Content streaming, such as the streaming of audio, video, and/or text is becoming increasingly popular. The term “streaming” is typically used to indicate that the data representing the media is provided over a network to a client computer on an as-needed basis rather than being pre-delivered in its entirety before playback of the data begins. Thus, the client computer renders streaming data as it is received from a network server, rather than waiting for an entire “file” to be delivered.
The widespread availability of streaming multimedia enables a variety of informational content that was not previously available over the Internet or other computer networks. Live content is one significant example of such content. Using streaming multimedia, audio, video, or audio/visual coverage of noteworthy events can be broadcast over the Internet as the events unfold. Similarly, television and radio stations can transmit their live content over the Internet.
A co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/179,828, entitled “Communicating via a Connection Between a Streaming Server and a Client without Breaking the Connection”, describes streaming data from a server to a client via an established connection, where commands can be communicated to the server and streaming can continue without breaking the connection. This streaming can occur, for example, using an HTTP 1.1 (HyperText Transfer Protocol version 1.1) connection. However, problems can arise when attempting to stream content over an HTTP 1.1 connection because even though the client and the server may support such streaming, a network device situated between the client and the server may not. This situation can create problems because commands may not be passed between the client and server as expected by the client and server.
The automatic detection of intermediate network device capabilities described herein solves these and other problems.