Networking for MP3 fun... or Help Me, I'm a Noob.

[BarTopDancer]

I keep all my music on an external drive and only use iTunes to manage/add music to my iPod (or play it).

Your thread reminded me to re-set up my home networking. Easy breezy. I don't even map network drives for stuff on my computer. Just moved my folders into the "shared folder" area.

[Pirate Bill]

I've been using the Firefly Media Server on my Linux home server for a couple months now. It's also available on Windows here. I would have posted about it earlier but, since I hadn't used it on Windows yet I wanted to have a chance to test it out first. I just installed it, ran it, and it works great. A very easy install and configuration.

It will do exactly the same thing that iTunes does with the sharing. Only, it runs in the background so you don't have to have iTunes open all the time. You do have to remain logged into Windows though. If you log out it will close the server. That's one advantage to just sharing the music folder and mounting it on other networked computers. As long as the computer is on you can access the shared folder even if no user is logged in.

Of course, if you're not timid and not afraid of Linux and want to go the route I did with a hacked NSLU2 server and external drive then I can offer some tips.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Pirate Bill

I've been using the Firefly Media Server on my Linux home server for a couple months now. It's also available on Windows here. I would have posted about it earlier but, since I hadn't used it on Windows yet I wanted to have a chance to test it out first. I just installed it, ran it, and it works great. A very easy install and configuration.

Question the first) Does Firefly handle iTunes DRM protected material
Question the second) Does Firefly have an interface that will allow me to play music remotely on via the web interface (i.e., if I hook up a system running Firefly to a stereo, can I then, from a different system, hit play on the stereo-connected system or will it only play on my local system?)
Question the third) Have you compared it to VLC? If so, how does it compare?

[Pirate Bill]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Question the first) Does Firefly handle iTunes DRM protected material
Question the second) Does Firefly have an interface that will allow me to play music remotely on via the web interface (i.e., if I hook up a system running Firefly to a stereo, can I then, from a different system, hit play on the stereo-connected system or will it only play on my local system?)
Question the third) Have you compared it to VLC? If so, how does it compare?

1) I don't know because I don't own any iTunes DRM'ed material. You could try it, it's free.

2) a) You run Firefly on the computer where the music is stored.
b) The web interface is for configuration only.
c) You use iTunes or any daap aware music player (ie Rhythmbox in Linux) to play the music remotely. The Firefly server shows up in iTunes on any computer on the local network. Roku also sells a box that you can hook up to the stereo instead of using a computer. I don't know if it will work with an AppleTV. I haven't researched that.

It's also possible, although I haven't tried it, to connect to the Firefly server from outside the network as well, so you can listen to your music from anywhere in the world. You'd have to configure your router to forward the port. And there's probably another step that I'm forgetting. This will, however, open a major security hole. So I don't recommend it.

3) VLC crashes my Windows computer and my tiny Linux server doesn't have the resources to run it. So, no.