My Media Server, Dear God, this will be time consuming...

Over the next few days, I will be undertaking a vast project. My media server was set up initially with a a lot of trial and error (especially the latter part). It works reasonably well over my LAN, allowing me access to all of my external harddrives. The hardware/OS has been somewhat reliable, considering it's been running since 08/08/2009 20:45 without crashing/being restarted. However, the FTP/webhosting parts of it are patchy at best, and it's down in my to do list:

-Move all content off of media server's drive onto the externals
-Repartition it so as the C drive has 20GB and the new D drive has the remaining 272GB. 20GB should be sufficient to have Windows, media server's programs (most of which weigh in under 100MB) and enough space left over to act as Windows' temp directory. D drive will just be used as storage.
-Wipe C drive and replace Windows 7 with Windows Vista Ultimate OEM edition. I like Windows 7, but just had too much crap with program compatibility for some of the software I want to have on it.
-C drive will be not be shared or accessible from the outside. All of the programs needed will be installed onto it, and that's all that will be stored on it.
-D drive will only have "Read" permissions with the exception of a designated "Downloads" folder, which will be the system's temporary storage until content is put in right folder. I'll be the only one with "Write" permissions, so as to prevent accidental erasure/Rick Rolling of the files
-All my music to be moved off of the externals and onto the D drive. Will have to do a pretty big cleanup as have a few duplicates from compilations over the various hard drives.
-Will be installing either "PS3 Media Server" or similar software to stream my music onto laptop/consoles
-Reinstall Apache Web Server so I can host webpages on server
-Reinstall FileZilla FTP Server so I can access files over the internet
-Reinstall dynamic DNS updating software so as to keep server online if the router needs to be restarted
-Install Nero so can burn DVDs/CDs straight on the server without having to copy over network first (yes, you can burn files directly off a network location but you're just asking for trouble by doing so)
-Install basic web tools on it- Opera, FlashGet and WinRar so I can use it to update software/set up downloads directly onto it without adding extra hassle
-Install Adobe Reader, Portable Office (just need the readers, but be handier to be actually able to edit any files on it if need be) and VideoLAN (can play videos via remote desktop if needed to check quality/episode name etc)
-Reorganise the content on the externals so as to group content by type on each one. This is going to be a bitch. 5 externals with mixed content on each one. Will be having a film/anime one (probably the 465GB), tv shows will be split across two of the others (the 298GB and the 232GB ones), my old Iomega will probably have my apps/images/games (if the latter is on it, there's a good chance I'll have to format the drive to have NTFS for the ISOs over 1GB), and the media server itself holding my music, e-books and misc videos/files. Since three of these drives are actually full at the moment, I'll have to dump most of their contents onto the free space of the media server/crappy Philips one for swapping around files. Also need to work out actual folder sizes are going to be before I commit to swapping, and the removal of duplicates. Estimate there's a min of 20GB of duplicated content, with a likelihood of it being closer to 60GB. The duplicates shouldn't take that long (after all, there's software around for detecting duplicates), it's the moving around of close to a terrabyte of data that's going to be the bastard.
-Install decent remote desktop software that can be used over the internet. As it stands, the Remote Desktop that comes with Windows Vista/7 is pretty powerful (which is what I'm using at the moment), but I can never get it working reliably over network. There is other solutions out there, but limited with Windows 7's compatibility. Since I'll be switching to Vista, there's a lot more options open to me.
-Windows Update will be disabled. I don't care about it trying to contact the mothership, I just don't want it restarting the machine whenever I'm in the middle of doing something with it. Especially if using it over a network, as it'll just cut out without warning.
-Add the externals to Windows' file indexing service so as to make file searching a hell of a lot easier

This isn't something I've been looking forward to doing, but I'll be happier when it's done. The bonuses of this will be:

-All of my files will be accessible 24/7 from a dedicated media server
-All file duplicates will finally be erased, freeing up several gigs in the process
-Searching for files will be a lot easier since everything will be organised better
-More reliable FTP access, allowing uploading/downloading of files
-More reliable Web server, so I can use it to host a website of some kind down the line
-Better music/video streaming across network onto consoles/laptop

That all sounds like a bitch to do but the results will be great, the only thing I would say is not add the externals to indexing, it will slow your machine way down and depending how the external rpm it could bring your machine to a legless, and armless baby crawl.

sounds like a lot of work.... I love configuring stuff!

