Beginners guide to setting up a wireless home network??

[admin_exported]

Hi,

Could someone pls give me some advice on a framework for a wireless home network. Here's what I would like:

- To be able to store music digitally on a seperate hard drive or laptop
- To be able to access this music easily on via a familiar UI such as iTunes or Windows Media Player
- To use a device (Squeezbox?) that can utilise DAB radio and Spotify
- To stream wirelessly to speakers in my basement, lounge and kitchen
- Possibly use the storage device to also store films to play on my TV

Basically, I just need to unify what I have currently, simplify and be able to access digital media whenever I want. I also use an iPod so would like some portability so would maybe need to Sync my music library with a portable device.

I currently have a hotch-potch of hardware:

- An old laptop running Windows XP SP2 with 40Gb hard drive - could wipe and use for Storage/Server purposes, maybe replacing Windows with Linux??
- A current laptop running XP SP3 with a Dual Core and 40GB - my main laptop
- An ageing seperates system (Cambridge Audio entry level Amplifier)
- A Playstation 3 (slim)
- An iPod Nano

My budget to upgrade - approx £350-400

I have a vague idea I might buy the following: Squeebox (which?), a standalone hard drive (say 500GB), an HTC Desire HD as a portable music player.

Sorry for such a long winded post. Hopefully someone can give me some ideas as to what I can do - basically I use Spotify a lot and would like an easy way of playing my existing Mp3 library easily and streaming it to other devices (TV, Speakers etc...) while using my existing Amplifier.

Thanks

 

[Andrew Everard]

If I recall correctly – and I've been out of the office all week on a breakneck-speed visit to Panasonic in Japan – there's a complete 'new readers start here' guide to streaming in the April issue of the magazine, which is on sale during next week.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for the heads up Andrew.

 

[Anonymous]

Its fairly simple.

You buy a NAS (preferably one that supports Samba,NFS and UPNP/DLNA) and plug it into your wireless router. You then use your pc to copy your video and music files onto it.

You have some UPNP/DLNA mediaplayers around the house to play the media (either wired or wireless).

Some mediaplayers will stream from the NAS using dlna/upnp, for example a PS3 or certain blu-rays/tvs, or a suitable phone, audiostreamers.

Other full-blown mediaplayers work best via Samba/NFS (like a playon!hd, popcorn hour, wdlive etc. This allows u to browse the folders on the NAS like u would on ur computer. The advantage of these full-blown media players is they can play virtually any video/audio format.

You could also store your videos/music on your pc instead of a NAS - but then ur pc needs to be on and is not recommended.

 

[d4v3pum4]

Hi,

Could someone pls give me some advice on a framework for a wireless home network. Here's what I would like:

- To be able to store music digitally on a seperate hard drive or laptop Easy, just create a folder for your music and organise it as you wish in subfolders
- To be able to access this music easily on via a familiar UI such as iTunes or Windows Media Player I hate iTunes but some people insist on using it. If you went with Squeezebox, you can run the two together.
- To use a device (Squeezbox?) that can utilise DAB radio and Spotify No DAB but Spotify Premium works with the Squeezebox Touch AFAIK
- To stream wirelessly to speakers in my basement, lounge and kitchen How are these speakers going to be amplified?
- Possibly use the storage device to also store films to play on my TV You could stream them to your PS3 or simply connect the laptop directly providing it has compatible connections with your TV. I use an Acer Revo running XBMC and Squeezebox Server to provide me with movies via XBMC and music streaming via 2 x Squeezeboxes. The first is in my main setup, the second is in a bedroom connected to a cheap Marantz stereo amp with speaker a/b output to in-wall and in-ceiling speakers in two rooms.

Basically, I just need to unify what I have currently, simplify and be able to access digital media whenever I want. I also use an iPod so would like some portability so would maybe need to Sync my music library with a portable device.

With my setup, I use EAC to rip to FLAC then use Foobar2000 to convert the lossless FLAC files to mp3 for use on my portable devices i.e. USB stick for car, ipod and android phones.

I currently have a hotch-potch of hardware:

- An old laptop running Windows XP SP2 with 40Gb hard drive - could wipe and use for Storage/Server purposes, maybe replacing Windows with Linux?? Pretty much any PC will run Squeezebox server. Obviously you might need to add a external HDD to store the music if your libraray is big. I used to run my Squeezebox from my laptop as it was my main PC and on most of the time. To tidy things up, I now use the Acer Revo which uses next to no power and is on 24/7 . Check out XBMC for video purposes. It's free. If streaming to the PS3, PS3mediaserver is as good as any streaming software for the PS3. You can also use windowsmediaplayer
- A current laptop running XP SP3 with a Dual Core and 40GB - my main laptop
- An ageing seperates system (Cambridge Audio entry level Amplifier) That should do for amplifying your main speakers in your lounge but how do you propose on amplifying the other speakers in the other zones/rooms?
- A Playstation 3 (slim)
- An iPod Nano

My budget to upgrade - approx £350-400

I have a vague idea I might buy the following: Squeebox (which?), a standalone hard drive (say 500GB), an HTC Desire HD as a portable music player.

Sorry for such a long winded post. Hopefully someone can give me some ideas as to what I can do - basically I use Spotify a lot and would like an easy way of playing my existing Mp3 library easily and streaming it to other devices (TV, Speakers etc...) while using my existing Amplifier.

Thanks

See bold