401(ok)

401(ok) is an application that works along with iTunes 4.0.1 to facilitate a user's access to their own collection of music over a network.  It is for personal use only.  Do not steal music.  It is strongly advised that you take advantage of the password protection in the iTunes sharing configuration to restrict unauthorized access to your music.  Additionally, publicly distributing your music's sharing URL should be avoided.

If you are looking for a way to download free music, you've come to the wrong place.  However, if you enjoyed the freedom introduced in iTunes 4.0 to listen to your music wherever you might be, then this could be your solution.

This software is inefficient, ugly, and poorly written.  If anyone really uses this thing, I'll see about making it better.  Mail suggestions to speth@icommune.net.

To share your music:
Turn on music sharing in the iTunes preferences, set an authentication password, then run the 401(ok) application.  Your shared music URL is now something like "daap://your.host.name.or.ip:4689".  The ":4689" following the machine name or IP address is important.

To access your shared music:
In iTunes, choose "Open Stream..." from the "Advanced" menu.  In the dialog, enter the URL of your shared music collection (starting with "daap://").  The stream URL will appear in your iTunes library, but won't play anything.  iTunes might even display an error dialog.  Give it a few seconds.... then you'll see that the music collection shows up in the iTunes Source list as Shared Music.  Click on it there, and if everything goes well, you'll be prompted for your password, then your music will appear.

How it Works

401(ok) acts as an application-level proxy for the iTunes sharing protocol.  The proxy allows your iTunes applications to communicate just as though they were sitting next to each other on a LAN.  No data in their communication stream is modified by the proxy, so your machines will have the same abilities and restrictions as they would on a local network.

For your client machine to be aware of your server, 401(ok) takes the "daap://" stream URLs in your iTunes library and turns them into Rendezvous announcements on your local network  It checks your library every 5 seconds to see if new announcements need to be made.

Legal Stuff

Code from Apple's mDNSResponder project was used without modification in 401(ok).  For information about mDNSResponder see http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/rendezvous/

Portions Copyright (c) 1999-2001 Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This file contains Original Code and/or Modifications of Original Code as defined in and that are subject to the Apple Public Source License Version 1.2 (the 'License'). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. Please obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apple.com/publicsource and read it before using this file.

The Original Code and all software distributed under the License are distributed on an 'AS IS' basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND APPLE HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL SUCH WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, QUIET ENJOYMENT OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. Please see the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations under the License.