Can't play or copy any music CDs over my LAN

I can copy any other files over my lan peer to peer, except cd tracks. I'll click on 'em and winamp starts up but can't play them as they look like track files but the data size is just several kb instead of several megs.

I have a D-Link 704P and Netbeui peer-to-peer protocol to enhance my LAN security. Otherwise It's all good.

Both PCs are 98se/lite.

First, you have to understand that the "files" you see when looking at an audio CDrom aren't really files... they are representations of tracks on the CD. When you try to run them, winamp will try to play it, and will be redirected to the correct track on the CD. It won't be able to play it though, because it was never meant to play that way. It was only meant to play locally.

In order to play files over the network, I would suggest using a ripping tool to rip the files to the hard drive, either into .wav files or .mp3.

The easier option would be to put it into the local cdrom and play it from there.

I remember hearing about a winamp plugin a while back that would let you control another winamp over the network. If you try this, install winamp on both machines, put the cd in and play it through the remote machine's speakers, and you can trackchange, stop and pause remotely, through the network.

I got my answer:

"Audio cd's are direct stream. If you look at the tracks they are 1kb each. Just a mark to show where the data stream is. Your cd player reads the data bit by bit, 0's and 1's, and it sends this data on the cable to your sound card. If you unplug the cable from your cd player to your sound card it will show the cd playing but you won't hear anything. This is why you can't hear it over a lan. No wire going into your sound card."

Audioaficionado said:

I got my answer:

"Audio cd's are direct stream. If you look at the tracks they are 1kb each. Just a mark to show where the data stream is. Your cd player reads the data bit by bit, 0's and 1's, and it sends this data on the cable to your sound card. If you unplug the cable from your cd player to your sound card it will show the cd playing but you won't hear anything. This is why you can't hear it over a lan. No wire going into your sound card."

Click to expand...

Actually if you have the "Wave" channel enabled in your soundcard which you should you should still be able to hear the music off of the CD. I don't think I've ever connected the cable from my CDrom to my Soundcard. It just play's the music thru the "Wave" channel instead of the "CD Audio" channel. But it does still work.