PeerCast

[Todd Boyle]

At 08:41 PM 7/13/02, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
>http://www.peercast.org/
>
>PeerCast.org - Main page
>
>PeerCast.org was established in April 2002 as a non-commercial site
>providing free peer-to-peer broadcasting software. The aim of the project
>is to create an easy to use, simple and reliable software client that
>enables anyone to broadcast audio freely on the Internet.
>
>PeerCast offers considerable bandwidth savings for broadcasters because
>they do not have to provide bandwidth for all of their listeners. A single
>56K modem can broadcast to the entire network.
>
>PeerCast uses the Gnutella protocol as the basis for all communications,
>and complies (mostly) to the Gnutella 0.6 protocol. It works in much the
>same way as other Gnutella clients except instead of downloading files, the
>users download streams. These streams are exchanged in real-time with other
>users.
>
>PeerCast is a robust network because there is no central server, each user
>can be a client, server or broadcaster of streams. It offers anonymity for
>broadcasters because there is no easy way to trace back to the original
>stream, it is even possible to broadcast directly to single client located
>in a different country and have that provide the source for the entire
>network.
>
>A built-in web server is included with each client, this enables you or
>someone else on your LAN to view/listen to your active channels with a
>standard web browser. Offices can have one PeerCast client providing MP3
>streams to the entire LAN.
>
>We currently have a beta Windows client that is available for download here.
>
>Windows versionClick to download
>
>:News:
>Visit the new Forum to discuss PeerCast and read announcements.
>
>How to listen
>
>1. Download and run the client program.
>2. PeerCast will automatically try and connect to the network.
>3. Once connected, some channels should appear in the Search window. If
>they don`t after a few seconds, try clicking Find again. (You can leave the
>text box blank to search for all channels)
>4. Select a channel in the Search window and click Get Channel.
>5. After a short time, the channel you selected should appear in the
>Channels window.
>6. Select this channel and click Listen. This will open up the channel in
>your default MP3 player.
>
>How to broadcast
>
>PeerCast is currently compatible with Icecast/Shoutcast MP3 streams. You
>simply need to point the source provider (such as OddCast) to the PeerCast
>client.
>For example, in OddCast, set the Server, Port and Password to be the same
>as PeerCast, and select Icecast as the format.
>
>Please note:
>If you select Shoutcast as the format in OddCast, you must enter the
>PeerCast port number -1. This is because PeerCast only requires the
>broadcast connection, which is the Shoutcast port + 1.
>
>Firewalls and routers
>
>As with all p2p applications, routers, firewalls and NATs cause all sorts
>of problems with getting 2 users to connect to each other. If you are
>behind a router/firewall you should be able to connect out to another user
>who is on dialup OK, but people won`t be able to connect to you unless you
>have NAT directing incoming connections back to your machine. If you do
>have NAT set up in this way, please put the WAN IP address in the Fixed IP
>box before enabling the PeerCast server. Otherwise leave it blank.
>
>Our aim is to make the PeerCast client code open source (GPL) at some point
>in the near future so that it can be ported to as many platforms as
>possible. We have developed it with Win32, Linux and Mac in mind so that it
>will be easy to port. Our main priority now though is getting the system
>stable and usable. The main reason for not releasing the source code so far
>is literally because we haven`t had the time yet. We`re doing this in our
>spare time (yes, we have proper jobs :) and want to have the chance to
>clean up the code, document it and put it in CVS.
>
>Please remember that we are still very much in beta stages, there are/will
>be many problems, your feedback and support is very much welcome. If we
>don`t have people broadcasting and listening we can`t make this work, so
>please don`t give up.
>
>If you own a fixed IP address and would like to help by running a PeerCast
>relay (a relay is basically just a way of getting new users on the network,
>they connect, you send back some IP addresses of other users, then close
>the connection.) Then please let us know.
>
>
>© 2002 peercast.org
>
>--
>-----------------
>R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
>The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
>44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
>"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
>[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
>experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'