ADVANCED TOPICS (FAQ)

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                                              streaming audio system

FAQ -- ADVANCED TOPICS

=====Table of Contents:

OVERVIEW
  O1.  Where do I get the IP address I need to use?
  O2.  Who is my system administrator?  

DNAS
  D1.  How do I use the on-demand content features of the DNAS?
  D2.  Why does the SHOUTcast directory think I'm at a different IP than
       I really am?
  D3.  I'm behind a firewall/proxy.  Can I still use the DNAS to broadcast?

SOURCE PLUG-IN FOR WINAMP
  S1.  How do I use advanced mode?
  

=====OVERVIEW

O1.  Where do I get the IP address I need to use?

Answer:  Nullsoft/AOL don't presently provide free bandwidth or servers to broadcast
from.  You need to talk to your ISP or someone with a big fat internet connection
and convince them to run the server for you so you can broadcast from it.



O2.  Who is my system administrator?

Answer:  The system administrator is the person responsible for computers on your
network.  If you aren't on a network, then you are your own system administrator.
SHOUTcast broadcasting can be a fairly complex process, so bring someone along
who's familiar with things like IP networking if you feel less than comfortable
with computers.



=====DNAS

D1.  How do I use the on-demand content features of the DNAS?

Answer:  The DNAS installs with a folder called content/.  Place any MP3 files
inside this directory, and they're ready to be streamed on-demand.  The server
will even automatically generate a playlist for any individual item of content
so you can have browsers automatically pass the content off to a player without
having to make playlists yourself.

example:

your server has a file called song.mp3 in the content/ folder.  Your SHOUTcast
DNAS is running on port 8000 at my.host.com.

Your HTML page should have the following code:

You can listen to my song <A HREF="http://my.host.com:8000/content/song.pls">here</A>

NOTE:  The file song.pls DOES NOT EXIST in your content directory!  If a file
with the same name exists with the .mp3 extension, the DNAS will automatically
generate the .pls file.

NOTE:  Subdirectories DO NOT work for the content section, to help prevent
malicious users from tramping around your filesystem.



D2.  Why does the SHOUTcast directory think I'm at a different IP than
     I really am?

Answer:  The SHOUTcast directory used to run on the honor system.  That was,
it took you at your word on what IP you were broadcasting at.  Since about
twenty billion people abused that to send people to porn sites, now the
directory forces the listed IP to the same IP that sends it the info.
Since many ISPs now use content caching on port 80 (the same port that
directory data comes from), a different IP address can sometimes appear
in the directory.  There isn't any solution for this at the moment,
save having your ISP disable forced proxying of your address.



D3.  I'm behind a firewall/proxy.  Can I still use the DNAS to broadcast?

Answer:  Tricky question.  Users behind proxies cannot.  Users behind NAT
devices can, *provided* the same port the SHOUTcast server runs on is 
set up to forward from the NAT device to the SHOUTcast server.  Users
behind firewalls can also get a hole punched so listeners can penetrate.
If broadcasters also need to get in from the outside world, you should
open the hole for PortBase + 1 (i.e. id SHOUTcast runs on 8000, 8001
should be open for broadcasters to get through as well.)


=====SOURCE PLUG-IN

S1.  How do I use advanced mode?

Answer:  Read the README that comes with the plug-in.  It explains 
how to make things like crossfading, cd-audio, and voiceovers work.
Also, there's a ScreenCam guide which will show exactly what to do
here.