Welcome to Helix Universal Server version 9.0, the most powerful server software available for streaming media files across an intranet or the Internet. This manual will help you use and optimize Helix Universal Server for real-time delivery of media files.
Helix from RealNetworks is a universal digital media delivery platform. With industry-leading performance, integrated content distribution, advertising, user authentication, Web services support, and native delivery of RealMedia, Windows Media, QuickTime, and MPEG-4, Helix from RealNetworks is a robust digital media foundation that meets the needs of enterprises and networking service providers.
This guide is intended for technical system administrators who will manage Helix Universal Server and its activities, but not necessarily create the content that's streamed. Content creation information is available in a companion book, the RealNetworks Production Guide. Information services professionals, server administrators, Web masters, and others who provide Web pages for the Internet and for intranets may also find this book useful.
| Tip:
Helix Universal Server Administration Guide is also available
online at http://service.real.com/help/library/index.html. |
This administration guide contains the following chapters and appendixes.
If you're familiar with previous versions of RealSystem Server, this chapter will give you a quick update on the new features found in Helix Universal Server.
This chapter presents the "big picture" of how Helix Universal Server works with a Web server to stream media to client software such as RealOne Player.
Find out how to install and start Helix Universal Server, and how to use the Web-based administration tool, Helix Administrator.
This chapter covers the basic Helix Universal Server configuration options involving addresses, ports, and licenses. Most options are configured at installation and may need no changing.
This chapter describes on-demand streaming features, and explains how to construct links to your streaming media clips.
This chapter covers several features that you can use on a large network, including redundant servers, content caching, and proxy servers.
Read this chapter to learn how to broadcast and archive live events in RealMedia, Windows Media, QuickTime, and other formats.
This chapter discusses multicasting, which sends a single, live stream to multiple clients, rather than a separate stream to each client. Clients connect to this stream rather than to the Helix Universal Server computer.
Splitting is a method of server-to-server communication. This communication can be between two or more servers, or between Helix Producer and Helix Universal Server. Splitting enables you to distribute broadcasts broadly.
This chapter explains how to deliver archived or other on-demand content as if it were a live broadcast.
If you're streaming media to users on the Internet, you'll need to know how Helix Universal Server and other RealNetworks products interact with firewalls. This chapter provides detailed information on the ports Helix Universal Server requires for various server feature configurations.
This chapter shows you how to limit access to Helix Universal Server through the IP addresses of clients attempting to connect.
You can control and limit who can view your content. This chapter describes the different Helix Universal Server authentication methods.
If you're an Internet service provider (ISP), you can host streaming media on behalf of your customers. This chapter explains how.
You can have Helix Universal Server automatically insert advertisements into presentations. This chapter describes the many options available within this feature.
If you want to look at trends, and see what content is most popular, Helix Universal Server offers basic reporting functionality.
Helix Universal Server includes advanced reporting functionality that can report on many aspects of Helix Universal Server operation, from server health to client connections.
To provide the highest possible quality of service, you'll want to keep track of how many people request media from your Helix Universal Server. This chapter describes the features available in the monitoring utility.
This appendix presents a discussion on basics, editing guidelines, and XML syntax used in the Helix Universal Server configuration file.
This appendix explains how to identify a range of IP addresses by assigning a bit mask to a 32-Bit IP address. A number of Helix Universal Server features can use these bit masks.
Helix Universal Server comes with different methods for tracking authentication information, as described in this appendix. You can use this data for billing purposes, or to track who's watching what.
This section explains some conventional terms and formats used throughout the book.
| Note: Although most clients currently in use are computers running RealPlayer or RealOne Player, RealNetworks also makes a software development kit (SDK) that enables other companies to develop their own players with which they can use to receive the various types of streamed data. |
The following table explains the typographic conventions used in this manual.
Links that point to Helix Universal Server take the following form:
helixserver.example.com |
helixserver is a placeholder for the name of the computer on which you are running your Helix Universal Server. Substitute the name of your organization's Helix Universal Server computer wherever you see this syntax. example.com is a placeholder for a domain name. Substitute the domain name of your organization's computers wherever you see this syntax.In all of the examples given in this book, it's assumed that you've installed Helix Universal Server in the default location for your operating system and that you're using default values for all settings. Of course, you can customize Helix Universal Server however you want to meet your specific needs. Default values are used here for clarity of illustration. On Windows-based platforms, the default installation directory is:
C:\Program Files\Real\Helix Server |
In addition to this manual, you may need one or more of the following RealNetworks resources, which are available at http://service.real.com/help/library/index.html.
This file contains supplemental information not covered in this guide. To view this guide, click Readme in Helix Administrator.
This manual explains the basics of creating streaming clips. You'll learn how to calculate bandwidth needs, and how to put a multimedia presentation together.
If you're using Helix Universal Proxy, or are working with someone who is, this manual describes the use of Helix Universal Proxy and configuration information.
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