Serving for Windows Media Services: The Basics

Updated: July 27, 1998

Once you've created content for Windows Media Services, you'll need to host it. The Windows Media Services will allow you to unicast or multicast live or stored content, or multicast files to users' computers.

The fact that Microsoft Windows Media Services is built on Windows NT means that you can take advantage of the operating system's reliability, scalability, performance, and cost-effectiveness. It also complements other Windows NT-based products such as Microsoft Internet Information Server , Microsoft Site Server , and Microsoft Internet Explorer .

Here's how to set up Windows Media Services.

Live unicast

Start the Windows Media Services Administrator by going to Start, Programs, Microsoft Windows Media Services, Beta Server Administrator.
Select Unicast Publishing Points on the left tool bar.
Under Broadcast Unicast Publishing Points, check Use wizard to create new broadcast publishing point.
Click the Broadcast button and select New. This will bring up a wizard that will create your Unicast Publishing Point. Click the Next button.
Select Create a broadcast publishing point and click the Next button.
Select Windows Media Encoder as the source of your stream source and click the Next button.
Enter a name for your stream in the Alias field and the path to your Windows Media Encoder in the Path field. The path to your Windows Media Encoder should begin with MSBD://. For the port number, enter the number you selected when configuring the Windows Media Encoder. If you accepted the default settings in the encoder, enter port 7007 and click the Next button.
Select MMS for Protocol (MMS uses automatic rollover from UDP to TCP and HTTP). Select what you want the wizard to create, and then click the Next button.
Review your selections. Click Next to accept them or click Back to make changes.
Save your ASX file.
Click Finish to save your unicast publishing point.
Now you are ready to test your stream. Start the encoder and the double-click the ASX file.

Live multicast

Start the Windows Media Services Administrator by going to Start, Programs, Microsoft Windows Media Services, Beta Server Administrator.
Select Multicast Stations in the left tool bar.
Under Stations, select Use wizard to create new station.
Click the Stations button and select New. This will bring up the wizard to create your multicast station. Click the Next button.
Select Create a new station and click the Next button.
Enter a name for your station and a short description. Select your method of distribution. Selecting Multicast and distribution allows clients that are not able to receive a multicast transmission to receive it as unicast.
Enter a name for the program and a name for the stream. Click the Next button.
Select Windows Media Encoder for the source for the stream and click the Next button.
Enter the path to the encoder. You can either use HTTP or MSBD protocol to connect to the encoder. Click the Next button.
If you created a customized setting in the encoder, you will need to save the encoder settings and enter the path to the ASD file. Click the Next button.
Save the NSC file in a location where the client's machine can access it. Click the Next button.
Select how you would like the clients to access the NSC file and the path to the NSC file. Click the Next button.
Select the publishing options you want. Click the Next button.
Review your selections. Click Finish to accept them or click Back to make changes.
Save your ASX file and click Close to finish creating your multicast station.

On-demand unicast

Place the ASF file in the ASFROOT directory on the Windows NT Server running the Windows Media Services Administrator, and create an ASX file that points to the ASF file you want to stream.

On-demand multicast

On demand multicast is a misnomer since the user cannot decide when to start a multicast stream. Multicast is a traditional broadcast model where the content author or host determines when the broadcast will begin.

To set up an ASF file for on-demand multicast, follow the steps for live multicast above, but in the setup wizard, select ASF file instead of Windows Media Encoder as the source.

Quality of Service

Windows 2000 will incorporate Quality of Service (QoS) features that allow network managers to reserve portions of their network's bandwidth for specific applications like Windows Media Services. For more information about how Windows Media Services will take advantage of QoS, see Windows Platform Offers Superior Streaming Media Functionality page .