I have been trying to stay away from Windows Server 2003 for a long time but i need to be able to stream media to remote clients outside of my local network. Is there anyway to do this using Linux? i am not a total newbie but be gentle!

Thanks!!

Also some tips on general remote access to data on my server as well

Hi
I've been using ampache (ampache.org) as a music streaming server, and I reckon it's the shiznit.

With regards to "Also some tips on general remote access to data on my server as well"...what exactly do you mean? Do you want to share out your disk or certain files to Windows/Mac/linux machines outside your network? Or have remote access to a database?

L

remote access to files, dirs.

And do you think Ampache will stream Video?

I am a field engineer and only get home once a month, so i would like to be able to access my server from my hotel room.

Aha - no ampache only does music as far as I know. I recall reading an article recently about video streaming - I'll dig it out later.

As for accessing files, there are a few solutions you could think about: Samba over a VPN, Samba over SSH, or FTP with or without VPN or FTP.

I've not used VPN myself so can't comment on how easy it is to setup, but understand it's very secure. FTP would be very easy to setup, but not very friendly to use.

Samba over SSH is quite secure and very easy to setup using instructions like this: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/support/re...ows-Samba.html (assumes you are using a Windows laptop).

L

EDIT: I should point out that if you use SAMBA, you would of course need to configure it before following the instructions above.

for the video streaming, i've never tried it, but there's:

http://mpeg4ip.sourceforge.net/

here's a linux journal article about it (from back in early 2003):

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6720

as for the file access, SFTP is also a nice option...

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplan...orials/4809/8/

I've recently started using slimserver and, so far, I'm pleased with it. I'm thinking of buying one of their 'squeezebox' players for my hi-fi.

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_features.html