[icecast-dev] Icecast User Login Question

[Jay R. Wren]

Scott Manley wrote:

> Actually if you;re interested in integration with some sort of 
> subscription services then you want as much of the subscription logic to 
> be external as possible - trust me - I designed a subscription based 
> system which handled 7 million users (and managed to bankrupt at least 
> one company ;-)
> 
> 
> Basically when you get into subscription based streaming you can 
> potentially end up doing a whole load of database logic, and different 
> subscription models need different logic, so as much of this wants to be 
> in external applications. Icecast should concern itself with pushing out 
> data and not much else, authentication shouldn't be much more than 
> username/password or ticket based checking. For versatile subscription 
> engines the ticket generation can be done in whatever backend language 
> you want.
> 

I understand your point, but the fact of the matter is that many/most 
sites won't ever serve up to 7million users.  In fact in the context of 
the original question, which sounds like college radio, the subscriber 
base may only be local college students, or citizens from the 
surrounding area.

I happen to setup WXOU's streaming server here at Oakland University a 
few years ago.  Unfortunately it was disabled when the RIAA sent out all 
those desist orders a few years ago, and it was never brought back up. 
In the case of WXOU, the RIAA situation could have been easily handled 
with an authentication scheme that allowed university affiliates to 
somehow authenticate to the stream.

My point is, that in many cases, the authorization and authentication 
scheme may integrate with an already existing user base.  I would 
suggest that auth hooks such as pam, ldap, and radius be implemented, as 
well as source IP based auth.  That would be perfect for WXOU, and so I 
imagine we are not alone.

I just may implement this in icecast2 when I get some free time.  So far 
looking at the icecast2 source, I find it to be well structured and easy 
to extend.  I was attempting to add delayed connection ability to relay 
streams a couple weeks ago, and I was able to make some progress in a 
very short amount of time.

I may spend some time on trying to implement this in the next few months.

--
Jay

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