Setting Up a Shoutcast Server
Shoutcast is a protocol created by the fellas who made Winamp. It is used to stream music over the internet. This guide will show you how to setup a basic Shoutcast server.
1) Download And Install
To install a shoutcast server, you need the following programs:
The 'local copy' links are stored on this server. These program versions will probably be out of date, they are only here for my own personal use. Security issues may have been fixed with newer versions, so please be sure that you are always using the latest version.
1) Winamp (Basic version preferably)
http://download.nullsoft.com/winamp/client/winamp535_full_emusic-7plus.exe local copy
2) Shoutcast Server
"SHOUTcast WIN32 Console/GUI server v1.9.8 "
http://www.shoutcast.com/downloads/sc1-9-8/shoutcast-dnas-1-9-8-windows.exe local copy
3) Shoutcast DSP Plugin for Winamp
http://www.shoutcast.com/downloads/shoutcast-dsp-1-9-0-windows.exe local copy
4) [Optional] OddSock Song Requester (web interface for remotely playing songs)
http://www.oddsock.org/tools/gen_songrequester/gen_songrequesterv2_5.zip local copy
Install Shoutcast, Winamp, the DSP Plugin and the Oddsock Song Requester Plugin.
It is likely that you will not be able to install the DSP plugin and Song Requester plugin until AFTER Winamp is installed.
2) Setting up Shoutcast
-Start shoutcast by going to the "C:\Program Files\SHOUTcast" folder and running "sc_serv.exe".
-Edit the shoutcast configuration file by clicking on "Edit config"
-Edit the parameters in the "Required stuff" section. This includes: MaxUser, Password, PortBase
3) Setting up Winamp
Open winamp and drag all the songs you would like to stream into your playlist.
The song that is playing will be broadcast.
Configure the DSP plugin in winamp:
Go to the winamp menu, go to the Options category, and select Preferences
In the Preferences window, select on DSP/Effect in the Plug-ins section.
Select the Nullsoft SHOUTcast Source DSP, and click Configure active plug-in:
Click on the Encoder tab, select your encoding preferences.
If you have a fast internet connection, you can select a higher bitrate.
AAC encoding will give you better quality at the same bitrate as MP3.
Each user that is connected will require this much bandwidth to listen to your shoutcast stream.
If you select 96kbps and you have a 256kbps upload, you should be able to stream to 2 users.
96 x 2 = 192 (roughly the bandwidth required for 2 users)
256 \ 3 = 85.3 (less than 96)
Enter the IP address of your shoutcast server as well as the port and password that you setup in the shoutcast server configuration.
Click on the "Yellowpages" button to enter a name for your shoutcast server:
Click Connect
You will see a source connection message in the shoutcast monitor:
4) Connect your winamp clients
You will use one instance of winamp to broadcast a shoutcast stream, and a second instance of winamp to test the stream.
First, you have to enable the option for multiple instances of winamp. Make sure the option is enabled by going into the Winamp preferences:
Now open a new instance of winamp, and select File > Open URL
Enter the IP of your shoutcast server with whatever port you configured earlier, such as:
http://192.168.0.101:8000
If everything is setup correctly, you will connect successfully and the music will play!:
NOTE:You should have 2 winamp windows open. One will be broadcasting the stream, the other will be playing the stream.
Save the playlist by clicking on the Save List button in the playlist window:
Once your playlist is saved, you simply double click on the playlist file to connect to your shoutcast server!
You can send this playlist file to your friends to allow them to listen to your stream.
(NOTE: To allow streaming over the internet, you must enable port forwarding on your mdoem. Port forwarding is NOT covered in this guide. Check out portforward.com for instructions.)
That's all, you can stop here, or you can keep going to add more functionality.
5) [OPTIONAL] Setup Song Reqester Plugin
If you already installed the 'Song Requester Winamp Plugin' you are ready to follow these steps. If not, go to the top of this page and download and install the Song Requester plugin.
Open the winamp preferences, in the Plug-ins section, select the General Purpose section.
Click on the SongRequester Plugin, and click "Configure Selected plug-in"
Uncheck the Disable Plugin box,
Enter a Web Root Directory. Put the file "playlist.html" that came with the Song Requester zip file into this folder.
Enter an Admin Password
Enter any port number you want for the Song Request to run it's web server on.
Open your web browser and type in the IP of the computer running winamp, and use the port number you specified. For example:
http://127.0.0.1:80
You should see this website:
Here you can que up songs to play, as well as search through all the songs in the current winamp playlist.
If you go to this page:
http://127.0.0.1:80/admin.cgi
you are prompted to enter your password.
Here you get some additional functions, such as Playing or Stopping winamp, skipping to the next song, and so on.
