There are several ways of launching Cyclef Xtreamer. They all basically involve pointing your web browser to the correct URL to access Xtreamer. Normally, when you browse the web, you type in a URL with the name of the web protocol "http://" followed by the name of the server (hostname) you want to access "www.google.com". Since Cyclef Xtreamer is a web server running on your own computer, the hostname you use is "localhost". So, so far we have:

http://localhost

But we're still missing one more piece of the URL. A normal web server runs on and accepts incoming requests through network port 80. To avoid interfering with a web server that you may already have running on your computer, the Xtreamer server runs on port 8043. So the URL you browse to to access Xtreamer is:

http://localhost:8043

This URL means "browse to the web server running on port 8043 on my own computer". Note that if you have any kind of firewall software running on your computer, you should configure it to allow usage of network port 8043.

To save you the trouble of remembering and typing in this URL, you can automatically launch your browser to it by right-clicking on your device icon in the systray and selecting "Browse Cyclef Xtreamer", or double-clicking one of the Xtreamer icons the installer places on your Desktop.

Once you've browsed to this URL, you should see the initial blue-colored Xtreamer main page:

Browsing around in Xtreamer should be fairly intuitive, as its structure mirrors that of Cyclef Explorer and the Xclef itself.

The main page has a ring of links to the major folders of your Xclef. Each page has a set of links across the top of the page to let you jump from one folder to another quickly. And at the bottom of each page you'll find links to our website and our support section.

Open any of the main folders and Xtreamer will display a list of the tracks in that folder. Note that because locked tracks cannot be streamed or downloaded, Xtreamer doesn't bother displaying them in the track lists.

The display format of the track names can be customized using the same format template used for track display in the Cyclef Explorer interface. For more information on customizing the format template, see section 7.2.2.

If you click on the track name of any of the tracks, you'll get a popup window displaying details about the track. If you have a popup blocker installed, this might not work.

If you find that the contents displayed in Xtreamer do not match with what is shown in Cyclef or on your Xclef (aside from the locked tracks), you may just need to re-soft-connect your device in Cyclef Manager. At most you would need to close and restart the Manager. Also make sure that your web browser is not caching an old Xtreamer page.

Next to each track in a Xtreamer track list you will see a "Play" link. Click on this link and Xtreamer will begin streaming playback of the track. Under the folder title on each page there is also a "Play All Tracks in this Folder" link, which will begin streaming all the tracks.

In order for this to work, you must be running an MP3 player software on your computer that supports HTTP streaming as a source for playback. The following MP3 players are known to support HTTP streaming and should work with Xtreamer:

• Nullsoft Winamp 5
• Windows Media Player
• MusicMatch Jukebox
• RealOne Player

Any other software that supports standard HTTP streaming should work as well.

When you click on any of the play links, you are essentially downloading an .M3U playlist through your browser that contains references to the tracks to be streamed. So for the click-to-stream to work seamlessly, your MP3 player software must be registered in Windows to handle the .M3U file type extension. Normally, your MP3 software will have some configuration option to automatically associate it with various filetypes. Use this option to associate it with .M3U files. To double-check that you have done this right, open any Explorer window, and choose "Folder Options" from the "Tools" menu. Then go the the "File Types" tab, lookup the .M3U extension, and make sure your MP3 software is registered to handle it with either an "Open" or "Play".

Each track also has a "DL" link next to it. Click this link to download a file to your computer instead of stream it.

The PC filename generated for downloaded audio tracks can be customized using the same format template used for generating filenames when transferring files from the Cyclef Explorer interface to the PC. For more information on the customizing the format template, see section 5.2.

From time to time, people will ask if it is possible to download more than one file at a time. Alas, we don't even know exactly what this means. When was the last time you clicked on a webpage link that triggered the download of several files at once? That's what we thought. :-)

This section discusses connecting your Xclef to Cyclef Xtreamer on one computer, and then browsing and streaming from it from another computer across a local area network (LAN) inside your house or workplace.

Suppose your Xclef is connected to computer A, which is running Cyclef Xtreamer. Computer A has a network IP address of 192.168.1.1 and a hostname of "computera" and is connected to computer B by a LAN. Sitting at computer B, you can browse to your Xclef using the following URLs:

http://192.168.1.1:8043
http://computera:8043

The particular IP address or hostname you use will depend on how you've set up your network. For Windows systems, your Windows machine name is usually also your IP hostname. You can find the machine name in the System applet in the Windows Control Panel.

Other than the different hostname, all other aspects of Xtreamer should work the same remotely.

