Things Smackie Thinks You Need to Know...

DIGITAL REVOLUTION: Tell me more about the Home Server, already!

Ok, so now Iâ??ve been waiting 6+ months for the price of a home server to come down. Why do I feel like a home server should be around $400? Well, itâ??s simple really. It doesnâ??t do much besides store files.

Thereâ??s no mouse or keyboard. Thereâ??s no video card for graphics or sound card for high audio. Itâ??s a basically a 500GB external drive ($100) with an operating system ($150) hooked up to a CPU ($65) with RAM ($30) and a network card ($15). Thatâ??s $370 in my book, and Iâ??ll throw in $30 for putting it all together. $400.

So in my ongoing quest to fully understand the OS before I buy my HP Media Smart server, I stumbled onto instructions to build your own $400 Home Server. PERFECT! Iâ??ve built computers before, but Donavan West did an amazing job of step by step instructions that any monkey can follow. So I went about collecting my parts that Donavan recommended. At this point I feel the need to point out that I have many hookups at Microsoft and that I didnâ??t pay the $150 for the OS (more like $30 in exchange for building one for her after I get it all worked out â?? seemed like a deal to me). So instead, I reinvested in my server by doubling the RAM (2GB) and adding dual eSATA HDDs (1TB total).

One quick thing. As Sonick pointed out in a different thread, Iâ??m a bit of an enviro. I recycle and drive a Prius, but Iâ??m not crazy. I donâ??t climb trees about to be cut down and I wonâ??t make too many performance sacrifices for my entertainment unit. But I did try to go green where I could. I bought a CPU that is the size of a toaster that uses 1/3 less power than most CPUs. I bought Western Digital Green drives that remove the heads (needles) from the drives when not in use, saving energy. I needed to go to a gig switch rather than the usual 10/100 for HD content, but I did so by buying a D-link green switch that parks the ports when the computer is not turned on. Generally, these things cost a little more, but Iâ??ll get the money back in my saved electricity bills (or so the hope goes). The whole concept of the server is to not only have one storage location, but to also save power by not needing to power on multiple computers/laptops/monitors etc. all the time.

Prius huh….were are you going to dump that huge battery in a few years?

Originally posted by vansmack:
But I did try to go green where I could. Generally, these things cost a little more, but Iâ??ll get the money back in my saved electricity bills (or so the hope goes).

ha ha. . .i'll see what i can do about that. . .

Originally posted by 47 YEAR OLD VIRGIN:
Prius huh….were are you going to dump that huge battery in a few years?

In one of the many caverns created beneath the North Sea that is empty now that all the oil is gone.

I'll put it right next to your carbon.

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
ha ha. . .i'll see what i can do about that. . .

No matter what you do (and I'm afraid you'll do a lot), it won't change the fact that if I use less wattage, I'll be charged less money.

Originally posted by vansmack:

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
ha ha. . .i'll see what i can do about that. . .

No matter what you do (and I'm afraid you'll do a lot), it won't change the fact that if I use less wattage, I'll be charged less money.

depending on when you use it (and what's the generating source). bwah ha ha hah

DIGITAL REVOLUTION: Get that damn thing off the dinner table!

So now I have the server, what do I do with it. Unlike the concept of a server that should be stuffed in the closet, I put mine front and center in my entertainment center. Itâ??s just over 6 inches high and 6 inches wide, no more than 14 inches deep. It also has a lovely clear plastic cover that one can put a nice photo in so itâ??s not ugly. I put the Gig (10/100/1000) switch behind my entertainment unit with a cable running to my router, my Server, my Xbox 360, my DVR and my Slingbox. Only two devices in my system have gig network cards, but theyâ??re the most important â?? the 360 and the server â?? the only two devices that would send HD content between them.

