7 ms·

What you're looking for is Windows Home Server. It's amazing. Stores all the media you need, plus has streaming capabilities over the net. Able to expand per

by ttol 16y ago

What you're looking for is Windows Home Server. It's amazing. Stores all the media you need, plus has streaming capabilities over the net. Able to expand perpetually -- no need to reformat or anything like that. I have it running with 10TB of space. It has a great front-end UI, and as close to zeroconf as you can get with this type of service. See exampel screenshot: http://ivivo.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/windowshomeserver_28server_storage291.png http://ivivo.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/windowshomeserver_2... EDIT: Forgot to mention one of the biggest pluses. Microsoft pioneered a special file system for WHS called Drive Extender. There are no drive letters, just folders, and it spans across all your hard drives and future hard drives. No more "oh that video is in H:, oops I mean K:", it's just "It's in the video folder." See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Home_Server#Drive_Extender http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Home_Server#Drive_Exten... The best thing is that WHS is tightly integrated with Windows, so it has things like autobackup (selective and not), health monitoring (if any of the PC's hooked up at your home springs an alert, like virus found, or low disk space, etc, it notifies the other computers through dismissable systray popup), central user/password management across all your machines, and other cool things. Many companies have also developed plugins for WHS as well (useful things like PerfectDisk for defragmentation). It also works/integrates with Mac environment. For playback of media content, I have two HTPCs connect from two different rooms as well as some Xbox 360's (yea, the xboxes just found the folders and was able to play the content. it just works). Also, I installed Air Video to stream videos to ipad/iphone. And since it needs to be always-on, I hooked up a UPS battery to it. It's headless -- just the machine is needed, which is great for a server in the closet. You'll manage the WHS through remote desktop/web ui. You'll also want to get the Rosewill RSV-S8 -- you will need more and more space! (Some people have gone the "octopus" -- lots and lots of external hard drives hooked up through USB. I initially went this route but the throughput became a bottleneck so I got the Rosewill - See: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132016 http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132...). Some use-cases: I've got private directories for myself, then I've got public directories such as Photos and Videos, with Photos being writable by certain members of the family. This means I can create a folder, say "07.04.10 July 4th in Boston", and each of us can upload our iphone/camera images to that folder. Now we have a global picture folder for the event we shared together. With Videos, since WHS supports Windows Media Center as well as just normal file streaming, I outfitted my WHS box with 1GBit ethernet card and the machine can stream out files to each of the HTPCs and other consuming devices. Oh yea, the new Windows Home Server release coming out later this year is going to be even better. If you've got an MSDN subscription, download it and mess with it. You won't be disappointed. It's one of the best products Microsoft has put out.

arnorhs 16y ago
That does actually sound nice. What about web access and/or being able to copy a public URL to any file like you can with dropbox? I guess you'd have to set up your own web server with some software to do that, right? Is it easy to use with a remote control? Browse movies and play them, etc?
- ttol 16y ago
  Remote access: You won't need to install your own web server. It's built into WHS (see screenshot: http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/dougknox/WindowsLiveWriter/WindowsHomeServerCTPBuild1371releasedtot_F31E/RemoteAccess_thumb[3].png http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/dougknox/WindowsLiveWriter/...). You will automatically get your desired, password-protected https://[whatever].homeserver.com https://[whatever].homeserver.com, pointed to your server. (It's autoconfig too with your router). When you access that remotely, you get access to your WHS server, plus all your connected devices. (it looks something like this: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/5B259B0F-B5BD-4D3B-B40E-B39AB6188997_files/whs_01.png http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/5B259B0F-B5B...) For public URL, you can install dropbox on the WHS box or one of the connected PCs, if you'd like. For movie playback, that's separate from the WHS. You need to think of the WHS as the Server and the playback devices as the Client. In this way, the WHS is very extensible and your playback options are limitless. You can use windows media center on a different PC, or just use VLC or windows media player. Effectively, WHS is a very "insanely great" home server that stores your files and serves it, allowing you to decide how you want to consume it. For what it's worth, I use windows media center on a machine connected to the TV, and a logitech dinovo mini for remote (see: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard/devices/3848 http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard/devices/384...). Because I'm a home theater junkie, I did start a side project called http://www.intellimote.com http://www.intellimote.com that uses the iPad as a remote to browse and play movies.
  - arnorhs 16y ago
    Wow. Awesome ipad project. And the remote access does look nice. My blog post was originally about a device that just worked like I described out of the box with no other requirements. Preferably it would be a small box like my media playing storage device that I have or like the tonidoplug, which costs $100 and is already set up. Your WHM solution is super awesome, but it's not something I can buy from the store, plug in, maybe configure a little bit and start using. It's a project. It's something you work on to get it working the way you want it to. What I'd like to see is somebody create a pre built solution, similar to the tonidoplug, with more media capabilities etc, video outputs etc. If some startup or company would build that, people would buy that. Your solution is awesome, I must go ahead and try WHS, I didn't even know that it existed.

by ttol 16y ago

arnorhs 16y ago

That does actually sound nice. What about web access and/or being able to copy a public URL to any file like you can with dropbox? I guess you'd have to set up your own web server with some software to do that, right? Is it easy to use with a remote control? Browse movies and play them, etc?

ttol 16y ago
Remote access: You won't need to install your own web server. It's built into WHS (see screenshot: http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/dougknox/WindowsLiveWriter/WindowsHomeServerCTPBuild1371releasedtot_F31E/RemoteAccess_thumb[3].png http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/dougknox/WindowsLiveWriter/...). You will automatically get your desired, password-protected https://[whatever].homeserver.com https://[whatever].homeserver.com, pointed to your server. (It's autoconfig too with your router). When you access that remotely, you get access to your WHS server, plus all your connected devices. (it looks something like this: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/5B259B0F-B5BD-4D3B-B40E-B39AB6188997_files/whs_01.png http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/5B259B0F-B5B...) For public URL, you can install dropbox on the WHS box or one of the connected PCs, if you'd like. For movie playback, that's separate from the WHS. You need to think of the WHS as the Server and the playback devices as the Client. In this way, the WHS is very extensible and your playback options are limitless. You can use windows media center on a different PC, or just use VLC or windows media player. Effectively, WHS is a very "insanely great" home server that stores your files and serves it, allowing you to decide how you want to consume it. For what it's worth, I use windows media center on a machine connected to the TV, and a logitech dinovo mini for remote (see: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard/devices/3848 http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard/devices/384...). Because I'm a home theater junkie, I did start a side project called http://www.intellimote.com http://www.intellimote.com that uses the iPad as a remote to browse and play movies.
- arnorhs 16y ago
  Wow. Awesome ipad project. And the remote access does look nice. My blog post was originally about a device that just worked like I described out of the box with no other requirements. Preferably it would be a small box like my media playing storage device that I have or like the tonidoplug, which costs $100 and is already set up. Your WHM solution is super awesome, but it's not something I can buy from the store, plug in, maybe configure a little bit and start using. It's a project. It's something you work on to get it working the way you want it to. What I'd like to see is somebody create a pre built solution, similar to the tonidoplug, with more media capabilities etc, video outputs etc. If some startup or company would build that, people would buy that. Your solution is awesome, I must go ahead and try WHS, I didn't even know that it existed.