re: Thinking about installing a whole-home media/network server

Go wired. Set up a sufficient number of tuners to handle all of your concurrent TV sessions plus recording sessions. I have four tuners on the network connected to an attic antenna supporting three TVs. Windows Media Center handles the TV guide and the recording. You can add cable tuners or more antenna tuners as needed. Use Windows 7 and WMC is included. You pay extra on Windows 8. I'm using XBox 360s as media extenders. They're cheap on E-Bay.

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Hell, I can do that with the $270 gateway I use. It doesn't take much to do what you want to you're looking for.

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You are right. It is really simple. It can be done inside of any Windows system with pretty open content restrictions with native programs (no download required). It can be done fairly simply with an old Mac as well, but you'll limit your source options a little with iTunes as opposed to Windows Media Player. Of course, with both, you can download Plex and get away from the limits of both quite easily.


Lastly, converting an old box with no OS (or building a new one) into a FreeNAS box is wildly simple as well. If you'll notice the wording of my original post, though, I was shooting for a "if you want to purchase an off-the-shelf device to fit your requirements..." to avoid discussion of rebuilding/repurposing, because you'll run into configuration difficulties much more frequently there than if you pick up something like a Synology. Those things are a very quick "set and forget." If you're a tinkerer, penny pincher, and don't want it to double as a comprehensive on-site backup solution (is that an oxymoron?) for all the content across all devices on your network (and believe me, it's quite a powerful backup tool), there are much better options.

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My original purpose was to try and reach out to see who has done something like this already: setting up a system where everything (media, apps, files, etc) is stored and run from a local machine inside a home network that is accessible as long is there's internet. Maybe there is something more simple than a full-blown server.

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Like this?




I have one of these at our office and another at the bosses house which is a few minutes away that is replicated every night. We have the business but they're pretty much the same with the exception of specs.

So it's basically just a gateway and storage, right? My only concern is the memory... 512 MB???

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Why would it rule those out? RAID is just a storage/backup configuration, correct? It was my preference because I would actually be using most of the disk space I buy whereas with simple backups, I'm paying for twice the disk space I'll ever use.

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I think you're misinterpreting my meaning. It rules out using the current devices you listed as the server. None of the things you listed are capable of hosting a RAID. That's all that was meant. I suppose there are Thunderbolt NAS (technically DAS) options, but they're expensive and I didn't think about them originally. Anyway, explaining this is stupid: You're basically committed/thinking of a standalone box and not a simple media server package.

It was not intended to mean that you will not be able to use these devices with the RAID by any means.

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I would like to be on my MBP and windows boot and vice versa, I guess. Also, it would act as my windows desktop at home (so I guess you're right that it's a desktop as a server or vice versa). I'm trying to guess what my needs would be, so why not plan for both was my thought? And the virtual host is so I can test/upgrade without affecting anything else.

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Alrighty. So hosting a Windows machine on just about any hardware is easy-peasy and can be set up quite simply. Hosting a virtual OS X device...you've really got me out of my element. I'll say, it should be easy enough to set up a VPN on your server that would allow you to remote into a Mac on the home network (provided you set the Mac up for such a thing, which should be easy enough with third-party software like VNC. I'm really not confident in explaining how to use native OS X features for this).

Now, when it comes to hosting a Windows machine, there are a few ways of doing it. A basic Windows Pro OS (7 or 8) will do everything you are wanting, including allowing you to remote into the machine. If you want to upgrade to Server 2008 (cheaper) or Server 2012 Essentials, you'll be able to have a few more unique abilities that you wouldn't have had before. For instance, Server usually allows at least 2 concurrent desktop sessions (so you can remote into the server to a unique desktop without booting the current session that's running on it). You can have 2 users remoted in at once, even, and they won't notice each other/bother each other. While not necessarily advised to use your server as your remote terminal for security reasons, if you use a very secure password and aren't needing top-level security, it's probably safe enough for your purposes. Both will also run plex (I keep coming back to this. There are other options. This is just the most popular one at present, and for pretty good reason. It's great.). Both will have VPN capabilities (one native, one third party). Both can host simple FTP servers (again, native in the server, 3rd party in Win7/8) if you want to just share files between the two.



Clear as mud?


ETA: If you can sacrifice the remote desktop feature, you'll save a ton of money by using FreeNAS on a machine you build, Synology disksation, the ReadyNAS linked earlier, or a similar product. I recommend the Synology as a nearly-plug-and-play solution not out of personal experience but from the recommendation (and personal experience) of one of very few people I would turn to for this sort of advice. And he's someone who has a VPN tunnel to his house from his office, keeps multiple subnets for streaming within his own network, recently replaced an old Windows Home Server box with a Synology (5 disk model, set to require 3 disks to fail before any loss of data occurs. I'm not going to pretend that I learned the RAID #s and know them offhand), claiming 20TB of storage on the network (which I suppose means 8 unique TB of digital media), and uses Plex for all his media streaming needs throughout his house (on the order of 5 desktops and probably 5-8 Rokus (he was an official Beta tester at one point and keeps those things scattered throughout his house) in addition to a handful of other devices that can access his stuff, namely WiFi speakers).

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Hopeful Doc

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Just wanted to address your question. While I could use iTunes for this, the App provides access to folders with media stored as well. This way, I don't have to keep the 200-300 movies and countless hours of TV shows stored within my iTunes library. Also, some TV shows that my wife likes I would rather not keep within my iTunes library, so she utilizes the app as well.

I can also stream media from my home computer over the Internet to the App. (Forgot to mention that earlier). We have been at the beach before and watched movies using the App with Airplay on an Apple TV. It worked great.

It may not be the best solution for everyone, but it works well enough for what we use it for. And I have had this app for going on 4 years, so I am sure there are other things out there that could work better by now. I just haven't done any research lately in regards to that. I will have to check out Twonky, that sounds pretty cool.

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I can also stream media from my home computer over the Internet to the App. (Forgot to mention that earlier)

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Ah. Now it's worth looking into (for me).

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I will have to check out Twonky, that sounds pretty cool.

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Twonky charges for their media server, but their app is free, and you can set media to be shared by it without their proprietary server, but you cannot do internet streams with it. In short, it would be less functional and serve little to no advantage over what you're currently using, with the exception that you may prefer the in-network streaming interface or functionality better (but you probably won't).

I only spent 3 hours on it...should have spent another hour :|