FLV 404 Error On Windows 2003 Server : Kinky Solutions : A Student's Perspective by Ben Nadel

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Posted July 26, 2007 at 11:48 AM

Tags: Work

I was working on a streaming video file for a client this morning using Flash and a linked FLV video file. Everything worked nicely - the Flash media player is so badass - until I uploaded it to the production server. Suddenly, the movie didn't play at all. Nothing I did seemed to work; cleaning the cache didn't do anything; all the paths were right. It wasn't until I tried to access the FLV file directly and got a 404 File Not Found error that I realized something was fishy.

After some Google searching, I came across this Adobe Tech Note that says that:

When Flash Player movie files that stream external FLV files (Flash videos) are placed on a Microsoft Windows 2003 server and then viewed in a browser, the SWF file plays correctly, but the FLV video does not stream. These files work correctly if tested on other operating systems. The issue affects all FLV files played via Windows 2003 server, including files made with the Flash Video Kit for Dreamweaver MX 2004.

The good news is that there is any easy solution:

1. On the Windows 2003 server, open the Internet Information Services Manager.
2. Expand the Local Computer Server.
3. Right-click the local computer server and select Properties.
4. Select the MIME Types tab.
5. Click New and enter the following information:
   • Associated Extension box: .FLV
   • MIME Type box:flv-application/octet-stream
6. Click OK.
7. Restart the World Wide Web Publishing service.

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Reader Comments

This tip is already in our ToDo list when we install a new server. :)

I know I spent a lot of time to find out the reason of this problem and this will be useful for others also.

Posted by Oguz Demirkapi on Jul 26, 2007 at 12:28 PM

What makes it so frustrating is that the SWF file works fine... it just looks like the FLV file is not loading into it properly. So of course, you think its just a path problem or something! Uggg :)

Posted by Ben Nadel on Jul 26, 2007 at 12:30 PM

I've been bit by this little nuance as well.

Posted by Dave Hoff on Jul 26, 2007 at 12:34 PM

funny, but i had same problem not long ago and blogged about it just yesterday http://www.1smartsolution.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=FCE65E88-50BF-1286-4BD978F4378AAE45

:)

Posted by Ed on Jul 26, 2007 at 3:30 PM

Ha ha, small world :) I hope you didn't waste as much time as I did!

Posted by Ben Nadel on Jul 26, 2007 at 3:36 PM

Jeez! Wasted an hour on this little doozy! How come FLVs worked on our old server? I'm sure we had to do this before.

THANKS!!!

Posted by David Wilce on Aug 7, 2007 at 1:00 PM

I mean... "never had to do this before".

Posted by David Wilce on Aug 7, 2007 at 1:01 PM

Yeah, silly IIS! :)

Posted by Ben Nadel on Aug 7, 2007 at 1:02 PM

Oooh, that was happened to me before, but I catch - after long time - it by trying to download the flv file useing its full path. I don't remember what was the error, but it has been solved doing the same steps you wrote.

thanks

Posted by Ameen on Aug 11, 2007 at 10:02 AM

Thank you so much

Spent houers looking at first code then crossdomain policy issues then searching for flash related help and then I tried to dl the flv file directly from browser which finally got me to put in windows in the search criteria and then I found your page so...............

But ain't this what development is allways all about

Posted by Peter on Aug 16, 2007 at 5:40 AM

@Peter,

Always glad to help. It took me a while to find this out also - I hope that I cut down on your search time a bit :)

Posted by Ben Nadel on Aug 16, 2007 at 7:25 AM

Thanks a lot my friend.. this help me to fix the issue on the fly.. Great solution posted.

Posted by Pavan on Sep 11, 2007 at 11:50 AM

Forwarded this to University ITS, fixed my problem.
Thank you!

Posted by Pat Graybill on Nov 7, 2007 at 6:50 PM

thanks, man!

Posted by Jonathan on Nov 9, 2007 at 2:32 PM

Thanks, Ben! Found this via a Google search for "Flash Video 404." Exactly what I needed. You made my day.

Posted by Patrick McElhaney on Mar 12, 2008 at 8:49 AM

Sweeeet!

Posted by Ben Nadel on Mar 12, 2008 at 8:54 AM

Thanks a ton...I was beginning to think I was going crazy. My search to find you was 404 error flv

Posted by Dan White on Apr 21, 2008 at 3:13 PM

@Dan,

Rock on, glad to help :)

Posted by Ben Nadel on Apr 21, 2008 at 3:29 PM

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