DIY Cheap or Free Music Server

This is a Do-it-yourself-er if you want to make a very cheap or free Music server

Step 1 Find a Computer

I'm using an old IBM NetVista. It has a 767mhz processor and 192megs of RAM. For a hard drive it has a 80gb Western Digital 7200 rpm IDE drive. For an OS i use Windows XP Professional SP3. This computer used to be my main computer and then i got a new laptop and i don't use that any more. You have to either find a free computer either on the side of the road or on a couple websites EX. http://www.craigslist.org/ or http://www.freecycle.org/ (you have to have a membership for freecycle.org which is free) The computer doesn't have to be anything special you can use a 450 mhz Intel Pentium II with 128 mb ram, and Windows 2000 SP4.

Comments

[xc1024]

windows is slightly overkill for this purpose. Linux would run better, and on even trashier computer than 450mhz.

[______]

Ubuntu Server Edition

[______]

To run my website i use a Win98 with 128MB RAM and 4GB HDD

[BlackHatCracker]

I agree with xc1024, and with Linux, you have less of a security risk, and less excess crap that would need removed. A good hacker can get into anything that they want to, and windows is so full of holes... Can you do one using Linux?

[farna]

You can use it from a router. At that point the machine is just connected to your home network and can't download music or anything, so you'd have to have all your music and software on CDs or a USB thumb drive for transfer. you can still access the box as if it were on the internet from your main computer. It will still have an IP address given by the router. I don't know if a simple switch would work, but a router should. A router assigns IP addresses, a switch doesn't.

[mirey]

Rather than logmein.com you could just use VNC and set up port fowarding. A bit more effort, but its free. TightVNC is free, and you have full control(runs on linux as well). But as others have said, you don't really need a gui. Look at INX (that way you could just have wireless, hook up some speakers and just play the song from the comfort of your chair) and just SSH to it.

[abadfart]

can i use an old windows 98 that i have in my shed

[tswampthing1992]

you probably could depends on the ram and hdd space you have. whats the point of a media server with a 5gig hdd but you could use a usb external one

[abadfart]

do i need to connect to the internet or can i do this with an ethernet switch

[teoscomputers]

you need to have an internet connection because the interface is web based.

[abadfart]

bummer i have dial up

[teoscomputers]

wow i thought dial up was completely gone. you should get high speed. but you should give it a shot see what happens.

[abadfart]

ya no one provides high speed to my little farm community

[Davidl3]

you could use satellite internet

[abadfart]

i just found out about "HughesNet" but im going to run a network off a in home server now

[abadfart]

lol i have a net-vista

[tubbsey88]

cant you just share out a folder and then access it with windows explorer, seeing as it is on your local network. Then you dont need internet just a router if you only want to use it for that.

[tswampthing1992]

You can do it that way but I use it with my t-mobile dash and my nextstore neighbor uses on his wireless xbox 360

[Gekko8]

Orb is also compatible with XBOX 360 ;)