Welcome to Helix™ Universal Proxy version 9.0, the most powerful caching proxy server available for streaming media. Helix Universal Proxy teams with media servers and players to optimize bandwidth and improve the playback experience. This manual will help you use and take full advantage of Helix Universal Proxy 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 system administrators who will set up and manage Helix Universal Proxy.
Helix Universal Proxy Administration Guide is also available online at
http://service.real.com/help/library/index.html.
This guide contains the following chapters:
If you're familiar with previous versions of proxy servers from RealNetworks, this chapter will give you a quick update on the new features found in Helix Universal Proxy.
This chapter gives the "big picture" of how Helix Universal Proxy works.
Find out how to install and start Helix Universal Proxy, and how to use the Web-based administration tool, Helix Administrator. Options for starting Helix Universal Proxy automatically, on different platforms are discussed as well as license information.
This chapter discusses configuration options involving addresses, ports, and some differences between Helix Universal Proxy and Helix™ Universal Server. Most options are configured at installation and may need no changing.
This chapter describes how to set up RealOne Player and Windows Media Player to contact Helix Universal Proxy.
If you are delivering content to users on the Internet, you'll want to know how Helix Universal Proxy and other RealNetworks products interact with firewalls.
By employing several Helix Universal Proxys at once, you can funnel all streaming media Internet traffic through a single point. You can also create redundant network paths for your streaming media traffic.
This chapter discusses multicasting, in which Helix Universal Proxy relays a single, live stream to multiple clients, rather than a separate stream to each client.
Helix Universal Proxy has several methods of managing the amount of bandwidth it uses. You can limit the amount of bandwidth in use at one time, and place a cap on the number of clients who can receive streaming media.
Learn how to limit which clients use your Helix Universal Proxy, based on their IP addresses.
Learn how to validate users attempting to access your Helix Universal Proxy with usernames and passwords.
To provide highest quality service, you'll want to keep track of how many clients are accessing your Helix Universal Proxy.
Helix Universal Proxy can report client behavior with a customizable degree of detail. Errors are reported in their own log, which can help you troubleshoot any problems that arise.
Helix Universal Proxy custom logging provides a way for you to create your own unique logging system using custom templates, or by using the built-in templates already provided.
If something isn't working the way you expected, use this chapter as a resource to find your way.
This appendix presents a discussion on the basics of the Helix Universal Proxy configuration file, as well as XML syntax used in the file.
This appendix explains how to identify a range of IP addresses by assigning a bit mask to a 32-Bit IP address. This is handy information for the access control and multicasting features.
Helix Universal Proxy comes with different methods for tracking authentication information, as described in this appendix. With this information you can set up your own authentication database.
This section explains some conventional terms and formats used throughout the book.
Because this guide is designed for the Helix Universal Proxy administrators, the term "you" refers to the administrator.
RealNetworks clients, such as RealOne Player, or Windows Media Player are referred to generically as "clients". Where information applies specifically to the RealNetworks® RealOne Player, this is spelled out.
 |
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. |
"Clips," "content," "media files," and "files" are used interchangeably to indicate the material that Helix Universal Proxy streams.
The following table explains the typographic conventions used in this guide
In all of the examples given in this book, it's assumed that you've installed Helix Universal Proxy 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 Proxy 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 Proxy
In addition to this guide, the following RealNetworks resources are available at: http://service.real.com/help/library/index.html
The release notes contain the very-latest information about Helix Universal Proxy. To view this information, click Readme in Helix Administrator.
Information about Helix Universal Server, powerful software for streaming media content is covered in this basic reference. This guide explains how to set up, configure, and run Helix Universal Server to stream multimedia.
This resource contains information on using our products with firewalls from several perspectives.
You can read about Helix Universal Proxy special offers at:
http://www.realnetworks.com/products/proxy
For those who prefer configuring Helix Universal Proxy by editing the configuration file directly, this reference is available at:
http://www.realnetworks.com/resources/contentdelivery/gateway/config_variables.html
For those who prefer configuring Helix Universal Server by editing the configuration file directly, this reference is available at:
http://www.realnetworks.com/resources/contentdelivery/server/config_variables.html
|
© 2002 RealNetworks, Inc. All rights reserved.
For more information, visit RealNetworks Click here if the Table of Contents frame is not visible at the left side of your screen. |