From the wireless router I have two laptops and a desktop hooked up. So with no keyboard, mouse or monitor, how do I connect to the server? Remotely of course. WHS comes with a connector disk that installs a program that connects between the server and all of the computers on the network. From any of these computers, I can log in and make changes to the server. Each client also has a folder on the desktop that links to shared folders on the server: Music, Photos, Videos, Software, Public (misc), and a personal folder for each user that is not shared. You can also create your own shared folders.

Once a computer is recognized by the server, the server takes care of the rest. The HP model will even go out to every computer and copy all of the music/photos/videos on each computer and copy them to the server â?? and NOT make duplicates. Thatâ??s pretty slick. As I mentioned the server will automatically back up each machine overnight, provide access to shared folders, etc.

From each computer you can also install programs that run on the server. For example, I have a program installed called Whiist that turns my personal server into a web server where we share my photos with our family and friends. I have a couple other programs that handle sharing my music and movies that I will discuss at length later.

Another program that I run is a bit torrent add-in. From any of my machines, I send a bit torrent address to the server and the server runs the torrent for me. I turn the computers off and the server takes care of the rest. I can do that from home or work or your home, if I wanted.

In addition, I have remote access to my server from just about any computer on the internet. I can log in, upload files, download files, fix the computers on my home network from my office. I also have access to all of my music…

Hey, Smackie this is a music site, shut up already!

Remember when I set out to solve my music problem? Yeah, me too. So hereâ??s what I did with the server.

Windows Media Player automatically recognizes all the music the server stores, but who in the hell uses that? I run three FREE programs on the server to provide access to my music, one inside my LAN and two outside:

I joined the FireFly Media Server project which ties in Appleâ??s Bonjour software and the WHS. Once installed, every iTunes on my network recognized the server and provided streaming access to the music stored on the server. It has its limitations though. If youâ??re like Hoya and like Smartplaylists this is not for you. In addition, while itâ??s an iTunes solution, it does not work with iPods unless you Map a Network drive (a solution is a work in progress).

In addition, I added WebGuide which provides me streaming access to my entire music collection through the web. I log into my web site and have my collection organized by artist or album and stream the music to my itunes, through Windows Media Player or through the built in player.

One last really dorky addition is LobsterTunes. It allows me to stream my music collection through my Windows Mobile Phone (in my case, Motorola Q). Basically, I canâ??t escape my music collection as long as I am awake.

But, because itâ??s a Microsoft product, itâ??s not without its faults and bugs. Unlike Apple, where everything ties into one goal, one thing was clear with the WHS. They werenâ??t talking to the Media Center folks, who werenâ??t talking to the Media Extender folks who werenâ??t talking to any server folksâ?¦

Originally posted by vansmack:

Originally posted by 47 YEAR OLD VIRGIN:
Prius huh….were are you going to dump that huge battery in a few years?

In one of the many caverns created beneath the North Sea that is empty now that all the oil is gone.

I'll put it right next to your carbon.

So it's a case of polute now or polute later then.

i'm planning a similar home networking project this fall … my problem is that i know little-to-nothing about networking, can you recommend a book/website that will help me with basics? will my iTunes smart playlist issue be a big problem with a server?

by the way, lifehacker had an interesting post about adding mininova torrents to an RSS feed and having a remote bittorrent client start downloading them automatically … pretty nifty, but it seems like you already have a solution for that

MS..why have though foresaken me? Again!?

So Microsoft has an uncanny ability to develop really great products and not tell anyone about them â?? including their own developers. Thereâ??s no one common goal to meet one great strategy like Apple does. I made a joke earlier today about Apple releasing new iTunes software in conjunction with their new phone. If it were Microsoft and they had a new phone that only worked with WMP 12, they wouldnâ??t talk to WMP12 to see when it was done before releasing the phone.

I mentioned earlier that the Xbox 360 can see computers on the network and play their files. If those computers are media center computers, the experience is much better (one that even Smackette will use). Well, the server experience leaves much to be desired.

