Quick question about NAS drive for MacBook Pro

[Catcher]

I currently stream music and radio from my MacBook via iTunes to my stereo using an airport express. I use remote app on my iPhone to control it if I am not in front of my MacBook. My question is if I get a NAS drive to add to my home network to increase my music capacity does it still mean the laptop has to be on for me to access my iTunes library and play music via iPhone remote?
Thanks in advance for any answers.

 

[GGJstudios]

I currently stream music and radio from my MacBook via iTunes to my stereo using an airport express. I use remote app on my iPhone to control it if I am not in front of my MacBook. My question is if I get a NAS drive to add to my home network to increase my music capacity does it still mean the laptop has to be on for me to access my iTunes library and play music via iPhone remote?
Thanks in advance for any answers.

Yes, you still need your MacBook on, since the NAS would only contain your music files, but wouldn't have Mac OS X or iTunes running on it. The NAS is a storage server, not a general purpose computer.

 

[drsox]

No, don't think so.
There are NAS units with an iTunes server (Firefly). These will look at the iTunes Music files and play them.
Personally I only use iTunes to manage my Music files, not to play them, but I have the iTunes Music files and the iTunes Library files on my NAS (in two different shares). Only the iTunes exec is on the MBA (and/or PC) - this would be replaced by the iTunes server in the case of Firefly.

e.g. Netgear Ultra Series - see : http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=3962.
See half way down - iTunes Server.

 

[takeshi74]

No, don't think so.
There are NAS units with an iTunes server (Firefly).

Some do, not all. Even with Firefly you'd need a suitable client.

 

[GGJstudios]

It appears Firefly may be dying:

Firefly Media Server is not under active development. There has been an abortive effort to continue this project as Firefly2 Media Server. In July 2009, development continues on a Linux/FreeBSD fork named forked-daapd[1]. The latest version of forked-daapd is v0.19.

 

[Catcher]

Thanks for all the answers. Probably not much stress keeping my macbook on all the time as it usually is anyway.

Think I'll invest in a WD my book live.

 

[monsieurpaul]

Synology NAS have an iTunes Server (among many other things).