Re: FLASH: Flash Corporate User Statistics

[John Dowdell]

At 2:47 AM 12/1/0,

Sharon [dot] BennettSAAConsultants [dot] com

 wrote:

>I'm a web designer at an e-business software solutions company.

>Currently, we cannot use Flash technology on our site, as the security

>dept will not let it through our firewall due to (supposed) security

>issues.  I disagree with this and I am currently writing a report

>outlining why I think we should reconsider this guideline.  Our website is

>focused toward a corporate audience and thus, I am trying to find

>statistics on what percentage of corporate web users have the flash

>player, but the info on Macromedia's site is based on US statistics only.

>Can anyone offer any advice regarding where I can get hold of UK

>statistics?


Actually, the MediaMetrix statistics are global, but I'm not certain

whether they separate the UK from the rest of the EU. In addition to that

these are consumer samples rather than samples across various intranet

restrictions, which in themselves seems like they'd have varying

technographics.


For "How might someone think there's a security issue?" then the usual

confusion we see is "It's an ActiveX Control, and we can't let people

install ActiveX Controls from the web." While it's true that accepting

arbitrary executable code from others can be risky (as seen in today's

falsely-titled "Flash virus" stories), the Macromedia site is a known

quantity, with millions of installations each day, every day, for years.

Accepting the Macromedia Flash Player as ActiveX Control is observably not

a security risk, although a superficial understanding of the issues can

confuse some.


For "If we can't download the Macromedia Flash Player over the web, then

how can we get it?" then it's already available on your operating system

CDs, in new computers, in browser CDs and downloads, and more. Doing a full

installation from disk is enough to get a version of the Macromedia Flash

Player. To make sure everyone has the current version, you can license the

installer for intranet use:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/shockwave/info/licensing/


(Hosting a SWF does not involve the firewall... it uses regular HTTP

connections. The only "firewall" issues I can think of offhand are for

installation, but I may have picked up a different concern behind their

statements, sorry.)


jd





John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US

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