Like other Internet services such as the Web, the NetShow Unicast service makes use of publishing points, or virtual directories. A service can have one root publishing point, called home, and any number of other publishing points. The home publishing point is the root of this virtual directory tree, and each publishing point is addressed as if it were a subdirectory of the home publishing point. A publishing point is an alias for the actual directory path where files are stored on the computer.
When you install NetShow Server, the home directory is automatically created, as is the storage directory C:\NetShow\ASFRoot. To reach files stored in the NetShow home directory, clients can reach the file by using the following syntax:
protocol://servername/filename
For example, to play a file called foxhound.asf stored in the default home directory C:\NetShow\ASFRoot on a server called netshow1, the client can use:
mms://netshow1/foxhound.asf
When you define a publishing point, you create an alias for it. The alias is the name that clients use to access information in the publishing point. You can use alphabetic characters and numbers when creating an alias. A NetShow publishing point can guide a client to .asf files stored on the server, an ASF stream from the Real-Time Encoder, an ASF stream from a NetShow channel, or an ASF stream from a remote NetShow Server unicast.
When you create publishing points for files, you can create a virtual tree of aliases built from local directories. This allows you to distribute content files across physical volumes of the NetShow server. The server retrieves content files from local directories based on the virtual tree configuration when it receives NetShow requests. To create a publishing point for files stored on the NetShow Server computer, create an alias that points to the directory location of the files on the computer by specifying the directory path. For example, you can create a subdirectory called hounddog on the path C:\Dogs\Hounddog and give it the alias hounds. To reach files stored in the the publishing point, clients can use the following syntax:
protocol://servername/pubpointalias/filename
For example, to play a file called foxhound.asf stored in the directory C:\Dogs\Hounddog with the publishing point alias hounds on a server called netshow1, the client can use:
mms://netshow1/hounds/foxhound.asf
When you create publishing points for live ASF streams, you can point to streams from the Real-Time Encoder, a NetShow channel, or from a remote NetShow unicast. Instead of specifying an alias and directory path as you would for stored files, specify an alias and the URL for the stream.
Use MSBD as the protocol and the name of the computer running the Real-Time Encoder as the servername. The portnumber is required only if you have changed the default port (7007) used by the Real-Time Encoder. For example, to point to a computer called RealTimeMachine using port 1480, use
msbd://realtimemachine:1480
Use MSBD as the protocol, the name of the computer running NetShow Server as the servername, and the name of the NetShow channel as the channelname. For example, to point to a computer called ChannelServer that is streaming a channel called Channel1, use:
msbd://channelserver/channel1
NetShow uses publishing points that reference a channel to provide unicast connections to streams when clients are unable to receive a multicast of the stream. For more information on enabling this feature in a channel, see Creating a Channel.
Use MMS as the protocol. Use the name of the NetShow Server computer streaming the unicast as the servername, and the publishing point alias of the computer as the alias. For example, to point to a computer called UnicastServer that is streaming using the MMS protocol at the publishing point hounds, use:
mms://unicastserver/hounds
Clients can reach a live stream through its publishing point alias using the following syntax:
protocol://servername/pubpointalias
For example, to reach a stream from one of the sources described above on the server netshow1 at the publishing point alias hounds, the client can use:
mms://netshow1/hounds
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