Print version: TWR-SA article of 11-3-2010
? Forget the detail, I just wanna stream!
? A detailed step-for-step installation process
? What if I am behind a firewall?
? What is the bandwidth usage?
? What are the P2P client requirements?
? Why does the P2P client control does not install?
? I'm still having problems … what now?
Peer-to-peer streaming is an exciting new form of Internet stream distribution. It works by distributing a traditional stream broadcast in such a way that any spare and unused upload capacity of a client is used to share the broadcast with other clients in the audience. By using P2P, all streams of the Trans World Radio broadcast are intelligently distributed over the entire network of clients making up the broadcast audience. As the audience grows so do the network resources available to distribute the broadcast without increasing bandwidth costs. This makes it possible to reach more users where Internet broadcasting is prohibitively expensive, such as in South Africa (thanks to the greedy and monopolistic practices of a certain entrenched incumbent operator). Simply put: by participating in the Trans World Radio P2P Internet broadcast and sharing of your upstream Internet bandwidth for stream peering, you allow more folks to listen and thereby assist in extending the reach of Trans World Radio's Internet broadcast...
Follow the quick-step process outlined below:
To participate in the Trans vWorld Radio P2P Internet broadcast, you need to have completed a successfull installation of the Rawflow P2P plugin. The process of installing this plugin is a one-time event and is only required once, the first time you attempt to connect to the Trans World Radio stream. The process of installation folows below:
Under certain circumstances, the P2P streaming employed for Trans World Radio may continue to serve a broadcast to users behind firewalls that block outgoing stream connections. Under such circumstances firewalled users receive, rather than serve stream connections to peers.
There is no way for a virus or any other harmful file to affect computers as a result of the participation in this broadcast. No writing to disk of the received stream broadcast occurs and on this basis, security concerns of virus/spyware propagation via file archive may be dispelled. The received streams are not cached to a client's hard drive and no files (except anonymous usage data) are ever exchanged by client and server. Get more information concerning security of Windows Media-based Internet broadcasts.
The amount of a client's bandwidth that contributes to the shared broadcast depends on many factors, including the bandwidth capacity of the client's Internet connection and the demographics of other audience members. Bandwidth usage may vary as the P2P system adapts used bandwidth as based on availability of the network link. In other words, when uploading a large file, any clients connected to a specific peer shall be instantly redirected to other peers where there is sufficient bandwidth available to serve the required streams. Under circumstances where no peers are discovered in time, the client shall establish a direct connection to the stream source.
The Trans World Radio stream is encoded at a fixed bitrate of 32kbps - an hour's listening will consume about 16MB of downstream bandwidth. The upstream bandwidth consumption is dependant on the extent of user peering, where no user peering occurs, no additional bandwidth is required to receive the stream broadcast.
The P2P client control is delivered to the user by one of several delivery methods. For users of Internet Explorer, the primary delivery method is via the installation of an ActiveX control. For users of other browsers, the P2P client can be delivered as a Netscape style plug-in, or using the Java Web Start technology. Supported browsers include the following:
Internet Explorer v4 and up
Mozilla-based: Netscape v6 and up, Firefox (still under development)
Other: Safari, Camino (for MAC OSX) (still under development)
Supported platforms include the following:
Windows 2000, XP, Vista or 2003
Linux 2.2 or above for i86 (mid 2007)
MAC OS X (mid 2007)
If the Rawflow P2P control does not install successfully, you may need to configure the browser security settings to allow this.
Here you find a brief tutorial of how to allow the installation of ActiveX controls for Internet Explorer.
Peering is enabled by default after a successful installation of the Rawflow P2P plugin. Assuming you are not behind a firewall that blocks peering, your upstream bandwidth may be shared by others. This is a small price to pay for the free service provided by Trans World Radio to its Internet audience…
If you have not accepted the installation of the P2P plugin, or are using a Mozilla-based browser such as Firefox, your listening duration of the Trans World Radio stream is time limited to 60 minutes as the streaming connection is direct to the stream source.
By having accepted and installed the P2P plugin, your Trans World Radio listening experience and that of other streaming peers, is made possible by the sharing of your upstream bandwidth with the stream peering community and as a result, you are entitled to listen to the Trans Wrld Radio stream indefinitely.
To not allow user peering, do not accept the installation of the Rawflow P2P plugin. If you have already installed the P2P plugin and wish to remove such, please contact Antfarm's Internet Radio Support.
Contact Antfarm's Internet Radio Support here. Please provide a detailed description of your problem and any error codes that are displayed. In addition, to assist with the resolution of your problem, please provide us with the following additional details (if known):
Operating System - Win 98, 2000, XP (SP1/2), Vista, MAC, Linux
Internet Browser - IE, Firefox, Netscape, Opera, Mozilla, Safari
Media Player version - 6/7/8/9/10/11
Internet connection type - dialup modem, ISDN, ADSL, wireless, corporate access
This site is best viewed in Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher
Copyright ©2001-2010 • Trans World Radio-SA • All rights reserved.
For comments or suggestions please contact the webmaster
