Unicasting with NetShow

NetShow™ unicasts live multimedia content generated using the Real-Time Encoder or from a NetShow multicast, and multimedia content stored as Active Streaming format files (.asf). Unicasting streams with NetShow involves the following tasks:

Creating live content streams using the NetShow Real-Time Encoder. For more information on setting up and using the Real-Time Encoder, see the NetShow Tools Guide.
Creating multimedia content stored as an .asf file. For more information on creating .asf content, see the NetShow Tools Guide.
Configuring the NetShow unicast service. You can control the number of clients that can connect to a NetShow server, the amount of network bandwidth the server will consume, and other parameters. Use the NetShow Administrator to configure these settings.
Managing publishing points. For unicasts whose source is a live stream, a publishing point is used to point the client to the source of the stream. For unicasts whose source is an .asf file, publishing points are used to store the .asf content. You can create and manage publishing points using NetShow Administrator.
Creating and distributing announcements. Unicast announcements are text files saved with an .asx extension. Announcements direct clients to the content you are streaming. You can create announcements using a text editor such as Notepad.

Note The NetShow unicast service uses port 1755 to establish communication between a client and the server. To allow unicasts, this port must not be disabled in Windows NT Server.

There are four unicast management tools:

Set Publishing Points Use this tool to create, edit, and remove publishing points where unicast clients find the source of a live stream or the content of an .asf file.
Configure Logging Use this tool to enable unicast server logging, to specify how frequently you want to generate a new log, and to specify the location of the log file.
Manage Clients Use this tool to view client connections to the server and to terminate connections.
Monitor Events Use this tool to monitor the unicast server for the following types of events: administrative, system, client, and alert.
Set Properties Use this tool to specify the maximum number of client connections at a time and maximum bandwidth and file bit rate for the unicast server. You can also specify that clients accessing the .asf file have Windows NT® access rights.