I heard lots of questions on multicast today...here's how it works with RealMedia. If you have decent MBONE connectivity, you'll negotiate multicast when you connect to the audio or video stream. If you don't, the client falls back to unicast UDP mode. If even that fails (say you're behind a firewall), it rolls to TCP mode, and will ultimately resort to HTTP "cloaking" if nothing else works. Users can override the automated fall-back through the preferences dialog if there's a strong preference for a particular mode.
Odd. If MBone native tools aren't going to be offered, can you please make sure source code is available for the player? I normally use vat/sdr/rat on Digital Unix for watching NANOG, and it seems RealNetworks, Inc. haven't figured out how to compile their source on that platform yet. :-( Have we sunk to proprietary, closed protocols for NANOG? 'Tis a sad, sad day. :-(
Jeffrey Payne, GM Broadcast Operations RealNetworks, Inc.
As a representative of RealNetworks, do you have any comments on the availability of source code to your player, for those of us with multicast-supported systems you have chosen to ignore? Or is it simply time to declare NANOG yet another bastion of closed minds, and closed protocols? Matt Petach disgruntled NANOG non-viewer