15Bit Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Nad a media servers what you using and why? Are you happy | |
That's a fairly lengthy post, and a bit rambling. It would be easier to understand what you want if you stated it more clearly in a point by point form.
Be aware that any access you have to your home network from outside is also access that other (undesirable) people can have to your home network from outside. You are therefore trusting whoever writes the code to not screw it up and leave gaping holes in your security. Frankly, the commercial NAS providers do not have a good record with this, and with respect to movies and music, i don't trust them to not be reporting back to the relevant industries what you have.
For movies and TV i also recommend Plex. Pay for "Plex Pass" and you get the option to downsize content and copy it to your portable device to watch whilst you are traveling. This is extremely convenient if you fly a lot. There is also the option to connect in from outside, apparently via an encrypted link. Again though, this represents a security hole in your networking and so it would be a good idea to set up the Plex server at home on a DMZ of some kind, with read-only access to the media files.
I don't use the external connectivity a lot in Plex, but i have noticed that quite a few networks block the traffic, so connectivity can be patchy. The music part of Plex is still a work in progress, but it is OK. Not as well sorted as the movies/TV though. I haven't used the photos functionality yet.
If you want to retain your home network security i would then suggest the following:
- Edit your photos using the smart preview option in LR (if you want to edit with the laptop). Upload your edited photos to a hosting service such as Zenfolio or Smugmug (or even Flickr).
- Run Plex to serve audiovisual content around your home network, and sync what you want to watch to your mobile device before going out.
- If you really want to have access to your home network from outside, set up a VPN service at home. OpenVPN is a good option for this. Consider setting up the Plex server on a computer on a DMZ, with read only access to the media files.
- Set your firewall to bounce everything that isn't the VPN.
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