A good number of web hosts, in particular, 1and1, do not support Flash video files with the extension .flv. This is because the .flv mime-type is not set up on the web host’s servers.

Does this mean you can’t embed Flash video on your website?

Answer: No!

There is a workaround which “fools” the server into displaying the video even when it doesn’t support the .flv mime-type. It works as follows:

1. Upload your .flv file to the required folder on your website server (for this example the .flv will be called “myvideo.flv”).
2. Rename the file to “index.htm” (i.e. rename myvideo.flv to index.htm).
3. Create a folder with the same name as your video file (i.e. create a folder called “myvideo.flv”).
4. Move the “index.htm” file into this folder. (i.e. so you end up with “myvideo.flv/index.htm”).

Note: Some FTP programs do not allow you to create folders with dots “.” in. I normally login into my web host (1and1) and use their WebFile explorer to create the “myvideo.flv” folder.