FAQs

ALL THE ANSWERS YOU NEED

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Do I need a license to broadcast?

You do not need a license to broadcast, but you are responsible in paying royalties for each song played.  In the United States ASCAP, BMI, SoundExchange & SESAC require payment for any of their artists.  A cheaper way to go is to use services that provide ‘blanket payments’ at a discounted rate. Our recommendation for Licensing in the United States is Stream Licensing LLC. Different countries have different legal requirements, be sure to check your local legal requirements before starting your station.

Stream Licensing LLC is our endorsed licensing provider. Use coupon code ST-15 at checkout for a special discount!

I have been asked to perform a “traceroute.” What is that and how do I perform one?

Many times when diagnosing issues, we need to find out where an issue lies. Whether it be your computer, router, ISP, our servers, or somewhere in between. An effective test that helps us determine where the problem may be is called a traceroute.

What is a traceroute?

A traceroute is a utility that records the route/path (the specific gateway computers at each hop) through the Internet between your computer and a specified destination (our servers). It also calculates and displays the amount of time each hop took.

How do I perform a traceroute?

We suggest using a free utility called WinMTR. This can be downloaded from their website, found here: http://winmtr.net. From there, you can download the utility. On their website, they also have a How-To page (found here). When your traceroute is complete, simply export to a text file and reply to the ticket with the trace back to us. We suggest letting the trace run a minimum of 60 seconds.

Please note that the traceroute will only be helpful if it is ran during the time you are having trouble.

I’ve lost my cPanel/Media Control Panel password…Help!

For security reasons, your passwords are stored in a non-reversable encrypted format. You will not be able to view the password, but you can reset the password by following the directions below:

Media Control Panel Streaming Password Change

  1. Login to the Client Area
  2. Click on the Service you’d like to update from within the “Active Products/Services” Window
    • You can also view the full list of products and services by either clicking on the Services heading, then clicking “My Products”. Or, you can click on the View All button within the “Active Products/Services” window.
  3. On the left-hand side, click on Change Password.
  4. Follow the Prompts on the screen.

cPanel Web Hosting Password Change

  1. Login to the Client Area
  2. Click on the Service you’d like to update from within the “Active Products/Services” Window
    • You can also view the full list of products and services by either clicking on the Services heading, then clicking “My Products”. Or, you can click on the View All button within the “Active Products/Services” window.
    • Be sure to click on the Service name and not your domain name (example: “Basic Web Hosting” versus clicking on mywebsite.com)
  3. On the left-hand side, click on Change Password.
  4. Follow the Prompts on the screen.

If you have trouble with the passwords, please let us know and we can take care of it for you, as sometimes security methods prevent a user from logging in with their chosen password.


WEB HOSTING

Are there any charges I don’t know about?

No! What you see on our website is what you pay! There are no hidden fees or anything!

Can you help me move (migrate) from my old web host?

All accounts include free transfer and migration assistance from your old provider. To move from your old host, you will want to submit a ticket.

Option #1 (Preferred)

  1. Upload the cpmove files to the root of your account at Stream101
  2. Open a Support Ticket and title the ticket Restore CPMove Files
  3. Include the following information:
    Name of the CPMove file
    Name of the domain associated with the CPMove file

Option #2 (Backup)

  1. Open a Support Ticket and title the ticket Account Transfer.
  2. Include the following information:
    Old Host IP:
    Old Host Control Panel Type: (cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, etc.)
    Old Host Username & Password:
    Domain(s) to be moved:
    Do you have SSH Access: Yes or No
  3. If you are unsure about any of the fields, leave them blank and ask for clarification in the message body field.
  4. Once the ticket is submitted, an account transfer usually takes 24 hours or less, depending on account size and network transfer speeds.

cPanel Users: We will need to perform a full cPanel Backup (cpMove) on your old host. To help speed up the migration process, you may do this yourself from within your old host’s cPanel. If you already have a full backup available you can upload it to your new Stream101 account using FTP or the cPanel File Manager, and our technicians can restore your backup from there. This will cut the account restoration time down to a few minutes (10-20)

Do I need to sign a contract?

No. Everything is based on a month-to-month agreement. Once you cancel your service, your account will be canceled & billing will stop.

How does Stream101 offer support?

