Hello. I was wondering if it's a good idea to host a customer running shoutcast 24/7 from a shared box.

I've been getting about 6 people a week asking me if I can host an account for them, strictly for shoutcast application.

General Server Specs: 2GB RAM, 10mbit connection, Pentium 4 Processor.

Any thoughts? :confused:

Shoutcast is relatively low in processor usage. It's the bandwidth that most hosts are concerned with.
You will also want to confirm that the user (DJ) is broadcasting from a home C (or something of that sort) and not utilizing sc_trans, as that would require that they store their music on the same server as they are running sc_trans from... this could chew up some space pretty fast.
I've been running Shoutcast for 161 days now with solid broadcasting 24/7 and have not once seen the process show up in my servers "top" listing. On the other hand, I have seen the bandwidth increase substancially once I've had 10 listeners at 80kbps tuning in for a live broadcast.
If you're going to be switching to a professional SC host (and not just hosting one for a friend), you'll want to check into some sort of port-based bandwidth monitor to keep a handle on them.
Also remember, Shoutcast broadcasts on port 8000 by default... so it'll be one more port to open up on the firewall.

You need to watch out for how many slots you sell with "only" a 10Mbps connection you may fill that up quickly. Make sure you have enough BW to handle them all being full at once + plenty left for your other clients. If you start to max out the line the shoutcast will suffer very quickly.

And if I upgrade to a 100mbps connection, it will be less risky?

is there a connection limiting tool for shoutcast per config file

I thought I'd bump this one back up to the top, as there are a couple of un-resolved questions.

Thanks in advance!

Yes, you can limit the number of listeners via the shoutcast configuration file. It's very well documented, and will be hard to miss.
As for the line upgrade... well, it still depends on how many Shoutcast servers you plan to have running, how many listeners that you plan each server to have at any given time (think max numbers, not average), and at which bitrate you will be serving the audio stream out to those listeners. it's not a matter of preference or advice, it's a matter of basic math.

Go here to figure how much montly bandwidth you will use.

Chances are, unless the potential customer is going to spend big bucks on advertisement, they won't use up all the user slots they order from you.

Also, you can limit the listen time on a server in the server config file. This not only helps keep the bandwidth down, but also helps with stream rippers. I personally limit listeners to 30 minute periods. If they are listening to the stream and enjoy what they are hearing, they will reconnect. Mostly, I do this to help keep the stream rippers down which saves on bandwidth.

You may find that hosting shoutcast servers can be more profitable if promoted correctly and if your willing to toss some money into it to purchase web based control panels for shoutcast. While at the same time, using less space on your server.