FF does not recognize Akamai netsession_win installed
Using Win7 64-bit and Firefox 9.0.1. Have installed Akamai's netsession_win.exe (required to download files from www.thegreatcourses.com), but FF does not recognize it and requires that it be re-installed; repeatedly. IE 9 64-bit downloads the course files; it seems to recognize and work OK with netsession_win. The Akamai control panel and their admintool.exe show no problems. I think the problem is in getting FF to recognize and use it. Ideas and suggestions appreciated (other than re-re-re-install). I can specify where to download Akamai's installer.exe, but the installation process itself only pauses to make sure I accept the EULA and doesn't let me specify a location: it puts the netsession_win.exe file in C:\Users\myname\AppData\Local\Akamai\. Akamai's FAQ is outdated: "What are the minimum system requirements for the Akamai NetSession Interface? The Akamai NetSession Interface works with Windows 2000, XP, Vista as well as Mac OS X 10.4+." I asked the support folks at the Teaching Company who publish the audio files and require Akamai netsession_win.exe to be installed; they seemed to be unaware of the issue. I also sent a query to Akamai, but no response. Is there a way to tell FF to recognize this tool?
All Replies (7)
Is this the only method you are permitted to use for course downloads, if so why not just use IE.
The site with the faq s is presumably http://www.akamai.com/html/misc/akamai_client/netsession_interface_faq.html
I wonder if it is even designed to be used with firefox ?
I also note you asked in the mozillazine forum, and you may well get a better answer there http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2409143&p=11658809
Thanks. Yes, that's the FAQ site I was referring to. Using Microsoft's IE browser is my workaround, but it's inconvenient to have to switch back and forth and I don't see any notice that it shouldn't work with FF, so I'm hopeful there's a way. I'm not clear how much overlap there is between this forum (which I just learned about) and Mozillazine.
If you have the NoScript add-on installed in Firefox, the Akamai NetSession Interface install will appear every time and never go away. The only way I've found to get around this is to disable the NoScript add-on whenever I want to use the Akamai download manager to download software from a site that uses Akamai.
My current version of NoScript is 2.4.2 in Firefox 12.
I hope that helps!
Modified by E^2
This forum and Mozillazine are separate and unconnected. However we both tend to cross reference some material.
Mozillazine covers technical and wide ranging subjects.
Whereas this is the official Firefox Users support channel, and it is linked to from the Firefox menu. We only deal with basic user problems, mainly directly relating to Firefox, not the software extensions.
There may be severlal add-ons that help rather than swapping repeatedly between Firefox and IE
It appears from ekimino's post above that the Akamai software may work on Firefox.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear in my previous post. Yes, Akamai download manager (NetSession) *will work* in Firefox. What I had found was that the NoScript add-on, when installed and enabled in Firefox, interferes with the Akamai download manager (NetSession Client) and causes the behavior that ronks described: the infinite Akamai NetSession Interface installation loop.
If the NoScipt add-on is disabled or uninstalled from Firefox, then Firefox works just fine with Akamai NetSession download manager.
Modified by E^2
Try the NoScript forum.
ekimeno, exactly what cor-el said. Giorgio Maone is great guy who actively checks out bugs & issues like this personally when reported on his forums. If anyone can debug this, he can.
Try reporting the issue in the NoScript Support section of the forum.