Living on Earth Audio

Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice.

For information on how to listen to audio on our website, click here.

Hardware and Software You Need To Listen to LOE audio
To listen to LOE on-line, you will need:

• A sound card in your computer (most computers come with one pre-installed).
• For streaming and archived audio, a 28.8 kbps or faster modem (some archived files can be accessed through a 14.4 kbps modem).
• The Real Player version 8 or newer for streaming audio. You can get a free version of Real Networks' player from RealNetworks' Download page (link to the free player is either in the upper-right corner or at the bottom of the page)
• An mp3 player for mp3 audio files.

RealAudio: Windows Setup

• With Real Player Launched go to the VIEW menu and select OPTIONS.
• Within the OPTIONS window click the Transport tab to bring up the transport settings.
• Within the Transport settings section, Click on the "Automatically select best transport" radio button and then click the "Auto-Configure..." button.

The Real Player will try several different methods of connecting to servers and will tell you when it is finished. The best method to listen to LOE audio is via TCP.

RealAudio: Macintosh Setup

• With Real Player Launched go to the VIEW menu and select PREFERENCES.
• Within the PREFERENCES window click the Transport tab to bring up the transport settings.
• Within the Transport settings section, Click on the "Automatically select best transport" radio button and then click the "Auto-Configure..." button.

The Real Player will try several different methods of connecting to servers and will tell you when it is finished. The best method to listen to LOE audio is via TCP.

RealAudio: Unix/Linux Setup
There is now an unsupported Unix/Linux version of Real Player. You can download it from RealNetworks' Download page.

Playing streaming RealAudio files
Whenever you see an icon that looks like this: on the LOE website you can click it to hear Real audio.

If You Need Help
If you have problems playing LOE audio, let us know in an email to webmaster@loe.org. So that we may better assist you, please tell us as much as you can, including:

• File or page where you had the problem- specific URL helps a lot!
• Description of what happened. If you can remember an error message, tell us what it said.
• Computer information including model and browser version (Netscape 3.0; Explorer 4.0, etc.)
• Modem speed (14.4, 28.8, T1 etc.)
• Real Player version or mp3 player and version

RealAudio: Further Assistance
We regret that we can not always provide as much assistance as we'd like. For more help, see RealNetworks' site.

MP3s...

...are (generally) a non-streaming file format. Instead of playing right away, you will have to wait until the file is done downloading on most players before you can hear it. The advantage of using an MP3 file instead of a streaming file is that you don't need to be connected to the Internet to play it back once you've downloaded it. This can be very useful for example if you wanted to play a segment for your class on your laptop.

If you are using a PC and would like to use the MP3 format, we recommend either Winamp or Windows Media Player for playback of MP3 files, but you can play MP3's with the built in Windows Media Player if you are running Windows 95 or later.

If you are using a Macintosh we recommend Apple's iTunes. It's a very powerful sound/music management program.

For Linux users, we recommend XMMS.

Playing mp3 files
Whenever you see an icon that looks like this: on the LOE website you can click it to download and play mp3 audio.

Saving an mp3 file:
There are a few different processes, depending on how your player is set up. After you click the Download link , the song should either save itself automatically to a temporary directory, or a personal folder or directory on your hard drive. Or you might get a pop-up prompting you to "Open the file" or "Save to Disk." In this case, choose "Save to Disk." Your computer will then ask you where you would like to save the file. Choose a destination you can remember so you can find the MP3 later.

Most players have a settings area where you can specify how you'd like to download songs. Try playing around with these settings to see which process you like best.

If you're still having trouble downloading MP3s, a quick solution is to right-click the Download link (or left click and hold if you're on Macintosh), left-click Save Link As or Save Target As, name the file and click save.

Once you've downloaded the mp3 file to your computer you can click on it to listen to the file.