Tutorial: Setting up a quick online radio for your friends.

If you are a gamer or something of the like and you would like to setup a quick online radio, for you and your friends to enjoy the same music while playing, this is the tutorial for you.

If you want to play music for people on Teamspeak or something, just keep reading.

 After trying several tools, I came to the conclusion that presently, the easiest way to setup an online radio is by using the Shoutcast + Winamp combo. 

Install Winamp

First, get and install the latest Winamp .

Install Shoutcast

 Now here comes the catch: the latest Shoucast does not bring a graphic interface. If you want to do this easily, and not have to mess around in files, get an older version. You can get it around the web. Search for Shoutcast 1 9 8 . Try this download link first, it's where I got it.

Install it. Shoutcast is ready to broadcast to port 8000. No configuration required. Easy so far.

Install Shoutcast DSP

Finally, you will need to install the Shoucast DSP for Winamp, for the two, Winamp and Shoutcast, to communicate. Again, an older version is better here, for compatibility purposes and for better integrated mp3 support.

I used version 1.90, so search the internet for Shoutcast DSP 1 9 0. Try this download link first.

Install the DSP. Open winamp and the DSP menu should appear. If not, find it inside Winamp options.

Using it

All you have to do is to put files playing on winamp, and tell your friends to open the address on their media player. Most players will be able to do this easily.

 

For example, put a playlist playing, tell them to open http://yourIP:8000 .

In some cases the default 8000 port will not work, so change that in the Shoutcast settings.

To find out your IP visit this link http://www.whatsmyip.org/ and replace it in the previous example.

If you have a router you will probably need to open the 8000 port to accept connections to the radio.

And that's it. Again in easy steps:

1. Install Winamp
2. Install Shoutcast 1.9.8
3. Install Shoutcast DSP 1.9.0
4. Open port 8000 (may not be necessary) 
5. Play files in winamp and give out your IP address

Other versions will work, but I don't guarantee any ease. This tutorial is all about easy.

Some extra tips:

• you can configure the DSP to broadacast in higher quality. This option is on the encoder tab. In gaming this means you will get higher pings, so you have to be experimental here;
• if you want to use another port you need to click on Edit config in Shoutcast and find and change the port number there;
• it is good practice to listen to your own radio. If there are problems, you will know. So mute your Winamp player and open another player and listen to your own radio there. Your default address will be http://localhost:8000;
• your IP is probably not static, so this means your IP address will change, and so you will have to provide people with your new radio address, probably at least once a day. To avoid this, find out about Dynamic Dns . You can use it to give your computer a permanent address. Here's a good one: http://dyn.com/dns/ .

That's all. Hope it was helpful.