We are pleased to announce that the long awaited 2.1 version of icecast is nearing release. Since there has been quite a bit of changes since 2.0, we thought it best to release a "release candidate" version. We welcome any testing on this version, and highly encourage current users to send us feedback about the testing. For those wondering what happened to RC1, we did a small RC1 internal release that found a few issues (mostly minor) that we've cleaned up and made RC2 ready for public consumption. RC2 Binaries and Source can be downloaded here : Source: http://svn.xiph.org/releases/icecast/icecast-2.1RC2.tar.gz Fedora Core 1 RPM : http://svn.xiph.org/releases/icecast/icecast-2.1RC2-1.i386.rpm Source RPM : http://svn.xiph.org/releases/icecast/icecast-2.1RC2-1.src.rpm Win32 Binary Installer : http://svn.xiph.org/releases/icecast/icecast2_win32_2.1RC2_setup.exe The following gives a brief overview of the changes in 2.1 (and special thanks to everyone who has contributed fixes and suggestions as well as all those who help us tremendously with help testing in between releases) : Icecast 2.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****New features for 2.1 (in no particular order):**** -Listener Authentication- Icecast now supports listener authentication. This provides a mechanism for creating/maintaining users and passwords for listeners. Currently, we only have implemented a simple, file-based storage for users and passwords. New authenticators are on the horizon (such as URL-based or possibly MySQL based) New admin pages were also added for the maintenance of users/passwords. Please check the docs for a more detailed description of this new feature. -Multi-Level Fallbacks- Multi-level fallbacks allow for specifications of a series of fallback mounts that you could use, for instance, to set up a series of progressively lower bitrate streams that would be cascaded through. For instance, a modem user would connect to the highest bitrate stream, and then could be cascaded down to a progressively lower stream until they reach a value they can handle. -Burst-On-Connect- This is an new, optional config setting which will send a initial burst of data to connecting listeners. This has the effect of reducing (significantly) the startup buffer latency from the end-user perspective. This option is enabled by default. ****New Enhancements for 2.1**** -Update to admin interface- This interface has been cleaned up quite a bit and made a bit nicer. -Rewrite of the YP listing code- The icecast yp code has received a complete overhaul by karl, and it's a much more stable and failure-resistant implementation. -Lots and lots of bugs fixed- Check the ChangeLog for a complete list of these... -----------------------------------------------------------------------------