For example. MS uses a program called Media Connect to connect your computer to a media extender. A computer that includes Media Center is essentially an overlay to improve the Media Connect experience as illustrated below:

Media Connect w/out Media Center
<img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/xbox360_dm_11.jpg" alt=" - " />

Media Center XP
<img src="http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/3B424750-1210-4129-9819-B995D7C38547/0/MyMusicLibrary001.jpg" alt=" - " />

Media Center Vista
<img src="http://www.gadgets-reviews.com/uimg_new/microsoft-debuts-extenders-for-windows-media-center-adds-divx-and-xvid.jpg" alt=" - " />

The Media Center experience is obviously much easier and more friendly to use, simply because it uses metadata (and the search function is really nice).

Media Connect has been through many iterations. The original is obsolete and was replaced by 2.0 with WMP9. If you install Windows Media Player 11 on XP, it comes with Media Connect 3.0. If you install WMP 11 on Vista, you get Media Connect 4.0. Fear not, Iâ??m shaking my head with you.

Guess which version comes on the Home Server? 2.0! Why? The WHS was built on the Windows 2003 server platform and there is no windows media player beyond 9.0 built for the server. That means no upgrades for Media Connect because itâ??s built around WMP.

In addition, the Media Center Overlay (the fancy user experience) is not available as an add-in. It only comes with the purchase of an operating system that has hardware that supports certain elements â?? whether you use them or not. You cannot purchase it separately, even if you own an Xbox 360 that does have the hardware support!

So what does this mean for your experience? Well, it all depends on what you use. If you only have iTunes or Winamp or WMP and no extender, absolutely nothing. If you hook your computer up directly to your TV? Again, nothing.

If you have an extender that has a very nice built in overlay, the only problem may be file support (MC 2.0 does not support Xvid and DivX for example, but perhaps your extender does).

If you have an Xbox 360 (built by MS) and a WHS (built buy MS) then youâ??re totally bummed. Letâ??s start at the most basic: want to find â??The Beatlesâ? â?? better head to the â??Tâ?s, cause you ainâ??t gonna find them in the â??Bâ?s. MC 2.0 canâ??t strip â??theâ? from the database! I know, it's 2008. It's disgusting.

File types are just as ridiculous. I canâ??t play, for example, WMP11 (or even 10) videos on my 360 using an XP machine or the WHS. Thereâ??s absolutely no excuse for this. Xvid and DivX? Forget about it. Crazily enough, if I copy the Xvid or divX movie to a USB flash drive and plug it in the 360, the 360 can play it. At this point I hope youâ??re not shaking your head but pounding it on your desk like I am.

This is why Apple will continue to kick MSâ??s ass. Even if MS can beat Apple to the market with a home server, Apple has 6-12 months to release a perfect product while MS gets beaten up on the blogs - and deservedly so. One hand does not talk to the other - it's as if they don't use any of their products in the real world!

Now, thereâ??s big hype about MSâ??s â??Fijiâ? project. The details have been very tight lipped, but letâ??s hope that by the end of the summer, they get a lot of these absurdities fixed.

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
will my iTunes smart playlist issue be a big problem with a server?

Not if you map a network drive (ie, give your \\homeserver\shared\music folder a drive letter on your computer). The problem is, iTunes chooses where it stores your iTunes Db for you, so you can't have two computers map to the same network folder as two computers can't share the same iTunes Db without causing lots of problems (chaz, if you've found a work around, please share!).

In my house, we map one laptop to the shared folder and use that for the iPods and ripping songs to the server (and I suppose you could use that for your Smartplaylists).

The other laptop uses the FireFly Media server so I can stream the collection (and perhaps your playlists as they are visible). The problem for you would be your streamed content to a second computer or a media extender would not register in your smart playlists nor will your Last.fm (.m3u's don't register in play counts).

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
i'm planning a similar home networking project this fall … my problem is that i know little-to-nothing about networking, can you recommend a book/website that will help me with basics?

There's plenty, but most networking is handled automatically these days. Talk to me after your exam and your vacation.

