Streaming my own show questions

[skorch]

Hey everyone.

I've been thinking about starting a show about one of my hobbies (record collecting) for some time. I considered creating it and airing it on the local cable access but there aren't too many open timeslots right now. I'd have to have the show on at 3AM or something crazy like that.
I wanted to know if I recorded my show and converted it to a streaming media file, could others that were interested access the show from my PC over the internet?
I know next to nothing about this and my research has just confused me more. What kind of software do I need and what are the steps involved?
How many people can access the file at the same time? Could people with dial-up access the streaming video?

Thanks.

[housepig]

some of your answers will probably lay with your webhost - I know that mine, Dreamhost, has a whole set of FAQ's and knowledge base articles on streaming media from sites they host - your host will probably have something similar.

edit - just reread your post - hard to say. if you can run your pc as a server on your connection, and have a static IP address (most home connections don't, unless you pay extra for one), then you could put stuff up for streaming. otherwise, you'd probably have to beef up your connection, or get some server space with a web host for your files.

[skorch]

Well I read this article in PC Mag:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1641696,00.asp

It was a little vague and the web links didn't help too much either.

Thanks for the response housepig.

[edDV]

Doing it yourself can get very expensive in isp upload charges.

Third party solutions exist

http://www.live365.com/broadcast/index.live
http://www.shoutcast.com/

http://www.surfernetwork.com/
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Communications_and_Netw.../Broadcasting/

[housepig]

Well I read this article in PC Mag:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1641696,00.asp

well, most of those are webhosts that are giving you x amount of space to share various media files; then you send invites or links to the people you want to view them.

that one that says "you save to your hard drive, the program automatically emails friends and family to download from your machine" sounds like some odd cross between IM and a P2P app.

your best bet might be to find an inexpensive web host for your files. I get 2.5Gb of space and 120Gb/month bandwidth for $10 a month - which is worth it to me, rather than trying to upgrade my DSL connection, leave my machine on all the time, and setting it up as a server.