Media streaming server

[weedn]

hi, forgive me in advanced if this is the wrong thread to post this in.

i havent really ever dabled in servers or anything even remotely advanced in networking apart from setting up a basic wireless home network

basiclly what i want to do is set up a server of some sorts using one of my older machines (going to need to upgrade a few parts, but im not worried about that) i want to store all my movies and tv shows onto this server and connect it to my network so that i can stream the content of the server to any of my other devices hooked up to the wireless network (2 PC's and 2 xbox360's, and possibly android devices) as well as use it as a backup for the 2 PC's, probably get something along the lines of 2X2TB HDD's using one as an active drive and the other as a backup, and i dont mind if it doesnt do it sutomaticlly or anything fancy, if i can just manually back everything up, that would be fine too.

also, if possible i would want to be able to use it as a sort of "cloud" so that i can access these files over the internet on my phone or a laptop on the go, maybe set up users to access it sorta thing, but this isnt a requirment, just something i think would be cool.

so would i be able to simply just put all my parts together, install ubuntu and the devices should be able to just access the files and play them off of there?

anyway, what do you guys think?

i want to do this likely in the next month or so and any help would be greatly apprieciated, thank you

 

[ngrego]

You don't need anything special, just share the folder/drive with the media installed and you're good!
I have all my media on my pc and I share it all other devices in the house.

 

[weedn]

interesting, so i probably wouldnt need to even set a server up? i could just throw some drives in my current case and share the media? so an xbox or even a phone should have no trouble recognizing these drives so they can stream the media, correct?

awesome if thats the case, may have saved me an aweful lot of trouble, and money

like i said, i know very little in this subject

 

[ngrego]

It is true, don't waste your money! Just setup your Advanced Sharing and you're OK. It takes like 5 minutes to set up.
If you will be sharing with DLNA devices you will need to add your media to your Media Libraries through Windows Media Player or Nero Home. Just add folders to Libraries from Options menu. Also keep in mind media libraries must be updated when new media is added. Do this by simply opening WMP.
Enjoy!

 

[weedn]

cool, i was messing around with it over the weekend with my 200GB and a few videos i had on there to test, and i got it to work using windows media center, pretty cool.

quick question though, before i attempted using this method i was trying to simply share the drive over the network to see if i could get it to work, and while i was able to see the other computer, and the drive i selected to share, but when i attempt to open the shared folder/drive i get a pop up saying that "windows cannot access folder, you do not have permission, contact your administrator for permission"

how do i make it to were i have permission to access this? this happens on both computer when trying to access eachother shared drive

 

[ngrego]

If your machines are all Windows 7, add the Homegroup password (of your pc) to all other pcs on the network. They will have full access then. Also check your Advanced Sharing options, un-tick "Use Password Protected Sharing" that will also help.
Another thing, in Advanced Sharing Options there is an option that says "Use 128bit Encryption". That may cause a problem to some devices, I use a WDTV Live and 128bit is not supported so I use 40- or 56bit.
Finally, when you share your media folder click Sharing (in properties) press Advanced Sharing button and tick "Share this Folder" and look in Permissions. There should be an "everyone" in the list whith the "read" option ticked.

Let me know how it goes!
Good luck!

 

[weedn]

i tryed the homegroup on both computers, for whatever reason its not working, i got the password off the 1 computer, typed it in the other computer and both computers say there are no computers connected to the homegroup which i found strange

i unticked the use password protection option, shared the drive in advanced sharing, but i havent messed with the 128 bit encryption, and since the drive is older i feel that may be the problem, im going to switch that around when i get home from work and see if that works,

otherwise its not a big deal since i was able to get the streaming to work with the xbox's on WMC.

ill let you know how it goes when i go and buy the drives and finish getting it all set up, thanks for the help

 

[ngrego]

The 128bit encryption was only a problem for WDTV Live so don't worry about that. Good to hear you got the 360 to play. Strange to hear the Homegroup didn't work that ususally does. Try a restart on either or both PCs that may help, you should be able to see the connected PCs in the sidebar under Homegroup. Also when sharing to Homegroup right click the folder you're sharing and check the "Share with" option "everyone should be in there also.
This is pretty tedious stuff, especially the first time around. Once you get it working though its really cool! Just don't make too many changes at once, or keep notes of what you've changed so you can restore options if need be.