ShoutCast over SSL

Question

So I've gone ahead and set up my ShoutCast server DNAS and set my DSP in Winamp on my host computer. The server listens on port 8000, so per some instructions I installed an output plugin for winamp (Shoutcast DSP) and used 8000 and the password to connect. Server accepts the connection.

Now, what the heck do I do now? My host computer is SSL secured and the DNAS server is installed within the secure web directory (if that matters). My desired end result is that I want to listen to my ShoutCast setup at home (host computer) from any computer.

I try browsing to my ip address and port 8000 (without using HTTPS) and it comes back with nothing. If I browse with HTTPS://my.server.com:8000, I get Error code: ssl_error_rx_record_too_long)

Have I completely missed something, or am I just a total moron?

Thanks.

Answer 1

SHOUTcast doesn't support SSL. The service on port 8000 is an unencrypted server for HTTP and ICY (the rather pointless SHOUTcast native streaming protocol, which is almost but not quite HTTP). The ssl_error_rx_record_too_long error is characteristic of trying to access a non-HTTPS service as HTTPS.

You should be able to connect to 8000 with your web browser and get the DNAS status page. If, on the other hand, you connect to that port with a media player, it'll return the direct MP3 stream. (Unfortunately, in an incredibly boneheaded piece of design, the way SHOUTcast decides which to respond with is by sniffing your User-Agent header for something beginning with Mozilla, so if you're using an alternative browser or blocking your UA you'll not be able to get the status, and if the stream's down you might just get nothing.)

To listen to a SHOUTcast server through SSL you would need to set up a proxy on another port that forwarded HTTPS requests to local HTTP requests; it'd also have to be a streaming-capable proxy, and you might need some hacks to stop ICY breaking it.

Probably easier, you could set up an SSH forwarded port from your client to the server. That would also be the only way to allow the DJ to connect to SHOUTcast with encryption, since the DJ protocol isn't HTTP compatible at all. Obviously SSH tunnels are no good for random public listeners though.

You could also try Icecast, an alternative to SHOUTcast that I believe has some SSL support (and also uses plain HTTP streaming instead of ICY).