Icecast Streaming Media Server

Anonymous · Guest

I use icecast 2.10 on my server for live radio streaming. I have some problems with especially people who uses Realaudio player to listen.

I have emails that some of the realaudio clients downloads the whole streaming, and that it's only happening from my stream.

I have 2 link options for the listeners. I use both .m3u and .rpm as a choise. The .rpm helped in some cases but not all.

What can go wrong?

Here is the two streaming links:
http://ayianapa.nu:8000/radionapa_1.m3u
http://ayianapa.nu/radionapa_1.rpm

Ps. The stream is only 7am to 9pm GMT. D.s

karlH · Code Warrior Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 5476 Location: UK

Can you update your server to 2.3.1, realplayer has a funny quirk when dealing with shoutcast metadata. What versions of realplayer are having problems.

karl.

Anonymous · Guest

I talked to the guy who handles my server and he thought that the version 2.3.1 is to new and not stable/tested enough as he had some problems when trying to install it.

He changed back to the 2.10 version.

karlH · Code Warrior Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 5476 Location: UK

ok, but be aware that real/helix has issues when the first metadata block is empty, other players ignore it but helix gets confused about what it's processing.

karl.

Anonymous · Guest

Thanks for the input Smile

Is there a workarround? And is that for a specific realplayer version or all of them?

karlH · Code Warrior Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 5476 Location: UK

There isn't a work around for 2.1 or 2.2 for it, we only identified the actual problem not that long before the 2.3 releases and AFAIK it applies to all of them but not all of them have been verified to have the issue. 2.3.1 is what we would recommend.

karl.

Anonymous · Guest

Thanks Karl, We will try to install the 3.2.1 anyway then Smile

I have another glitch in the treaming. (not icecast related though) The problem is that the connection from the source to the server gets broken some times every day.

I have tried from different computers and to use different ISP's. And I have been using both PC software odcast and now I am running Nicecast on my Mac. (Really nice and easy app.)

I can see the error: "Statae: error connection to server broken, reconnecting" in the Nicecast status window. So the connection is lost for a short moment and the streaming application has to reconnect, and there is a cut.

I have checked the error logs on the server from icecast, and also from my computer in Nicecast. But I really can't find out the problem. Sad

Do you have any ideas how to go about it?

karlH · Code Warrior Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 5476 Location: UK

depends on what the cause is, if icecast drops the connection then it will log it, usually because of the timeout, but if there is something more network related then it's not possible for icecast to say, one possibility is an IP change from dhcp.

karl.

Anonymous · Guest

Here is some of the icecast error.log on the server:

karlH · Code Warrior Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 5476 Location: UK

so it's a source timeout, which means that icecast hasn't received any data within 10 seconds. So it's either the source client getting stuck on something (not unheard of) or the network layer has failed/changed such that a connection cannot be maintained.

karl.

Anonymous · Guest

I have a static IP here. Do you have any tricks how to locate the problem?

My line/ISP is very good and give me good speed. But for my other work with normail uploading, nobody care or will notice if there is a 10-20 sek stop.

karlH · Code Warrior Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 5476 Location: UK

without knowing the specific source client it's hard to say. Check any logs files that the source client produces to see what it was doing when icecast timed-out. The source client would also disconnect, so the question is, did it get stuck on something.

One example that could happen is that the source client (eg ices) can get the next file to play from a script and it's possible that the script could stall for a long time. Another possibility could be large changes to the system clock running icecast.

karl.

Anonymous · Guest

Thanks Karl!
I really like your fast and good replyes. The Nicecast (source) does not giv any specific error loggs as the streaming is from an external server.

There is no script involved as this is a live stream input in line-in on my Powerbook 1,5GHz, 1Gb RAM. I can choose how much Nicecast will charge my CPU and I have it on 50% now, and I can se that Nicecast uses MAX 10% of my CPU.

I belive there is a package loss some where going from here (Cyprus) to Sweden/Server. Can I help this with Buffer or anything?

On Nice cast I can choose booth Buffer in and Buffer out. Should I increase the byffer out? If so what Buffer size do you suggest?

Thanks again,
Mats

P.s The server in Sweden is on a backbone line with 100Mb bandwidth D.s.

karlH · Code Warrior Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 5476 Location: UK

If you are using nicecast as a source client then I'm not sure on what to suggest (I've never used it personally). You'll need to investigate your connection to the server because that is what is failing, logging is really the thing to get if you can, but it could be something as weird as the network interface or sound device going into powersaving mode, maybe run a series of pings to the server just to see response times over a long period of time, eg ping every 5 secs.

karl.

Anonymous · Guest

Arrgghh!

This is starting to drive me crazy Sad

The stream still goes down some times but the error log don't mention time out or even a warning any more. When it goes down now I get: