what does this mean exactly? throttle down by referrer? you mean limit each user/IP to a certain amount of usage?
and what does 'intelligently stream' mean and why don't you need a dedicated server? Are you talking about real streaming usng mss:// protocol or pseudo streaming where you just put the WMV file on a web server? Lotta companies do that, Nasty Dollars and OxCash sites don't use media servers. I know OxCash did at one time, i always wondered why they stopped.
As far as i know a Windows Media server is just a WindowsNT box, so it's no more expensive than any dedicated server a host would set you up on. You'd just need an admin who understood
how to use Microsoft Media services.
So your hosting company has shared Windows Media servers?
also tell me how many concurrent streams is one WM server capable of streaming? in the event you need two or three machines, do you have to upload the same movie to the other machines or is there some kind of setup where you can store the actual movie files on some other machine and the streaming machines all 'feed off' those movie storage machines?
thanks