[OT]: Multicasting

["Trever L. Adams" <trever_Adams@bigfoot.com>]

I know this is off topic.  I am not sure where else to go.  All of my 
google searches lead me to very dead and very old information on 
multicasting.  I am sure most of it is not useful, though some of the 
basics are.

If people have a problem answering on list, please answer off.

My questions:

What protocols and session management (besides IGMP) does the kernel 
support (say, does it support source specific multicasting?)?

Are the old how tos on multicast programming still the only things I 
need to worry about?

If there are only X groups (in the few thousand if IRC), does the 
protocl allow only forwarding Y port on X group to the end person, or do 
they get the entire group?

Anyone know of good books for Linux/Unix multicast programming?

Trever Adams

P.S. I am sure I have left out 1 million and 1 valuable questions that I 
need/want answers to, please feel free to add in what you think might be 
good for me to know.