As I am sure for most people the various pieces of technology in my household have grown in a hodgepodge manner. What started out 12 years ago when my wife and I formed a household with one G4 PowerMac, has now grown to include a couple of laptops, an iMac, an AppleTV, a couple of iPads, a couple of iPod Touches and various other computers that qualify more as dinosaurs but function.
My dilemma comes from the legacy of that old G4 PowerMac. Over the years, that old work horse was upgraded from OS 9.x to OS X, new hardware was installed and it kept on plugging away (in fact it still is and is used at an offsite office for general word processing and spreadsheets). When it came time to retire the old girl, I used Migration Assistant to move applications, songs, photos, etc. to the iMac. When iPods, iPhones, iPads and AppleTVs entered the scene, they were synced first with the G4 and now the iMac.
Sadly, the iMac is now starting to get a little long in the tooth but it is the center upon which the entire tech system orbits. It seems to me that the time as come (especially with the advent of iTunes Match and over the air updates for the various iDevices) the leave behind the days of all my music, photos, apps, etc. being stored on one device in the den and have them located on some kind of home server that can be accessed by all of the computers, be ye laptop, desktop or portable.
My question is this, "How do I go about accomplishing this feat?" As a side note, I need to extend the range of my wifi connection, I believe my Airport Extreme has the ability to do this with the addition of other wifi routers throughout the house. Is this true and if I add a couple of Airport Expresses throughout the house to extend the range of the wifi signal, will this also extend the range of the Guest network, and will it also allow me to attach speakers to the newly added Airport Express and play iTunes through said speakers.
I know this is very long, but I wanted to give a thorough background on what I was working with, so that my question would be clear.
Thanks for any help in advance.
My dilemma comes from the legacy of that old G4 PowerMac. Over the years, that old work horse was upgraded from OS 9.x to OS X, new hardware was installed and it kept on plugging away (in fact it still is and is used at an offsite office for general word processing and spreadsheets). When it came time to retire the old girl, I used Migration Assistant to move applications, songs, photos, etc. to the iMac. When iPods, iPhones, iPads and AppleTVs entered the scene, they were synced first with the G4 and now the iMac.
Sadly, the iMac is now starting to get a little long in the tooth but it is the center upon which the entire tech system orbits. It seems to me that the time as come (especially with the advent of iTunes Match and over the air updates for the various iDevices) the leave behind the days of all my music, photos, apps, etc. being stored on one device in the den and have them located on some kind of home server that can be accessed by all of the computers, be ye laptop, desktop or portable.
My question is this, "How do I go about accomplishing this feat?" As a side note, I need to extend the range of my wifi connection, I believe my Airport Extreme has the ability to do this with the addition of other wifi routers throughout the house. Is this true and if I add a couple of Airport Expresses throughout the house to extend the range of the wifi signal, will this also extend the range of the Guest network, and will it also allow me to attach speakers to the newly added Airport Express and play iTunes through said speakers.
I know this is very long, but I wanted to give a thorough background on what I was working with, so that my question would be clear.
Thanks for any help in advance.