2006-01-03

http://localhost:32214

I noticed today that http://localhost:32214 had enqueued itself in Winamp.. I have no idea when or why it happened, due to not getting near the bottom of my playlist very often, but.. what is it? Random open ports on a pc isn't normally a good sign.

A bit of investigation suggests that it's the last.fmplayer, which is strange.

last.fm has radio links on their site, but they're all done using a custom protocol, for instance lastfm://user/Faux/loved, so it apparently isn't those.

Launching the player, then immediately hitting the "Play http://localhost:32214" button causes something slightly strange to happen.. you get what appears to be a "200 OK" from the address in Winamp, then nothing. Winamp, not getting anything from the station, gets bored and goes on to the next track, no surprise there.

The surprise comes when you try and use the last.fm player after this.. it doesn't work. It repeatedly comes up with "There is not enough content left to play this station.". I wonder how secure and stable the minihttpd they're using is? If the port's externally accessible, and they're expecting you to run the player full time, this could be a bit of an issue?

Also, I wonder what's going on, and if the last.fm's protocol is flexible enough to write a mini-proxy based on their source allowing you to use Winamp to handle the lastfm:// links.

Either way, opening random ports on people's machines without explanation is bad, mmkay?


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