UPDATE: This article is not actual any more. Please go to http://wiki.winamp.com/wiki/SHOUTcast_Authhash_Management to get more information. Thanks!
After waiting several months for the SHOUTcast Authentication Key (SHOUTcast Auth Hash) it has finally been approved for everybody. Everyone of you is now able to register an to create his/her own Authentication Key.
But what is the function of it?
Several weeks ago, the YP, which had an age of more than 10 years, had been programmed completely new. The intention of that was to ensure that the new register cannot list radio stations which manipulated or changed their figures all the time. Moreover the problem of losing the ID while disconnecting from the server caused that the saving of the listen.pls data of SHOUTcast was useless. In future every web radio and all of its servers need an Authentication Key to be listed in the register. Using an Authentication Key makes it possible to pool MP3 and ACC+ streams with a different bitrate. Now you can find web radios right away with several bitrates and that allows you to decide which bitrate you would like to use. (e.g. 128kbps generates to much traffic).
And how do I get the SHOUTcast Authentication Key?
At first you need to click here to create your own account. You get the opportunity to enter with your Google, Facebook, Yahoo or AOL account. If you do not own an account of one of the four platforms, you have to create one. After that you can apply one or more web radios. For each channel you need just one Authentication Key and you are able to use them for all of your relay servers. I illustrated for you, what it can look like:
I would like to recommend to you to activate “Make my primary server private” for do not having your relay server listed in the register and not having it public because otherwise listeners are able to connect to it. Now you just need to fill the Captcha out and then you get your Authentication Key which you can use for your sc_serv 2 server in future.
Much fun with creating your SHOUTcast account!
By the way: Based on several difficulties for broadcaster with using sc_trans 2 and sc_serv 2 , I decided to get together with the team of SHOUTcast and one of my acquaintances to create a tool for broadcaster, which shall help them to work with the latest attainments. The tool named SHOUTcast Interface DNAS 2.0 is going to be available in a few days. Stay tuned!
