A server for privately streaming music/video?

[Dinkleberry]

Hey,
I've got a laptop with an external USB hard drive which contains lots of music and video, which can be kept on with an internet connection. What I'd like to do is be able to access the songs and movies from anywhere else with without having to take my HDD with me (slightly defeats the point of having a USB HDD though, I know) using the internet. Tonight I managed to get some FTP server action going but realised if I wanted to say listen to a symphony or DJ set, I'd have to download the file first, even though the internet connection could probably handle reading the file as it's playing.

I guess what I'm after is to combine the convenient file-browsing provided by FTP, with the intelligence and quickness of a streaming media server. Any ideas what the best solution for this is? Is there a client of server side program that could possibly do some hybrid protocol mashup?
Cheers

 

[Asus]

It wouldn't be that hard with music. But video would be a completely different setup I think.

I have not given this much thought but you could setup your laptop to have Winamp stream music over the net. Connect to your Home IP while you are out and listen to what is playing. Use a remote access server also on the laptop (maybe with VNC) so you can see your desktop on the laptop over the net and control what plays.

Video would be huge for streaming. You might as well download from an FTP before playing.

edit
added pics

 

[Link]

You can use tools from www.no-ip.com to save you having to remember ip address's. Especially handy if you have a dynamic IP.

 

[No Limit]

FTP can't stream files but HTTP can. So what you can do is set up a web server to do this. If you have windows professional or windows 2000 IIS should be included. If you are home edition you can download apache 2.0.

 

[Qonfused]

I use the Shoutcast/Winamp combo for radio. It's a great system, and easy too.

 

[Dinkleberry]

Cheers for the advice guys, I got a shoutcast thing set up but I don't think it works over the internet. I initially got streaming from FTP but my connection is too tempermental for anything to work. I'm moving in a few weeks so maybe my new connection will be better.

 

[Asus]

You may need to open a port or two on your router to get shoutcast to connect. I bet you can test it on the same machine using 127.0.0.0 or HOST.

Sucks about your net not holding a connection with the FTP streaming.

 

[Dinkleberry]

You may need to open a port or two on your router to get shoutcast to connect. I bet you can test it on the same machine using 127.0.0.0 or HOST.

Sucks about your net not holding a connection with the FTP streaming.

Aye, I've opened the ports on my router for it and it works okay trying localhost. At the moment I'm trying to transfer a 2mb MP3 from home to my campus computer with FTP and it's going to take 25 minutes! We've got a 100mb net connection on campus as well - doh!