Greetings all,
I have a 8550 WGS setup as my file server. It has an IDE adapter with a 60Gb HD, 100BaseT connection and is running ASIP 5. I store MP3s on it and play them from the desktop machines running iTunes. The files are shared using AppleShare. As a test once I had 6 machines all playing different music off the server. I didn't hear any hiccups nor did any of the machines report a problem. The only real hitch with using it is that you need to manually mount the server, iTunes won't do it. I don't know how well this would work using FileSharing, it throttles the processor power available to serve files in order to limit impact on the computer.
Note the same setup works fine with my wireless notebooks but they all have their own iTunes library so they can play music when not connected to the network.
I am trying to figure out how practical it would be to set up an older Mac (Beige PPC upgraded to a G3 running OS 9.x, or a pre-G3 machine running OS 8.6) on my home (hard-wired-ethernet) network as a music file server/player.
Has anyone here done this successfully? In theory I *think* I know what needs to be done but was wondering if anyone has actually done this and could let me know where the gaps are in my knowledge or what unexpected hazards I might run into. I would like to do this as cheaply as possible, ideally with no additional hardware or software expenses. Is this feasible?
Basically here is what I want:
1) I want to have a hard drive(s) full of audio files which I can play from any machine connected to my home network.
2) I would like to be able to play individual files, preconfigured playlists, or just random selections. [e.g. play a song on demand, select an "album" or artist to play, or just turn on the server and have it continuously play random tracks]
3) Ideally, I would like (from each computer) to be able to choose what music to play. e.g. play different files/playlists on different computers (one playlist playing on the computer hooked to the stereo in the living room, another computer playing random tracks chosen by the music server in another room)
What I think I need to do is:
A) Pick a (streaming) music server. [Looks like ITunes can do this, from what I have read it seems early versions (and a hack to the OSX version) allow one computer to share another computer's iTunes playlists/files - though I don't know if that would let multiple users play different files or whether all users get a feed of whatever is currently being played on the "host" machine. (to do this I would need to locate an early version of iTunes (v1 or v2) since I don't have OSX)
iStream also looks like it would do the trick and is free for up to 10 streams.
** would love feedback on this if anyone has any recommendations
B) Convert all the audio files to a format that the music player/streamer supports. (I have software that will do this in batch mode)
C) Install a music player app on all the computers. (e.g. iTunes or some other compatible player (or streaming player) software)
Is there something I am missing here? It seems so simple conceptually I figure I must be missing something really important.
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