• Diagnostics: The diagnostic service provides visibility into network-level statistics. The various statistics -- include group membership, transmission rates, and loss rates -- are displayed in an ASP.NET web page. In addition, feedback is incorporated into the ConferenceXP Client UI using tool tips and participant icon decorations.

• Security: Two security modes have been added:
  • Weak: A password is required to access the mapping from venue name to multicast address. This mode is intended to prevent accidental access.
  • Strong: The Password is hashed into a symmetric encryption key, and all stream data is encrypted with the key.

• NAT-friendly Reflector: The 5.0 Reflector supports multiple clients behind a single NAT device. Improved JOIN protocol removes assumptions about which ports will be used.

• Multi-Reflector: Multiple reflectors can be configured to work toghether to improve scaling for large numbers of unicast clients.

• High Quality Audio: DirectShow buffering modifications permit PCM uncompressed mono and stereo audio. Higher quality compressed formats have also been added.

• Audio/Video synchronization: Using the DirectShow buffering parameters, it is possible to synchronize the audio and video streams fairly accurately.

In addition, the 5.0 release will attempt to be somewhat "future-proof", in that future additions (network heterogeneity support, for example) do not require simultaneous upgrades from all clients.