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Q. What do I need to use MANIC?
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A. To participate in the MANIC learning experience you need a computer
with an audio card and speakers (or headphones) running Windows or Mac OS, either
Netscape version 4.5 (or newer) or Internet Explorer version 5.0 (or newer). The
browser must be configured with javascript, java, and cookies enabled, and the RealPlayer
plugin version G2 (or newer) must be installed. See
for more information on requirements. Unfortunately at this time MANIC doesn't work
with Unix systems.
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Q. I've met all the requirements, how
come MANIC still doesn't work for me?
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A. You need to make sure your browser is configured properly. Javascript,
java, and cookies must all be enabled, and the browser must be able to locate the
RealPlayer plugin.
See http://www-aml.cs.umass.edu/~jsmanic/intro/cookies.html
for more information.
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Q. The MANIC course seems to start but
I never hear any audio, why?
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A.There are several possible explanations for this problem:
- Make sure your speakers are connected to your audio card and the audio volume is
turned up.
- You don't have JavaScript enabled. To check this, go into the "Edit" menu, and choose
"Preferences." Under "Preferences," click on "advanced" and make sure you've checked
the box to enable JavaScript.
- You don't have the right version of RealPlayer ( RealPlayer G2 or newer) installed.
Go to the Real Website and look for a link to
download RealPlayer 8 Basic for free. They rearrange the page frequently, but the
link is usually at the bottom. Download and install the player.
- Your browser may be having difficulty locating the RealPlayer plugin. This problem
can be solved by uninstalling and reinstalling the RealPlayer program. If you let
the installation program do everything it wants by default, all the files and registry
entries should be updated correctly.
-
You are suffering from severe network congestion and the audio files don't download
properly, before one slide changes to the next. You can either navigate through
the slides manually, playing each one individually rather than playing the presentation
continuously, or you can try viewing at a different time of day when the network
is less busy. Finding a less busy time is becoming more and more difficult, especially
if you are using a modem and dialing into campus.
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Q. I can hear the audio from the MANIC
course, how come the slides don't advance?
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A. This is exactly the behavior exhibited by computers running
some flavor of the Unix operating system. The synchronization events generated by
the RealServer are never detected by the Unix version of the RealPlayer plugin,
thus the slides never advance. For the time being, you'll need to find a computer
running Windows or MacOS to reap the benefits of the MANIC technology.
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Q. Why does the audio sound garbled and
sometimes stop playing?
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A. Good question. This is undoubtly caused by network congestion
somewhere along the route between your computer and the MANIC server. Our audio
streams are encoded at a minimal rate (6.5kbps) to hold down bandwidth requirements,
but packet delays and losses can still adversely affect the audio quality. This
problem may be more prevalent during peak hours (roughly 10AM to 5PM EST), so using
MANIC during non peak hours may help. Of course depending on the particulars of
your specific route you may experience problems no matter what time of day it is.
On our end we are attempting to upgrade our connection to the internet, and internet
2 with its higher data rates offers hope for the future.
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Q. Can I enjoy a MANIC course even if
I'm behind a firewall?
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A. But of course. The best solution is to have your firewall configured
to allow RealPlayer traffic. However, even if your firewall isn't configured to
allow RealPlayer traffic you can still use the RealPlayer transport and port preferences
to play streamed media.
See http://service.real.com/firewall/rplay.html
for details.
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Q. Why does the audio buffering never
complete even though I am able to use RealPlayer at other sites?
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A. If you have a fast connection, then it's probably a firewall
blocking your connection. The other sites you can play may be using newer versions
of RealServer that can detect how your player is configured and change its streaming
accordingly. By default, our server streams with UDP. If this is being blocked by
your company's firewall, you will need to configure RealPlayer to compensate for
this. Basically, you should open TCP port 7070 and UDP ports 6970-7170 on your firewall.
If you want to do TCP-only, then I believe that TCP port 7070 is the only port that
needs to be open, however, I think this will be slower than allowing streaming with
UDP. See the link "Configuring RealPlayer 8" below. Follow the instructions under
"Receiving Clips Through TCP Only". Configuring RealPlayer in this way should fix
your problem.
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Q. Is there a version of MANIC available
for Unix?
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A. At this time the MANIC courseware is not supported on Unix systems.
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Q. Can I print any of the material from
a MANIC course?
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A. You can use your browser's print function to print individual
slides, but we currently don't have a mechanism to print the slides for an entire
lecture or course.
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Q. Can I get a local copy of any of these
MANIC courses?
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A. We are currently working on a CDROM version of MANIC.
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Q. Who can I contact for additional MANIC
technical support?
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A. techsupport@MANIC.cs.umass.edu
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