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SHOUTCAST

* A streaming audio system for Windows and Un*x platforms. At the center of the system is this product, the SHOUTcast Distributed Network Audio Server (DNAS). The DNAS is responsible for accepting a broadcast feed from Winamp and the SHOUTcast Source DSP plug-in, and repeating the broadcast to listeners connected to this SHOUTcast DNAS. Once your source content is being fed into the SHOUTcast DNAS, it will also, dependent on the source contents configuration, list itself with the SHOUTcast directory so listeners can locate your broadcast.
* The DNAS also has the ability to deliver on-demand content in MP3 format stored in the content/ directory.
* SHOUTcast is a product of Nullsoft, Inc, makers of the fantastically popular Winamp audio player for Win32. The SHOUTcast system relies on Winamp for playback and content sourcing. Winamp is available at http://www.winamp.com.

WINDOWS

The provided installer will automatically install the DNAS, an uninstaller, and Start Menu shortcuts.

UNIX VERSIONS

Use gunzip and tar to decompress and extract the necessary binaries for your particular operating system. When complete, you should have three files:
* the server binary
* the server config file
* the readme.
Make certain the server is chmod u+x, and that the config file is readable by the user you want to run the server as. The server does *not* need to be run as root, unless you want to use port numbers below 1024 to serve SHOUTcast audio streams.

WINDOWS

Launch the GUI SHOUTcast DNAS by going to Start Menu -> SHOUTcastDNAS. Click on Edit Config in the menu bar, and a text editor will appear with the configuration file for the SHOUTcast server. When finished, save your changes, and kill the GUI server. You have to restart the DNAS for changes to take effect.

UNIX

Edit the sc_serv.conf file in the text editor of your choice. Tom would prefer you use Emacs, because it makes Justin really mad. Justin would prefer you use vi, because he thinks Tom suffers from some vicious malaise. You will probably be lame and end up using Pico. There is additional documentation available on the parameters on shoutcast.com in the documentation section.

REQUIREMENTS

If you want to broadcast to listeners, you will need:
* 90Mhz or faster server, running one of Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, Mac OS X, Sparc Solaris 2.7+, FreeBSD 4.x+, or Linux with a libc6 kernel.
* 14kB of memory for every listener you want to broadcast to (i.e. 1,000 listeners means you need 14 Megabytes of RAM), plus whatever your operating system needs for overhead, plus 1.5MB for the servers base requirements. Dont set the listener count higher than you need, it just screws things up.
* Enough bandwidth to run the server. If you want to broadcast to 100 listeners at 24kbps, you will need about 24kbps*100 = 2,400kbps = 2.4Mbps of bandwidth. Thats about 2 T1 lines worth of bandwidth. Trying to push 100 128kbps listeners down your 768kbps cable modem is not going to work :)
* If you want people on the internet to be able to hear you, you also need a clear connection to the internet. No firewalls, NAT devices, web caches at the ISP, proxy servers, or internet sharing devices. In some cases you can make a workaround but if you intend to provide a quality streaming service you have to invest in a quality connection. Naturally, if you just want to run a private server locally on a LAN, you do n0t need this at all.
* If you want to list this server on the SHOUTcast directory, you will need a working DNS server configured as well. You can verify DNS is working by pinging www.yahoo.com, or pulling up a web browser and visiting www.shoutcast.com. Note that you can not ping www.shoutcast.com, because AOL blocks ICMP traffic.
* A broadcast source. This is usually in the form of a computer running Winamp (can be the same computer running the DNAS), and the SHOUTcast Source Plugin. This is available in the I wanna be a DJ section on SHOUTcast.com.
If you do not have some/any of the above, you can still broadcast a station, but you will have to pay someone for the privelege of hosting a SHOUTcast server for you, and you wont need this piece of software. To find good providers, visit the SHOUTcast forums on www.shoutcast.com and hear what others say about the growing number of streaming audio providers.