[Icecast] Help with Icecast / streaming to Windows Media player

[Christopher Possanza]

Hi - 

I'm a "streaming" newbie.  I've recently configured Icecast (v2.2) with Ices
(v0.4) to stream a playlist of MP3 files.

When a user with iTunes as their default media player connects to this
stream (http://www.barsuk.com:8000/barsukradio.m3u), it works just fine.

However, if a user has Windows Media player as their default media player,
WM seems to get stuck "connecting...".   Occasionally, after 10 or 15
minutes, the stream starts up, but usually it just fails.  The icecast error
log gives no indication that an error is occurring.

I have a lot of questions (and haven't located the answers yet on the
"internets"), but here are the most important:

1. Has anyone else had this problem with Windows Media player?  How do you
fix it?

2. Are there better options for streaming a list of files than my current
configuration?

3. How do I go about creating a link if I want to stream just 1 file, and
have it played just once?

4. Eventually I want to create a nice-looking "radio"-like interface ... any
suggestions for where to start?

Thanks to anyone who can answer any of these questions.  Cheers -

Christopher
Barsuk Records
christopher at barsuk.com