Steamcast 1.1.0 Beta

[Max]

Hi,

We are pleased to announce Steamcast 1.1.0 Beta. This beta is mainly focused on providing SSL capabilities to Steamcast as the wider internet has moved towards SSL being a requirement of continued connectivity.

Right now this beta provides the ability to specify a folder to be used when serving ACME .well-known requests. A way to specify the location of generated certificate. Which port to listen for SSL connections on. And configuration about acceptable TLS versions, and cipher suites.

To enable SSL features you must first specify where Steamcast should look for the .well-known files that the ACME client of your choosing will make. For those with purchased SSL certificates you can skip to step 4.

1. In steamcast.conf:

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   ACMEWebRoot=/home/dev/steamcast/webroot
   

2. Reload your Steamcast configuration (by typing "r" then enter in the Steamcast window).
3. In the command line for your operating system, run the command to generate your certificate. Here we are using acme.sh in this example.

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   acme.sh --issue -d example.com -w /home/dev/steamcast/webroot
   

4. In steamcast.conf, we need to specify where the generated certificate is, and also to start listening for TLS connections on port 443.

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   ListenTLS=443
   CertificateFile1=/home/dev/.acme.sh/example.com/fullchain.cer
   CertificateKey1=/home/dev/.acme.sh/example.com/example.com.key
   

5. Restart Steamcast so that it can start listening on which ever port you specified in ListenTLS.

Default configuration for TLS settings.

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TLSOptions=
TLSCipherList=[ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256|ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305|ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256|ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305]:ECDHE+AES128:RSA+AES128:ECDHE+AES256:RSA+AES256:ECDHE+3DES:RSA+3DES

The possible options for TLSOptions. By default only TLS 1.2 and 1.3 are enabled. SSL Compression is disabled. And server cipher suite order preference is enabled. A + enables an option, a - disables it, below is all possible options combined.

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TLSOptions=+tlsv1+tlsv1.1-tlsv1.2-tlsv1.3+comp-sorder

Known issues:

• Steamcast may crash on certificate change (such as when renewing the certificate when it is nearing expiring).
• We need to implement a method of telling Steamcast to reload certificates that can be triggered by the ACME clients.
• There maybe form submission issues in the Admin Web Panel when operating under a TLS connection.

On Linux you will need libatomic.

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apt-get install libatomic1

Please let us know below if you find any other bugs.

[Lane]

Wowsers. It seems I was last here around 7 years ago. I was just wondering how 1.1.0 Beta is working out for people.

[Max]

Well from internal testing we've only had an issue around the stats page due to a bug in GCC's implementation of std::atomic.

So I've been trying different versions of GCC and Clang. Each introduces a different bug. Its really odd to say the least.

[stationx]

Hi Max & Crew....

Are there any tips for us folk on Windows? I’ve installed the new Steamcast 1.1.0 beta on servers running Windows Server 2012 R2. I’ve not setup the SSL Certificate part at all yet. I wasn’t sure what to do for windows.
I wanted to see if a newer steamcast exe was any better before I went down that road. I’d say it seems to work better - so far...

There is one problem.... directories that use YP like Steamcast, Icecast etc are not listing properly or at all. Some do but it hands over the default port 8000 when it’s clearly not on that. You see in the steamcast logs - they come back with the NAK check firewall can’t connect to xxx.xxx.xxx:8000 or xxx.xxx.xxx:8000. Have I missed a step installing the newer steamcast?

Regards

Pete

[Max]

Hi,

So for windows SSL, the steamcast.conf configurations still apply. Just with a Windows directory. For an ACME client you'll have to find one via this list and refer to their documentation.

For the YP issue, did you change your port from 8000? What Listen entries do you have in your steamcast.conf file? Because your YP issue sounds like Steamcast is listening on port 8000 but you are blocking it by firewall (or not port forwarding it).

