MIME (RFC1521) stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. It is an Internet standard allowing transfer of binary files (text documents, spreadsheets, graphics, sounds, video, etc.) between any compliant and compatible client/server pair.

Both the sender and the receiver must know about the same MIME type for a file for it to be correctly handled on the receiving end.

Even though the original intent for MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) was to transfer files through email, the common list of types is also used for transferring files through web (HTTP) connections. This is where web servers and web browsers come into the picture.

The IPAD-OS web server uses the file extension (the part of each file name after the last period) to determine the MIME type from an internal list combined with the MIME types you add to the IPAD.CTL file. If a matching MIME type is not found, the file is sent as a generic binary file which allows downloading but often prevents web browsers from sending content (multimedia or otherwise) to the correct plugin or player.

The following list includes some of the more common multimedia MIME types not included in the IPAD-OS web server by default. It also includes a list of the internal MIME types so you can modify them if desired.