Xtreamer can also be used to access your Xclef remotely across the Internet. For example, you could leave your Xclef attached to your home computer, and access it from work. This functionality is not officially support by us. Furthermore, it is only possible and practical if the computer to which the Xclef is attached has an Internet connection that meets the following conditions:

1. Broadband: 128kbps or faster connection such as DSL or Cable. Even the fastest dial-up connection is not fast enough to support streaming playback.
2. Always-On: Since the computer is acting as a server, it must have an always-on connection. A connection that requires initiation from the computer is useless because it will have no way of knowning when you wish to connect remotely. For this reason, a broadband connection that uses PPPoE will probably not work.
3. Static IP Address: Again, since the computer is acting as a server, you must have a static IP address from your ISP in order for your computer to be addressable from the Internet. If you have a dynamic IP address, you may still be able to use a dynamic DNS service to at least get a static hostname, but it is beyond the scope of this document to explain such services.

If you meet all thse criteria, setting up for remote Internet access is essentially the same as setting up for remote LAN access. Just substitute the right IP address or hostname in the URL you use to browse to Xtreamer.

If the computer to which your Xclef is connected is behind a firewall/gateway that employs Network Address Translation (NAT), you'll have to configure your firewall/gateway to perform what is called "port forwarding". You need to forward port 8043 to the computer to which your Xclef is connected. Please refer to the documentation for your firewall/gateway for instructions on configuring its port forwarding feature, if available.

If you are using Windows 2000 Internet Connection Sharing, you can configure port forwarding using the following steps:

1. Open "Network and Dial-Up Connections" in the Control Panel and select your network connection for the Internet.
2. Right-click on it and select "Properties", and go to the "Sharing" tab.
3. Click on "Settings" and go to the "Services" tab.
4. Click on "Add". Then type in "Cyclef Xtreamer" for the name, type in the port number 8043, check the TCP option, and type in the IP address of the computer to which your Xclef is connected. Then click "OK".

If this all sounds too technical to you, you probably should not attempt it until you feel comfortable with the concepts. Please do not ask us to provide any hand-holding help with this particular feature, as you should only be using it if you fully understand it yourself. Also remember that this feature is not officially supported.

Cyclef Xtreamer is not designed to support multiple simultaneous users. If more than a couple of people try to stream through Xtreamer at once, you could freeze up your connection to the Xclef.

Also, please remember all of your legal obligations to respect the rights of copyright holders.

When setting up Xtreamer for remote access, you may want to configure its security options to prevent access by unauthorized individuals. To access these options, right-click on the device icon in the systray and select "Cyclef Explorer Options". All changes you made take immediate effect after clicking "OK".

To use a port number other than the default 8043, just enter the number you want to use.

If you don't plan on using Xtreamer at all, you can disable it altogether by checking the "Disable the Xtreamer HTTP Server completely." option. This does not affect any other Cyclef Explorer functionality. If you want to use Xtreamer locally but prevent all remote access, check the "Block other computers from accessing your Xclef." option.

To allow remote access selectively using usernames and passwords, check the "Require username and password for remote access." option. Then, click "Edit Usernames and Passwords" to setup accounts. The format of the password file is one account per line, where each line is the username followed by a colon, followed by the password in plaintext.

billybob:easytoguess
angelina:99wei1928

This username/password scheme uses the Basic HTTP Authentication standard. While this method is fine for casual use, it is not cryptographically secure or impervious to semi-sophisticated attackers. If you need more robust security, you should use a dedicated standalone firewall package in conjunction with Xtreamer.

If you have set up password protection and are using Winamp 3 as your remote streaming playback software, you may notice that Winamp asks you for the username and password multiple times. This appears to be a bug in Winamp 3. To stop this annoying behavior, go to the "HTTP Reader" page of Winamp 3's "Preferences" window. Change "Prebuffer Settings" to "Manual" and uncheck the "Allow seeking on files over HTTP" option.

Xtreamer can also log remote accesses so you can see who is doing what with your Xclef. Just check any of the options to enable different types of logging. Click the "Clear Log" button to clear the log at any time. The log is also viewable through the main Xtreamer interface.

The structure and appearance of the web pages generated by Cyclef Xtreamer is not fixed and can be easily changed by us or by you, the user. This capability is known as skinning wherein you can customize the appearance of Cyclef Xtreamer with images from your favorite movie, sports team, or band, make it look like your favorite website, or match your desktop.

See the next section, Section 9: Xtreamer Skins for details and a step-by-step guide on how to create your own Cyclef Xtreamer skin.