Is it suitable for the Internet?

[JoinAlef]

Hello,

I never used VideoLAN. I would like to know throw your experience if VideoLan is suitable for streaming over the Internet (ADSL ou Cable for example)...? And if it is secure?


Best regards
JoinAlef

[The DJ]

It is not secure and it's better suited for LAN streaming than for internet streaming, though it certainly can do the latter as well.

[markfm]

I'm curious, DJ -- any idea if anyone has tried running it through an OpenSSH tunnel, which would cover the security aspect? People use VLC through OpenSSH, using OpenSSH to intercept the "clear" port and encrypt it into what's released outside the computer.

[JoinAlef]

When I mean secure, I don't mean if the content is secure... I mean if the server is stable/secure enough to use on a public network like the Internet.


About the "security" of the video stream... That's also an important issue. The ssh tunnel could do the trick... but it's kind of complicated to ask people (the audience) to setup the tunnel on their side. Also... I am not sure... my knowledge about streaming is quite limited but I think that most of the streaming protocols use RTP (or UDP directly) (correct me if I am wrong)... I don't know if tunneling UDP is such a good idea.. You would lost the "extra" speed that UDP gives you.

Best Regards
Join Alef

[The DJ]

VLC is inherently insecure. I don't think security has ever been a large checkpoint in our code. A code audit definetly would neet to take place, but we have no authors who are good enough at this.

SSH tunneling is probably a bad idea. there is some talk about SSL'ing the HTTP stream though. but that's not finished by a longshot.