Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Scott <catfather AT donpoo.net>]

On Feb 18, 2004, at 4:47 PM, Ron Thigpen wrote:

> Michael Czeiszperger wrote:
>
> > This product looks like something I really need :-)  Like some of you 
> > folks on the list, my music collection is largely stored on a 
> > computer.
>
> An alternative device in the same niche is the SlimDevices SqueezeBox. 
> I've had one for a few months now and highly recommend it.
>
> <http://www.slimdevices.com/>

I'll second this recommendation. We have a somewhat complex setup here 
at the house and the SlimServer + SqueezeBox combo fit into our system 
without a hassle.

A little background...

There is a linux server, named "share.dopoo.home", located in the 
upstairs office which holds our 31GB of music. The music directory on 
share is served via SMB (windows file sharing) to the Mac and Linux 
clients. The Mac clients have iTunes configured so that the music DB 
and MP3 files are accessed via the music share instead of being stored 
locally. This allows the three Macs to have access to the entire music 
collection via iTunes.

Down stairs we have a audio closet where we keep our A/V equipment. Six 
of our rooms have wall or ceiling speakers with control panels (volume, 
source selection) and are wired back to the audio closet. The house 
audio allows us to listen to any sound source from the audio closet in 
any of the six rooms. You could be listening to FM in the kitchen while 
CDs are playing upstairs in the office.

Getting from A to B...

Our problem was getting the music off the share server and into the 
audio closet so that we could have easy control and access of our music 
collection from any of the six rooms. The solution was to install the 
SlimServer software on the share server and to hook up the SqueezeBox 
hardware in the audio closet. From any of the computers we can use the 
SlimServer web interface to create play lists. The music stream from 
the SlimServer is available to any of the PCs and also available in any 
of the six rooms hooked into the audio closet where the SqueezeBox is 
located.

Getting the SlimServer installed and having the SqueezeBox connect to 
the wireless LAN was way to easy. Given our setup I expected to spend a 
day having to tweak the code and adjust our network. I think it took me 
all of 30min before I was listening to our music collection on the 
deck. :)

--
Scott (aim: bluecame1)
blog: http://sackheads.org/~scottrus/blog/
Do not trifle with me, I have eaten 104 brains.