I don't like externals however..... Why limit yourself to USB, Firewire speeds...
Unless you are using ESata?
I like my drives like I like my women! Fast and Internal!.... (I think that makes sense)

Thats impressive! Why not use XP with service pk 3 as your OS tho? it has the most compatibility with everything these days. Pete is right about limiting yourself to USB but firewire can be tricky. USB is reliable

wow this looks really interesting!

id be sure to print that to do list off before beginning. if all this is to save on 60GBs you should seriously consider taking this a step further and pull some revenue from creating some online resource

best of luck! really want to see this thing moving. keep us posted on your progress

Already have USB externals from over the years, so it's the handiest solution to have them hooked up to the media server. It's not just to save 60GB of hard drive space- it's to have all my files available for me (and you guys) to access from anywhere.

I considered XP, but I discounted it because of XP's native Remote Desktop. The Vista and XP one aren't fully compatible. Also, product support is getting limited with XP these days- everyone's focusing on making stuff Vista/7 ready. I'm thinking longish term with the media server- it's going to be lasting me for a few years so want to keep being able to add programs to it. We're not that far off of the "Not Compatible with XP" sticker on software, another year or so. 7 just doesn't have the software support at the moment, so it looks like Vista is the best bet for an OS I don't plan on replacing for years (min). Besides, with Visa I've a better chance of doing an upgrade install to 7 down the line if I want to. Otherwise, since there's no upgrade from XP to 7 direct I'd have to do two OS upgrades one after the other so there'd be more chance for stuff to go wrong.

As for the indexing, it only does it when the system is "quiet". It'll take a while for it to fully index all the files, and admittedly while that's happening response times won't be great. However, once the initial indexing is done it'll auto update when files are added so it's only a temporary inconvenience at best. Not to mention the payoff will be worth it- being able to do a file search simultaneously across 6 drives with fast response times.

Cheers for the support guys. I'll let ye know how this time consuming project goes. So far I've everything off the C drive and onto the externals, and I've "acquired" a copy of Windows Vista SP2 OEM updated to 15 Oct 09. Putting off the file relocation at the moment, since that's (and I can't stress this enough!) going to be a bitch... Probably make a stab at it tomorrow

Update- helping Paddy move and being tired from work has led me to put this off for another few days. I'll give a stab at it on Thursday, since I'm off. Might require some assistance in doing space calculations, I'm sure I can count on ye guys for that!

I'm there, I make it my business to tidy my hard drives every once and a while.

hard drive calculations this thursday? sounds like fun! sure count me in

Ok, news update time-

Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 is working fine. Most of the performance issues have been addressed- for some reason it decided to auto-setup with a "Energy Saving" plan which meant slower transfer rates to the USB drives and response times even over the LAN. It's now on a "The ESB bill can go screw itself" plan. Windows itself is on a 22GB partition, with around 9GB of free space. This is more than enough for temporary files for video conversions and installing more utilities, but I'll probably have a look through it later on and remove some bloat out of program directories (such as "ReadMe" files and the crappy pre-installed games) to kick it back up.

All externals are hooked up and appear to be working fine. Unfortunately, one of the drives is connected via USB1.1 due to available hardware on server (front USB socket is 1.1, rear ones are 2.0). Will probably add a USB card to it in the not too distant future, as there is currently only 1 free port. No point in buying a USB hub- apart from seriously reduced transfer rates which defeats the point of a media server, most USB powered drives can't get enough power from them (since it's one USB socket powering a 4 point hub, it's only getting a quarter of the power). Will be buying a more powerful wireless router (better reception in flat and better transfer rates) plus a GB network card (currently have 10/100MB/s one- know the hardware won't be capable of actually delivering 1GB transfer speeds but should kick the performance up a bit) but they'll be after Xmas at some stage.

