Christopher....thanks for the help. Earthlink says I have to move my site to a different server if I want to set up a secure page for taking online orders....so I'll most likely switch to 1&1 since I can get that cheaper. Then I'll deal with getting the video to play from them. In the meantime I can leave the stuff at playstream while working on 1&1.
Most likely I'll be asking for help in a few weeks when I get around to switching. Again....thanks for your help!!
Mark

Mark, I don't know if it fits your needs but I use PayPal to sell a DVD, and all of my files, video and otherwise are hosted with 1&1. (When someone clicks the Buy Now button they are taken to a secure PayPal site where the page information is what I've provided in setting up the item for sale.) I've used them for a couple of years for progressive download, embedded player and pop up (of WMV Player). I have had nothing but good feedback from viewers and have never had reason to complain about their service. Quite the opposite in fact. The one issue I didn't see addressed in the thread is bandwidth in relation to format selection. I assume you're building your files for broadband?
I make files only for broadband as is increasingly the case wherever you go.

David Hurdon

On the 1and1 subject:

I recently switched from Ipowerweb to 1and1 for not only the price, but the absurd bandwidth for the price. But it seems their service is much slower. When I download files from my previously hosted Ipowerweb site, I would be getting 800+kbs. But with 1and1, it's a meager 70kbs?

Anyone else experience this?

I just downloaded a video file from my site, and except for a very brief dip to about 480 KB/s the speed was over 500 KB/s with a peak of 560 KB/s (4480 kbps or 4.4 Mbps). For the record, I am on the cheapest 1&1 plan. At 4.4 Mbps I might be hitting the limit of our cable broadband connection (theoretical maximum of 5 Mbps).

I downloaded your Teton ski descent video Morannet.wmv, and the transfer averaged around 265 KB/s with a peak of about 285 KB/s (2280 kbps/2.2 Mbps).

The problem could be as simple as congestion on the routes the packets took to us from the 1&1 server your site is on, though it seems unlikely both of us would experience a slowdown. I do note that even though the results differed for both our sites I still experienced significantly faster throughput from your site than did you. While 2.2 Mbps is half the speed from my site, it still is not bad, and it certainly is not slow. In fact, it is faster than many peoples’ broadband connections. It would be plenty more than fast enough to stream your 530 kbps Morannet.wmv video in real-time.

Still, if you want you could complain to 1&1. Maybe some other site on your server is taking more than their fair share of the bandwidth.

Thanks for the input.

Ipowerweb is showing 750GB transfer per month for a nominal $7.95/month.

I was with them prior, and always had smoking fast downloads of 800KB/sec. I cancelled my 1and1 tonight and switched back.

Would you mind clarifying your download speed for me? In your first post you said "800+kbs," which means kilobits per second. In your second post you said "800KB/sec," which means "kilobytes per second. There is a big difference between the two units, as one kilobyte equals eight kilobits.

If you were truly getting 800 KB/sec downloads from IPowerWeb, then you just didn't have a smoking Web host, you also have a smoking fast Internet connection. 800 KB/sec equals 6.25 Mbps.

Ipowerweb download speed at home on cable connection="800KB/s"

On 1and1 at home on cable connection="60KB/s"

Whatever you call it, it was painfully slow on 1and1, and much faster on Ipower.

Ipower also has excellent customer service with the little "chat" interface and phone service.

1and1 has a customer service reps who speak english as their second language, making communication difficult.

Sorry for the confusion and computer language being my "second language".

That would make it difficult. I'm afraid I never ran into that as I never called them.

That's okay. Most people probably wouldn't know the difference.

And that's one superfast cable connection you've got there!

There is free software to conver to flash (flv or swf) called erightsoft super
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

I just started using their x264 codec converter. What a nice interface. Quick conversions to any bitrate, size, aspect ratio you want. I wish I could get my $30 back from Quicktime Pro, that program is riddled with problems, this one seems much better, and it's free.