SOURCE CONTENT FROM DOMAIN UNC PATHS IN MEDIA SERVICES

The default installation of Media Services under Windows Server 2003 allows you to source all content that's available on the local machine. However, with the distributed nature of today's network, it's not likely that all the content you need will reside on the local system.

But when you try to create a publishing point that uses content from a UNC path or even a mapped drive, you're unable to do so. Assuming that both the media server and the NAS device or server with the media files belong to the same domain, there's a way to access the content you need.

Follow these steps:

1. On the server or NAS device that has the content you want to source, share the folder that contains the media files.

2. Grant the media server computer account Read Access to the share.

3. On the media server, go to Start | Administrative Tools | Windows Media Services.

4. Select the media server from the list in the left pane, and select the Properties tab in the right pane.

5. Select Authorization from the list of configuration categories.

6. Deselect the WMS NTFS ACL Authorization plug-in.

7. Create a new publishing point using a UNC path.

8. Select the new publishing point, and click the Properties tab in the right pane.

9. Select the Authorization category.

10. Enable the WMS Publishing Point ACL Authorization plug-in, and set permissions for access to the publishing point.

11. For sources that aren't remote, reenable the WMS NTFS ACL Authorization plug-in individually.