The benefit of multicast is primarily in the combination of richnes and reach (marketing terms) in a limited bandwidth network,  Richness is about the quality of the material as percevied by the recipient.  Reach is is how broad you can spread that material. Multicast allows flows of  highly rich material to be received by those wanting it (unlimited reach, assuming everyone has internet access), while minimising network overhead.  If bandwidth is somewhat  unlimited (and it bloody well should be!) we do not need multicast. I think we should press for providers to turn it on, especially since they are the ones choking the pipes.  

Craig Whitmore wrote:
I have taken all my notes I had when setting up multicast connections @ APE
ages ago and put on http://www.mbone.net.nz
A small howto on Multicast in NZ. (At APE at least at the moment).
Its very incomplete and may not give you multicast and even crash your
router but its a small start for some people.
With this setup (or something like it) I could see some multicast stuff ages
ago.

If you have any additions/notes/things to add/remove please let me know.

Thanks
Craig

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