Filezilla Server has been set up and is running fine. Some minor issues at the start with the router not redirecting the traffic but resolved it. Address is ftp://vjsserver.homeftp.net for those interested, but it will request login details. Obviously I'm not going to give them out over a public forum. At the moment it's confusing to look at since I've just named the shared folders as the drive letters- I'm the only one who has a general idea of what's on which drive. As soon as I've the files organised across the different drives I'll update the FTP listing with more descriptive names. Response times are a little slow at the beginning, but once you've browsed through a few directories you'll notice the listings appearing faster. Drives are not indexed yet, which I'm pretty sure is the main cause of this. Not indexing the drives until files are moved. The "root" of the FTP server has been set with read/write permissions- this is actually the folder "Downloads" on the server (which, due to recursive folder structure is located inside the "Server Storage" directory!) with everything else having read-only access. FTP server only gives access to the D drive of the server and the externals- nothing is allowed touch the C drive.

Apache Server is also set up and running. At the moment, browsing to http://vjsserver.homeftp.net will just display a test page I set up that simply says "Server is running". I am having some issues with it- did want to set the working directory to the D drive but anytime I modify the config file to any directory outside of the default it keeps displaying an error message saying this directory is forbidden. Think it's possibly a Windows file permission thing, will look into it later. Doubt I'd be hosting anything bigger than 10MB anyways so I can use the default directory if all else.

As for the remote login software, I tried using TightVNC on the server. However, response times over the LAN were just God-awful slow. It worked over the internet, but with even worse lag. Went back to using Window's own Remote Desktop over the LAN, which is so good it's like you're using the computer in front of you. I had trouble getting it working over the internet though, which is a problem I had before. With a bit of research I found the problem wasn't with the server or my terminal- it was the router. I thought it would redirect the connection request to the server along with the HTTP/FTP requests, but it operates on its own unique port. Once I added it to the server's port forwarding list it worked fine. Pretty decent response times over the internet- obviously not as good as over the LAN, but it performs like a slightly slower machine. Haven't tried accessing it with XP's version (which I know is slightly different), but it works fine with Vista Premium Edition and Windows 7. Will try using my XP partition on my laptop to check it soon. Only change needed to make is replacing the background image with a simpler one/plain colour for marginally better response times over internet, but not going looking for a replacement until files are sorted.

Opera, FlashGet, WinRAR and Nero are all installed and working fine. Will be permanently leaving a blank DVD in the drive so that I can login over the internet, download files, extract them and burn them onto disc without actually going near the machine. Using the full Nero 8 suite, which has a lovely application called Nero Vision Express- it can automatically convert video files and burn them as DVD-Video discs complete with menus.

So, what's next? The server is functional (with a System Restore point set!) so it's pretty much just ascetic jobs left. Main jobs left to do (in order of importance) are-

1. Group content onto drives
2. Remove duplicates
3. Rename drive labels (and FTP Server's directories) to reflect new content layout
4. Install Media Streaming software (probably going with "PS3 Media Server") and set it up with access to right content.
5. Set up Drive Indexing on all the storage drives for searches.
6. Set up drive sharing on the storage drives for LAN access. At the moment have FTP access over the LAN (using internal IP, not the domain name cause I'm not that stupid!) which will do for the moment.
7. Set Apache Server's working directory to the D drive
8. Find wallpaper/colour I like for the server's desktop

this made me lol, shouldnt Shane know about this...


any idea how much traffic your server could take from multiple users?

No idea how many users can have FTP access at same time, nor the webserver. It won't be open to the general public, so it'll just be a group of friends with access- noone else. Hopefully it'll never have enough traffic to nuke it. As for Remote Desktop, I've it set to auto-disconnect the previous session when someone logs on. A request for Remote Desktop will not drop the existing session until they enter the right username and password.

As for the ESB part, it's just back on "High Performance" after being set to "Energy Saving". Don't know why Windows set itself up with that auto-on. Basically, it treated it like a laptop running on battery- everything down to the bare minimum to extend battery life. It's back to using the same amount of power as it was before. Besides, there's not a monitor connected up to it. That's not because I don't have one (there's an old one lying around at home I could've used), it's because I don't need one for it with the Remote Desktop software. That saves about half the power a desktop setup would normally use so it's not to much of an energy hog. Ever close the lid of your laptop and leave it just downloading on battery power? With the screen off, you almost double the battery time.

Besides, we've a big tv, broadband, two laptops, a surround sound system, a PS3, a X360 (x2 when Shane gets his one fixed), an immersion water heater, electric shower, washer/dryer machine, electric oven and storage heaters- adding a media server to the mix doesn't really add much to the bill!