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:

by the way, lifehacker had an interesting post about adding mininova torrents to an RSS feed and having a remote bittorrent client start downloading them automatically …

uTorrent for the Home Server works very similarly, except rather than leave the home computer(s) on, the server is always on, unlike, say a laptop that might be at the coffee shop with the Mrs.

has anybody tried streaming netflix on demand movies through their xbox? You need a plugin and Media Center Vista, I tried to get it working but I only have Vista Ultimate running virtually in VMWare Fusion on my macbook pro, no success so far, cant get the xbox and the virtual Vista to communicate

Ok, smackie so here is the deal. With the release of the iPhone 2.0 software I have decided that the Remote function is really cool. I want to hear my iTunes stuff on my Stereo, and use the phone as a remote. Currently I can listen to my itunes music through two options, Tivo and xBox 360 (through connect 360) obviously the huge draw back is that you cannot listen to any songs purchased through the Apple Music Store (this is the key to making the whole thing work), and you cannot use the new remote option.

So I did some looking around and I think these are my options:

1. I currently have an airport express (its not by the stereo) it functions as a network extender and the wireless print server. I could, connect the printer directly to the mac that sits on the desk (its a powerbook 12", but it never leaves the desk). I would then be able to move the airport express to the stereo, be able to use airtunes, and still be able to share the printer through the powerbook. This option lets me use the remote but audio only.

2. Just buy another airport express ($79 refurb), and hook it up to the stereo.

3. Buy the a/v cables that allow me to plug in an ipod/iphone to the stereo and TV. This option gives me the ability to do Video as well as audio, but I have to use the ipod to do this, not the computer, which has a much larger library than the ipod and or iphone can handle. I also have no remote control option here.

4. Buy an Apple TV. Gives me video, audio, and more.

5. Buy a Mac Mini. Solves all issues, and its a computer.

I'm not sure any of the third party products out there will give me the ability to play the Apple Music Store purchased music.

Just a second….

How come my morning commute is never this good:

Stripper arrested for subway pole dances

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A stripper who danced on the poles of Santiago subway trains to challenge the prudishness of Chilean society was arrested on Thursday during one of her lightning performances.

Monserrat Morilles, 26, surprised subway riders all week stripping to skimpy underwear, but she refused tips.

Originally posted by raebyddet:
songs purchased through the Apple Music Store (this is the key to making the whole thing work

Let's start at the basics and see if we can use what you already have.

How many protected AAC songs are we talking about?

Originally posted by vansmack:

Originally posted by raebyddet:
songs purchased through the Apple Music Store (this is the key to making the whole thing work

Let's start at the basics and see if we can use what you already have.

How many protected AAC songs are we talking about?

At this point, not a lot. Under 100 I would say. But its the newer stuff that I actually want to listen to right now. I would also guess, that as time goes on this will only grow, I never seem to buy CDs anymore. ITMS seems to be the only place I am getting music from these days.

I don't use many Apple products (I will defer to Pollard on this one), but it sounds like moving the printer to the computer or purcahsing a new AirPort is the way to go for you. Unless you're willing to convert the songs to a non-protected format and refuse to purchase DRM music in the future, neither the TiVo nor the 360 will work for you.

The iPhone remote is really nice for one thing basically - controlling your music when you're not in the line of sight with your devices (since it works on wi-fi and not IR). Otherwise, I programmed my Harmony to do just about everything else it does (note: I don't use iTunes but to rip/organize and for iPods).

One downside to the AirPort is that you may lose the digital quality of your sound if you go 3.5mm stereo to RCA jacks. If you go this route and your stereo has digital sound capability, I'd pick up a cheap TOSLINK/Coaxial Digital adapter and make sure your sound is as clear as you can get it.

If you're bold and have some spare cash, I like the Mac Mini server idea that Pollard employs, especially for video. I think the Mac Mini grows where Apple TV, in its current form, will be surpassed in a couple years (lack of 1080 output).