1. WMP 11 does not always stream.  For some streams (links to MP3 or ASX
files which I activate from IE-7), the player will open, show the correct
title of the selection and "Connecting with media."  The playing-time slide
will begin to progress for about 10 seconds, but with no sound.  After 10
seconds, the selection stops.  Pressing Play simply repeats the process.

2. Where the link is to an MP3 file, the clip properties pane will show the
bit rate.  I have found that the above problem tends to occur for lower-bit
rate files (less than somewhere in the 30's of kbps).

3.  MP3 files of all bit rates have played successfully in RealPlayer 10.5,
by dragging the link to the RP window, so the playing problem is not directly
with IE, XP or the the hardware.  (The dragging feature, incidentally, does
not work consistently in WMP-11.  In such cases the "do not" sign will appear
instead of the drop arrow).  

4. Finally, WMP-11 is not playing low-bit-rate WMA and MP3 files even
directly from my hard drive.

Can anybody give any insight into these problems, to help me solve them?

Thanks.