Flash loading external file freezes page -or- multiple simultaneous downloads

Question

I've got a flash mp3 player on one of my web pages, streaming external audio. Check this site out as an example (no affiliation, just an example):

http://www.1pixelout.net/code/audio-player-wordpress-plugin/

When it's a decent sized mp3, once I start playing the file, it takes a little time to buffer. While it's buffering, if I click on any other link, the browser waits until the buffering has finished before acting on my click. On a slow connection, this is annoying.

Wondering if anyone else has battled this? Is there a server setting, or a trick (different urls?) or something obvious I'm missing?

Answer 1

I figured it out. Using a subdomain, the browser will allow simultaneous downloads. For anyone else who runs into this...

Answer 2

That plug in looks like it uses progressive download, not streaming.

If this is the case and if you have access to the flash source, i would suggest making sure the Sound.close() method is called on the previously created Sound object.

If you don't have access to the source and it is a plug in like the one you have linked to, you may want to check with the vendor to see if this is a bug as they should be making sure the currently loaded sound is closed before a new one is created.