Home Media Server Question

[[RVN] 6raVIty]

I'm going to preface all this by saying I know my way around a computer fairly well, and currently have my Laptop (and external hd) working as a home media server of sorts. I know nothing, unfortunately, of "dedicated servers/web servers) and what is possible with current technology, and that is where my question is.

 

Currently, I can share music, movies/tv shows and pictures over my local network through the windows media player option to do so. This allows me to play or "stream" the aforementioned media on my ps3 or xbox 360. The two issues of inconvenience are that the laptop must always be on to access the content, and that the external HD must always be hooked up to the laptop, making it less portable.

 

I recently had this amazing idea of stand-alone "external HD" of sorts which would hold all my music, movies, tv shows, etc... while being accessible to every computer in the home via my network. I then realized I might be semi-retarded, because (from what little I know) a server matches that description.

 

With all this in mind, my question is:

 

1) Is there a stand-alone device which holds media and is compatible with the PS3 for streaming the media it holds? From what I've read, some folks buy a desktop PC with this very idea in mind, set it up to share the media, and never bother hooking a monitor up to it again. Is this really the best setup for such a thing?

 

2) Is there any device which would let you allow you the same access to shared media which you could tap into from a remote location, as if you were home on your network?

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

[GhostDawg_78]

Interesting questions....

 

Since the PS3 is a DLNA Player, it would stand to reason that if there's a DLNA compliant Server on the network, you should be able to stream media from the Server to the Player.

 

Found these articles:

 

http://www.prlog.org/10029365-the-world-first-nas-for-playstation3-xbox360-dlna-media-streaming.html

 

http://www.qnap.com/images/products/Application/TS109AP08.htm

 

Haven't tried it myself, but it looks like it'll work.

 

As far as your 2nd question.....not really sure you want to be doing that for security reasons.

 

But. If you want to access your home PC and it's contents from the outside world:

 

http://www.access-remote-pc.com/help/connecting-router.shtm

 

There's also Real VNC (http://www.realvnc.com) that allows the same thing.

 

You could try using Windows built-in Remote Access also....haven't done it myself, but I'm betting there's some Vista/XP Firewall setups, Router Port/Port Forwarding setups involved.

 

Good Luck!

[[RVN] 6raVIty]

Checking out those articles now.Thanks for the taking the time to respond Ghost. Much appreciated!