Authenticating streaming client requests

Proxy authentication for streaming clients

You can force proxy authentication for streaming clients by enabling the Authenticate (MMS and RTSP) Requests option on the Streaming - General page in the Appliance Manager (Setup tab > Streaming > General). The Streaming (RTSP and MMS) Authentication option performs proxy authentication using the authentication settings entered in the Authentication pages of the Appliance Manager (Setup tab > Authentication).

The following authentication methods are supported:

NetCache appliance user database
LDAP
RADIUS
NTLM

End-to-end authentication

If a streaming server requires client authentication, NetCache establishes a connection to the streaming server and forwards the authentication information provided by the client. NetCache waits until the streaming server verifies the authentication request before delivering the stream to the client.

NetCache forwards the authentication information for every client--even if a client's request can be resolved by splitting an existing stream already authenticated for another client or by serving a stream from the cache. In these cases, NetCache opens a connection to the streaming server and forwards the client authentication credentials.

If NetCache subsequently delivers a split stream to the authenticated client, NetCache might close the connection to the streaming server after the client has been authenticated. On-demand connections are not terminated.