We offer 24/7/365 online support via our Support Ticket Systems. We also provide 9AM-5PM (Eastern) Phone Support/Billing Support, Monday-Friday excluding holidays.

Our ticketing support is second to none. Replies to your ticket happen almost as fast as you put it in and is much faster than a phone call. Logging a ticket enables our technicians to pull up all of your details without hassle.


SHOUTcast/ICEcast

HELP! My intro plays fine, but my music sounds garbled/slow!

This issue is caused by a mismatched Samplerate, Bitrate, or Channel Type between your stream and your intro file. An intro file MUST be the EXACT same Samplerate, Bitrate, and Channel Type (stereo/mono) as your audio stream. If it is not, your music will sound garbled and will not play correctly. Please ensure that you have double and triple-checked this before submitting a support ticket.

My Shoutcast server status page says “Server is currently down.” What does that mean?

SHOUTcast servers will display “Server Status: Server is currently down.” when no DJ or broadcast software is connected and streaming audio. What this means is that the server is in fact online or “up” and ready to accept a connection from a broadcast source (such as AutoDJ for Pro Streaming Customers or a Live Broadcast from your own software).

If a server is truly offline, the Shoutcast status page would just simply will not load. In this case, it’s possible that maintenance is being performed, you have shut off your streaming server (and can turn it back on from the Media Control Panel), or it could possibly indicate a more serious problem. In regards to maintenance or actual server issues, we will make a posting to our Status Page.

If the server is online and a DJ/Broadcaster is connected and broadcasting, the status will read as “Server is currently up and public/private.”

Why is my broadcast delayed?

There is a delay in the broadcast because of the internet. The internet is a huge place and it takes time for objects (in this case audio) to travel.

The delay you experience may be 1 second or it may up to 2-5 minutes, it just depends on many factors:
1) The speed of your internet location.
2) The distance you are from our servers
3) The speed of your clients (listeners) internet
4) The distance your clients are from our servers

Unfortunately there is nothing that we or you can do about the delay in the broadcast.

SHOUTcast has a longer delay than ICEcast, but the difference is not really noticeable.

Where does my Intro file go?

When getting an intro file ready for your station, first you must make sure it is an MP3 file that is saved at the same bitrate AND samplerate in which you are encoding at. Please refer to this article for more information.

Then, you must upload that file into the /music/intro/ directory (either when using


STREAMING SYSTEM

Shoutcast & Icecast are Open Source, can I just run my own server for free?

Yes, however there are stipulations. Most home internet connections can handle at most 1-3 listeners at 128KBPS. You also need to make sure this doesn’t violate your agreement of service with your internet provider. If you intend to have many listeners, as most stations do, you will need to use the services of a Streaming provider, such as Stream101.

Do you offer Port 80 Proxy support?

Yes. Proxy support is already enabled on all streaming services and is FREE! You can obtain the link from the Media Control Panel under Quick Links.

How can I prevent stream ripper from stealing my audio?

Unfortunately, there is no way to truly prevent stream ripping from occurring. A feature we do offer, however, may reduce the possibility of the stream ripper succeeding in stealing the audio.

We suggest that you place an auto-kick timer onto your stream. This is a feature that we support! (Note: This applies to SHOUTcast streams only. Unfortunately, ICEcast does not support this in any way.)
HOW TO:
1) Login to the Media Control Panel
2) Once in the MCP, click Configure Server
3) Choose the Advanced Tab
4) Input a value into the “Always disconnect listeners after:”. This value is in minutes
5) Restart your streaming server by clicking the Restart Server button.

How can I broadcast to your servers?

Streaming with the Shoutcast Source DSP Plug-in is the free way to stream live music and/or voice to your server.  Other options include RadioDJ, RadioBOSS, or SAM Broadcaster.

You can find these tools on their respective websites:

Shoutcast DSP
RadioDJ
RadioBOSS
SAM Broadcaster

All of the above broadcasting softwares are compatible with our streaming and web hosting services. There are many softwares that are not listed that are also compatible with our services as well. If you are unsure if your software will work with our streaming or web hosting solutions, please open up a ticket and we’d be happy to check it out!

How do people tune into my station?

We have provided specific tune-in links for each of our customers.  To get the code for these links, follow the instructions below:

  • Login to the Media Control Panel.
  • Choose Widgets
  • Choose Listen Links
  • Copy & paste the media player code into the code of your website!