[stationx]

I've noticed this is gone below -

; Server Configuration
; ====================

; PortBase [*8000]: The port that Steamcast will listen for connections on, generally it is
; acceptable to just leave this at the default, change it if you use port
; 8000 and/or 8001 for some other server. Ports < 1024 are reserved, so try to
; stay above that.
PortBase=8100 #### this line is gone ####

I got tired and went to put the old one back... things got worse. Now no one can listen but all sources are connected and ready.... At first this looks like a firewall issue not allowing people in, as you have techincally installed a new app. Re doing windows firewall doesn't fix it. I think I've tracked it down to the fact the new exe edits your old config (that's confirmed). I noticed the date modified changes on an old config file. Then trying to get the old one to read theat is not going to go well.

If I understand you correct the new exe does insert the - Listen=8100 parameter down the bottom. But there is still no joy posting the correct port to the directory.

Have I missed soemthing?

Regards

[Max]

Hi,

PortBase is replaced with Listen. Since we now have two types of ports to listen to. A normal unencrypted port (Listen) and an encrypted port (ListenTLS). The Listen configuration option can now also listen to specific IPs the machine may have as well, which is why naming it PortBase no longer made sense.

I'll double check some code, but can you also check Steamcast's log to see what ports its binding to?

[stationx]

Max,

Buddy, this is the whole issue. The directory touch comes back with.... can't see - xxx.xxx.xxx:8000 or xxx.xxx.xxx:8000....Disable firewall etc etc. The server actually works on the right port for listeners and remoting in via a browser. It just doesn't advertise the correct port to the directory. Works for everything else it needs to do.

I've not setup the certificate part yet. Would that be part of it? It's been installed and just running non encrypted. This whole Tip above was discovered when I had to roll it back..... as there is another problem. I'm too far off topic as it is.... cheers

PS Can we haver a new config file from you guys too please? There is only the new exe beta in the windows zip.

[Jay]

Hey there, we hear you, but interest in Steamcast has been super low. I think you might be the first legitimate tester we have had use this new version. At least the first to give any meaningful feedback.

To be clear, please test this but do not overwrite your working installs or install in locations where you have a working Steamcast, this is a beta.

If you are unsure always backup your files before installing.

We will definitely look closer at this PortBase issue because we do not want you to be unable to rollback in case 1.1 doesn't work for you. I will also see if Max can share a working config to base your 1.1 beta installs on.

[stationx]

Thanks heaps Jay...
I've supported steamcast for years. I'm totally gob smacked to hear you say that.... It's the Betamax of the streaming apps - is it...

I out smarted myself I think is the issue... i started small and didn't deploy globally for a while. That's when the problem appeared when I put it on the public servers that the directories get.
With a stack to do i just dropped them all in after running for a week on "private servers". Now I have 4 public places either not showing up or sending the standard 8000 port. So I rolled back... Then the PortBase issue got me.

Yep not backing up my configs - is on me. I know now but....

I've been thinking hard on this.... Don't forget I've NOT setup the stuff that powers the certificate.... While this version is made "to support" https streams - what if they aren't? That question gets me to the next thought. Is the code looking for something not there and then loading default info? I've seen that somewhere - if it can't find a parameter it loads defaults.

Regards

Pete

[Max]

So looking at the code there is a bit that is still looking for the PortBase in various places (the default if not found is 8000). I'll try to work on a version that fixes this this weekend.

[stationx]

Thank you Max,

Regardless of me needing to roll back & discovering the issue, can you keep in mind that there will be some people NOT wanting to run the https side of the new one?

While steamcast isn't as popular (god knows why not) I can't be the only person using it to feed a network. Where everything is private (not listed) or on private links anyway.
I'd say working properly in both https mode or not would be a slightly important thing... Yes?

Cheers buddy

Thanks again

[stationx]

is there any news please guys?

regards

Pete

[Max]

Yeah, I"m still working on it. But I'm still running into issues with the compilers doing different things depending on which compiler which causes different bugs.

I'm really thinking of an overhaul. But we'll see. Right now I got work piled high, so I gotta get the paying job done first.

[stationx]

Thanks for the update.... cheers