I had an idea and was just doing some experimenting- FlashGet can be used to browse and download from the server. No uploading unfortunately, but it's to be expected considering that it's a download manager. Here's how to set it up:

1. Open up FlashGet, and either press F7 on your keyboard or click on "Tools" then "Site Explorer".

2. In the address bar, type in the url "ftp://vjsserver.homeftp.net" and CLICK (do not press enter!) on the "Login" button

3. Enter the user name and password into the new text boxes, this time pressing enter when it logs in.

4. After a second, it should login and give you a Windows Explorer style directory listing.

5. When you're logged in, click on "Favourites" in the toolbar and "Add to Favourites". Give it a name, e.g. "Vincent's Server" and hit Ok.

That's it! In future, when you want to browse the server and follow step 1. Then click on Favourites and you should see the server listed at the bottom. Just select it and you're automatically connected! Just click on a file to bring up the standard download prompt you see when you get stuff off of RapidShare, but it'll have the server's login details instead of the RS one. Don't worry, won't affect your RapidShare settings either.

Best part of this is that it'll be using FlashGet's brillant download manager so if you lose connection or shut down your computer you can resume later on. If anyone is getting anything, will you post the file size, what kind of speeds they were getting and actual download time? Just so that I can get an idea of the performance. Also, if anyone is up at my place with their laptop and wanting to grab something off it make sure you tell me. I can set it up with FTP access over the LAN instead of going through the internet.

Ok, some updates-

I've decided to splurge on some hardware for the media server/flat.

Getting a 2TB external hard drive, €239.99 Iomega eGo from them direct- http://go.iomega.com/en/products/external-..._to_buyItem_tab (plus I might pick up the mains power supply for my other externals to take them off the dual-headed USB power option)

Tech sheet- http://go.iomega.com/en/products/external-...h_specsItem_tab

Anyone directing me to cheaper storage, please don't post links to crap ones. Iomega make well cooled and relatively silent hard drives. My first 250GB external one with 4,800rpms that I've had for 5 years still runs as quiet today as when I first bought it, and it's barely noticeable. Used to use it in the college library and no one would even hear it going. Contrast this to a Aldi one that I bought with 200GB and same speed used to sound like a beehive (this one is no longer with us, due to a terminal fall off of a shelf). I'm looking for quiet, dependable, reasonably priced 1.5TB or higher storage that's USB connection (not going to the trouble of throwing a Firewire card into the server). I will not buy a Seagate drive under any circumstances- had one years ago in my first PC and it didn't make it to two years. I have one non-Iomega external drive, and it's my shitty Philips one that I only use as a last ditch backup drive.

Secondly, I'm getting a kick-ass Gigabit wireless router. http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=224970#features

Tech sheet- http://www.maplin.co.uk/Media/PDFs/A77HY%20WL-306.pdf

With this, should be able to move the media server into the kitchen next to the Chorus box-o-magic. Would mean no cable going through the kitchen into the hall to trip over, no looking at a mess of cables the second you walk in the door and should have better reception throughout the entire flat since it's got 3 antennae to help boost signal, not to mention being more powerful than the Netopia router Chorus give free. It's also meant to be smart with network traffic- e.g. if I'm downloading stuff on my laptop and then start up the X360 for gaming it'll automatically make sure the X360 gets preference. Might try wall-mounting it too for the small boost. Only thing I'm worried about is the obstacles between kitchen and living room- it'll have to go through the area just in front of the door to the flat, both bedrooms and my DVD collection. If all else, I can live with the server being in the hall but it'd be so much tidier to have it in the kitchen out of the way. Anyone able to recommend a powerful wireless router to rival this one?

I'm more of a komplett.ie man myself.
WD have 2tb drives there for 199euro
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=494900

Also they have some awesome D-Link routers for around 70 - 80 quid.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=322482
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=331590

Router page is at
http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.aspx?mfr=&bn=1...tBy=p&zbo2=true

I love them. Fast delivery and very good prices.

Pixmania have 2TB Iomega externals for 129euro!!!!!
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/2600178/art/i...ternal-des.html
its not an ego but wow...great price