The easiest thing you can do is to open your frontpage web, use the File |
Import File to import the file into the web site. Then you can link to it
just as if it was a web page. The user's browser can then open it in the
correct media program. You can also tell them right-click and select "save
target as" to save the file.
Your best bet is to convert them into streaming media. The file won't truly
stream because you won't be running a streaming media server (a rather
expensive type of server) but will give better performance and file size.
For Windows Media Player, you can go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/AllDownloads.aspx?displang=en&qstechnology=
and in the dropdown list where it says select download, choose Windows Media
Encoder. You can then choose the encoder that fits the version you are
looking for (best bet is windows media encoder 9 series).
Other popular formats include realnetworks realvideo at
http://www.real.com
(they have some free encoder tools as well) and Apple Quicktime
(quicktime.apple.com).
Keep something else in mind, these files will end up big. You'll need to
watch it carefully or you'll end up using all of your diskspace pretty
quickly. If the files are downloaded or viewed a lot you may also run into
bandwidth limits set by your host which could either lead to additional fees
or shutting down the site for using too much bandwidth
