i would like to host audio and video files over the internet so that i may access them while at work/share with friends, what would be the best way to achieve this?

looking for something like ampache for video, could i host mediatomb over apache?

This isn't a software-only answer, but recently I was looking for some sort of centralized backup system for my home network. I eventually was drawn to Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems, since they consume very little power and take up a small amount of physical space. After some research I decided on a Synology NAS (the DS110j, an entry-level model), they're rated very highly among the newegg crowd.

Well, this little box has quickly become a central part of my home network! It has its own OS (linux-based) that has lots of web-based apps to do stuff. One is "Audio Station", which will stream audio files over the internet. I installed a one-terabyte disk and just ripped my entire CD collection to the drive. Now when I go to work I just access the server over the internet, bring up the Synology web desktop and run Audio Station, which lets me listen to all my music over the internet, using a web browser.

Essentially this device will let you stream audio with minimal effort. I believe it'll also do video as well, although I've yet to try that out. The DS110j was just over $100 USD, and the drive around another $70. When I finally get my house wired for multi-media, I'm sure this tiny box is going to play a major role in serving up media. It's a much better solution than another PC box, and it only consumes between 9W and 19W of power. Hmm... I think I forgot I originally bought it to do backups! (Which it does very well!)

If you want to see what their desktop looks like, they have a demo of their latest beta you can peruse at http://www.synology.com/us/products/...beta/index.php

Ciao!

1. it's called youtube..
2. if you've already considered youtube but found it non suitable, opera has a file sharing service, and as long as you select the files you want to sahre, you save the link somwhere and then access it you may stream it right from your home computer to your work computer.. the bad thing is that also your home computer has to be on..

PS: yeah i found it it's named opera unite. it runs on linux.
you just have to make an account at opera.
or you might want to make a .rar file with all your files , and then make it a torrent .. and seed it from your home pc..though that does not seem so suitable to me... (you cannot skip to video nr76 if you just got until 50... you have to see them in the order they are in teh rar file i guess.

I don't think it's the right choice, you shouldn't be allowed to upload copyright protected material.

Some ideas:

• Use something like dyndns to get a pseudo-permanent site name, for example, mystream.homelinux.net. So whatever you decide on, you access it from your site name.
• Use an apache server to make the files downloadable. This is pretty simple. Use the apache directory browser to find the file you want. You can also set up some security and ssl to keep unwanted visitors out.
• The mpd music server can also stream music. You thus can use a browser to listen to your music library as it plays at home.
• There is a ffserver which is a streaming server for both audio and video. I have not used it though

1 members found this post helpful.

ludwig: your first suggestion is for home network only, i would like to access from work/from friends computers. your next suggestion deals only w/audio files (not video) and also a vnc is overkill for my use (which would limit a larger # of users, my friends and i, at the same time)

silvyus_06: youtube you be a great solution if i only wanted to view a small number of short videos, but would not be applicable for a large number of high quality, feature length videos

pwalden: a dns would be applicable, but would not serve streaming video, that is the software i am looking for. a downloadable apache server (ftp?) is, again overkill for someone who only wants to stream the video

Actually, my Synology server isn't for home network only... I access my audio files over the internet so I can listen to my CDs from a remote location. That's because I'm doing what pwalden suggested, I'm using a dynamic DNS to provide access to my server from anywhere on the internet. I setup a free account with www.no-ip.org, and configured my linksys router (which is running DD-WRT) to use DNS-O-Matic (dnsomatic.com) to keep my dynamic IP address refreshed so it always maps to the same IP string entered from the browser. Thus, I can open a browser, enter the IP string, and voila -- login to my server and use the built-in Audio Station to play my music!

I can't really respond to your concern about video files since I haven't done that yet, but my understanding is that many people use Synology servers to serve up media in general, including video. (That eventually what I plan to use it for!) When I have the time, I'm going to have to dig in that area for the details.

Still, what I'm suggesting is largely a hardware solution, but it's not very expensive, consumes very little power (so it painlessly runs 24 hours), and takes up a miniscule amount of physical space. However, if you're looking for purely a software solution to work on hardware you already own, pwalden's sounds like it might be a better direction for you.