[Snake91839]

On my home server, i have a ton of music that everyone always wants me to burn on cds for them or send it to them. I was wondering if there is a way for me to either create a media player that allows them to connect to my music database, or a way for them to log in and have my server stream music to them.

I realize winamp has a remote feature, but I don't like it, and I was looking for some other way.


Any help would be appreciated

[arcon5]

You could upload it to a web-server and allow them to download it..

[Kubel]

You have a few choices...

1) Set up a streaming media server.
There's a few to choose. There's one for windows media, there's one from winamp, there's one for real media... But do remember these stream the media. It's not the best for downloads. And your visitors downloads are limited to your maximum upload speed, meaning in order for media to stream without a massive buffer delay or without periodic lag, you will have to stream the media at very low quality.

2) Set up an HTTP or FTP server.
A simple FTP server would be the easiest to set up, but it won't do true live streaming. Neither will HTTP. For FTP, I would go with FileZilla Server on Windows. FileZilla server is awesome: It's free, it's easy to set up, and all the configuration and settings are in a simple to use GUI. You can create usernames, assign passwords, allocate directories... If you choose HTTP, I would suggest Lighttpd, as it's the most lightweight and efficient HTTPD out there. Other options: IIS, Apache (AppServ is nice), etc... The benefit here is greater control (all the files are local), but the drawback is speed. Downloads are limited to your maximum upload speed (which generally is not good). You also have to beware of ISP restrictions, as hosting at home can be against their terms of service or acceptable use policy.

3) Pay a third party to host your files.
This is generally not a good option. Quality hosts don't usually offer a ton of disk space, and depending on your collection of media files, it could be in the hudreds of gigs of storage. So paying for that much storage will be expensive. Overselling hosts may appear to have a ton of space at a great price, but they usually have limitations on the type of content. If they find gigs of MP3's or videos on your account, even if they are not copyrighted, they will probably suspend your account for overuse of system resources or some other nonsense. Be sure and read their terms of service and make sure they don't have any limitations on file types or binary data (most oversellers do). But the major benefit here is speed. People will generally be able to download as fast as their connection will let them when you go with professional hosting.

[Snake91839]

Wow, thanks for the reply Kubel, I like the FTP server Idea, but if I upload them to an FTP server, how would I then set up a stream from the server?

or, would it just let them download the songs?

Thanks again for the ideas

Also, if I were to pay for the storage on a bigger server, would I also be able to store some sort of streaming software?

Thanks again

[Kubel]

They would just download like normal. Alternatively, you might be able to set up a M3U playlist.

M3U's sometimes trick media players into playing mp3's while they are downloading. An M3U is simply a text file with the full URL of an MP3 in it, and then saved as whatever.m3u. You then make this file available (as a link). When a visitor clicks on the m3u file, their player will open, read the file, start downloading the mp3, and it will play while it downloads.

Sometimes this works better than just providing a direct link to a MP3.

If you were go to with a paid server, generally shared hosts don't allow streaming, and there's no way to install a streaming server since most hosts wont give you that kind of access to install stuff on their server (because it's a security risk).

Your best bet there is to try to find a web host that offers streaming (most don't, but if you look hard enough, you should be able to find a few). Another option is to pay for a server that gives you root access (a VPS or a dedicated server). A VPS will cost you around $20/mo. A dedicated will usually cost about $70/mo. If you decide to go this route, I would suggest getting a VPS from KnownHost.com. We've done business with them, and they are a great group of guys to work with. All of their packages include free semi-management (meaning you don't have to know how to manage a server, they do it for you). They will also install whatever software you want for free (as long as you give them a link to the instructions). So you could get a VPS, find a streaming server with instructions, and then give it to them and have them install it.

Good luck!