Sharing my music from home to work.

[matthewreid]

Ok, here's my question:

If i have all of my music on my home computer, and have it set up to act as a server, can I simply log into my home "server" from work and mount it's drive, then drag some tunes over into iTunes and play them?

I've tried it and it works great, but I haven't heard any else do it, and I didn't know if there were any negatives from doing this?

THanks,
Matt

 

[crazzyeddie]

If it works, it works, but, do you have iTunes copying the music to the other computer? If so, your place of employment might not like you junking up the computer with (legal or illegal) songs. Just tell iTunes not to copy music to the iTunes Music Folder when adding it to the Library. You will still be able to listen to the music, but only when the "network volume" is mounted.

 

[emw]

Burning up network bandwidth to play songs may also be frowned upon.

Couple of suggestions:

1) iPod - expensive, but lots of songs, and anywhere - not just home and work

2) Burn to DVD or CD - less expensive, but unless you have RW capabilities, may get lots of drink coasters out of the deal

3) USB drive - Cheap, easily rewritable, portable, but can't store as many songs. Although if you grab a 256 USB stick for about $50, it's a pretty good solution.

 

[crazzyeddie]

USB drive - Cheap, easily rewritable, portable, but can't store as many songs. Although if you grab a 256 USB stick for about $50, it's a pretty good solution.

Actually, USB sticks are very very expensive per gigabyte: ($200/GB) as compared to a DVD-RW ($1.25 - $2 per GB) or even CD-RW ($1.50 per GB). For the price reason, if you must use media to transfer your songs, use optical media.

 

[emw]

Actually, USB sticks are very very expensive per gigabyte: ($200/GB) as compared to a DVD-RW ($1.25 - $2 per GB) or even CD-RW ($1.50 per GB). For the price reason, if you must use media to transfer your songs, use optical media.

True. I was thinking cheap as in $50 to store a reasonable amount of songs that could plug in anywhere.

You're right about the optical media, of course - assuming you've already got a CD-RW or DVD-RW drive. Otherwise you're either going through disks every time you want a new song selection, or you're purchasing an RW drive.

In the end - get an iPod. Sure, it's more expensive, but look at what you get out of the deal!

 

[elliotay]

Ok, here's my question:

have it set up to act as a server, can I simply log into my home "server" from work and mount it's drive, then drag some tunes over into iTunes and play them

THanks,
Matt

How do you set up your computer to be a server? I'd love to be able to do this with my home computer. Thanks.

 

[matthewreid]

Well, in system prefs...turn on personal file sharing. Then if you have a static ip address at home you can just click on "Go" from the menu bar at work and then click on "Connect to server...", type in your home ip address and then it should mount. If you don't have a static ip, go to www.dyndns.org and setup you home computer to act like it has a static ip.

How would this take up any more bandwidth than when we used to use sharing in iTunes 4?

And no, I'm not copying my home library (all legal) to my work one.

 

[emw]

Well, in system prefs...turn on personal file sharing. Then if you have a static ip address at home you can just click on "Go" from the menu bar at work and then click on "Connect to server...", type in your home ip address and then it should mount. If you don't have a static ip, go to www.dyndns.org and setup you home computer to act like it has a static ip.

How would this take up any more bandwidth than when we used to use sharing in iTunes 4?

And no, I'm not copying my home library (all legal) to my work one.

A couple of things - you may want to be careful simply setting up your home Mac asa file server that you can easily connect to from the outside world. That is, I would suggest setting up a firewall (either on the Mac or through your router) that will protect your computer.

For example, you can set up specific ports that can be accessed, or sometimes allow only specific IP addresses through, depending on the firewall.

As for the bandwidth question - I don't think it necessarily would use more bandwidth, I was just noting before that many employers frown upon what may be viewed as "frivolous" bandwidth use. If yours isn't one of them, then go for it!

One last note on the IP address thing - if you don't want to register through DYNdns.org for any reason, there's a nifty app called IPMenu (search MacUpdate) that will automatically e-mail you if your dynamic IP address changes.

 

[matthewreid]

Cool, thanks for the help! I wonder why more people don't do this. In a sense, it's very similar to the iTunes sharing feature that was in the older version, just not as "sleek" and simple.

 

[sonofslim]

i use the free and reputable SlimServer to stream MP3s from my home to my office. that way i'm not putting any files on my office computer. it's got a nice web-based interface and you can dial down the stream size so you're not using too much bandwidth.

 

[csubear]

Sharing AFS, or anything like it over the internet is a big no-no. By big i mean huge!

Best way,

Look up ssh port fowarding, find out what port(s) the ITunes shares music on, and then do something like this (I am not sure if my syntax is correct, Im at work and can't do a man on ssh, windows ),

ssh 9999:My_home_computer_host_name_or_ip:9999

where 9999 are the port numbers

if you do it right on your work computer, every thing should work perfect. I think.

or.. you can do the same thing for the afs port. there are alot of ways to do it. just never send data un-encrypted over the internet