Why wouldn't the sound files play?

Question

I can play .wav sound files on my computer. But I cannot play .wav sound files from the internet.

In my broswer, I cannot play -
http://french.about.com/library/media/wavs/bonjour.wav

But I can listen to the same when I download the wav file.

What could be the problem?

(I can play mp3 and other types directly though.)

Answer 1

Wav files just can't be opened that way. They have to be saved to your computer and then played. MP3's can be streamed but WAV's are so large in size, they are never streamed.

Many times it's not a matter of what file extension the file is, it's a matter of how someone embeds them into their html.

Answer 2

Sridhar,
I guess "wav" files are not the type which comes under Video/Audio streaming.(mp3, mp4 comes under streaming). Even though you access wav files through Internet, it has to be downloaded completely before it can start its first note, which is not the case in other streaming media files such as Real Audio, MPEG4, mp3 etc.
I doubt that the wav files may not be configured to be downloaded automatically from Internet through browser, thats why you have to manually download them and open them with media players.
Hope this answer helps da.