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Ok, so you have your RealPlayer and you have a media file in the .ra or .rm format. If you place your RealMedia file in your geocities directory and make a link to it from one of your pages, the whole file will download before it plays. To make the file "stream", you need to use what is called a "meta" file. The meta file is the secret to streaming media.
The meta file is nothing more than a simple text file containg the full url of the media file. For example:
http://geocities.datacellar.net/SiliconValley/Heights/8344/tester.ra
Notice that I do not use quotation marks and that I use the proper capitalization of my neighborhoods. This is no place to cut corners! You must use your complete url.
90% of all problems that people have with their RealAudio or RealVideo files are caused by the improper creation of the meta file so please follow these instructions exactly. If you deviate, there is a very good chance you will have problems.
First, use a true ascii text editor like Notepad. DO NOT use a word processor and think you will be ok if you simply do a "Save as" into the .txt format. Many people have tried to do this and it simply doesn't work!
Do not add any extra characters! Do not even hit the "Enter" key at the end of the url! Type the url of the media file and leave the cursor at the end of the url. The url MUST be as "clean" as possible.
After you have typed the url of your media file, use the mouse to click on "File" and then "Save". I usually name my meta files the same as the media files so it is easy to keep them together. In this case, I named the meta file "tester.txt". Now, use your Windows Explorer to go to the directory where you have stored the meta file and use the "Rename" function to rename the meta file to the .ram file extension. Now I have tester.ram. DO NOT think you can save a step by doing a "Save as" directly to the .ram format! Save the meta file as .txt and Rename to .ram. This one thing causes most of the problems people write to me about.
Ok now you have the two files you need to successfully stream media. You have the media file (in this example tester.ra) and the meta file (in this example tester.ram). Upload BOTH of these files to your Geocities directory.
Ok, the last important concept is that you make your link to the META file, NOT the media file! Like this:
<A HREF="tester.ram">Click here to test my Real Audio</A>
And here is the proof of the pudding (as it were)... Click here to test my Real Audio