Children's games Web site difficulties

[Sue Furman]

Keywords: children's games web sites, plugins, Internet Explorer 5.5, 
Netscape 4.08, Win 9x
If you don't deal with this area, you may delete now.


Hello Friends -
   It is time for me to de-lurk and request input from all in 
Web4Lib land.
 I am confounded by an on-going inconsistency in using the following 
children's internet sites for games. FoxKids.com, zoogdisney.com, 
pbs.org, cartoonnetwork.com. Basically, sometimes they work, other times 
errors are given such as "Director player error - unable to find file" 
and "You need Flash (or Shockwave) to use this site"

Here is my setup: 
I have a T1 line to the Internet. My internal network is 100mb/s. I'm 
running Cisco switches The PC's are Gateway and Dell brands, Pentium II, 
266 to 350 MHz processors. All have 128MB of RAM. Internet Explorer 5.5, 
service pack 1, Netscape Navigator 4.08 and Microsoft Word97 are 
installed. Deep Freeze is used as the security software. The Gateway's 
are running Win98 SE, the Dell's are on Win95 B. Both brands experience 
the same problems.
Plugins installed are: Java 1.3.1_01, Shockwave 8.5, G2 Real Player, SVG 
Adobe, Intertrust Redemption Certificate, QuickTime 5.0.1, Adobe Acrobat 
5.0, Flash 5.0 r41, LiveAudio 1.1.1515, NPAVI32.

There is no *one* certain time of day these sites don't work. All the 
error messages involve either some indication that one of the installed 
plugins is *not* installed or certain files cannot be found. Sometimes 
there is no message at all, the site seems to not be responding, but
the upper right corner browser icon shows it's active. This can happen at 
9AM or 4PM. One PC can be running a particular game, and the PC right 
next to it, running the same game, will error out. Sometimes a game will 
work on a PC and then an hour later, on the same PC, won't. Sometimes 
a game won't work on Internet Explorer, but will on Netscape or vice-
versa.

We are a Public Library, and our Chidren's Services staff feel it is 
important to offer these types of entertainment games sites for our 
youth. This type of service meets the mission statement and Internet 
usage policy of our library. Staff are becoming increasingly frustrated 
with me and our state of automation in general because the kids have 
difficulty using these sites. I'm baffled at what's happening.

My questions are:
1. Do others experience these error messages on these sites?
2. Do I have all the plugins I need to run these sites?
3. What am I not seeing or doing right?
4. Does your library offer these type of games? If not, why, and what do 
you offer.

Any insight you can offer will be gratefully accepted. I'm at wit's end. 
Thank you all.



Sue Furman -- District Automation Coordinator -- Fountaindale Public 
Library District -- 300 W. Briarcliff Road, Bolingbrook, IL 60440.
email: sfurman at fountaindale.lib.il.us
voice: 630-759-2102 x20
fax: 630-759-9314