MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is a standardized method for organizing divergent file formats. The method organizes file formats according to the file's MIME type. When a browser retrieves a file from a server, the server provides the MIME type of the file. For example, HTTP servers use HTML formatting. A browser uses the MIME type to establish whether the file format can be read by the software's built-in capabilities or, if not, whether a suitable helper application is available to read the file.

To add a MIME type definition to your site all you have to do is create a ".htaccess" file in your www directory with the appropriate mapping (see below). The creator of the application associated with the MIME type will often publish the MIME definition information for various web servers making it easy to add the mapping to your own site. You'll need a MIME definition that is compatible with the Apache web server. The following information contained in a ".htaccess" file should be enough to handle most file types such as shockwave flash, mpeg, midi, etc.

AddType audio/x-pn-realaudio rm
AddType audio/midi mid
AddType audio/x-midi mid
AddType application/x-shockwave-flash swf
AddType audio/x-mpeg mpg
AddType audio/x-mpeg mp2
AddType audio/x-mpeg mp3
AddType image/vasa mcf
AddType video/x-msvideo avi
AddType video/avi avi

If you need additional MIME types, there are some extensive listings available at various search engines.