newbie question on setup

[fsong1169]

Hi,

I have been reading on this forum about Squeezebox and was thinking about getting a Classic. Currently I own a DNS323 NAS, which served as storage and also do lots of Bit torrent/Emule downloading there. I understand that people has make squeezecenter to work on it but given the low power CPU/low RAM and the problems I have read, I do not plan to run SC on it together with downloading stuff.

So here is what I planned to do:

Use an old laptop (Core2Duo, 1GB ram) to run SC and put my music on DNS323. DNS is connected to router on wired port and laptop on wireless. Questions:

1. can I put all my music on NAS and run SC on laptop, and stream the music to SBC ?
2. in future, I do plan to buy a barebone PC to run SC, maybe a MSI wind or EEE　box. Can I use such box to do both SC and BT/Emule downloading. If yes, what's best software setup (OS, plugins, etc.) Would like to stay with XP but don't mind trying Linux.

Thanks very much

[shake-the-disease]

So here is what I planned to do:

Use an old laptop (Core2Duo, 1GB ram) to run SC and put my music on DNS323. DNS is connected to router on wired port and laptop on wireless. Questions:

1. can I put all my music on NAS and run SC on laptop, and stream the music to SBC ?

In theory yes, in practice, it's a receipe for problems. It's down to whether the laptop can maintain a solid link to the netowrk share of your music. By all means try it out, worst that can happen is it doesn't work well and you switch to local storage.

[agillis]

The answer question number 2 is try VortexBox. Its a Linux distro that has SqueezeCenter already installed. It has a web based Bittorrent client as well.

[fsong1169]

The answer question number 2 is try VortexBox. Its a Linux distro that has SqueezeCenter already installed. It has a web based Bittorrent client as well.

Thanks. I'm aware of this solution. Will need to explore a bit.

[fsong1169]

In theory yes, in practice, it's a receipe for problems. It's down to whether the laptop can maintain a solid link to the netowrk share of your music. By all means try it out, worst that can happen is it doesn't work well and you switch to local storage.

Thanks for the quick response. I guess I have to put the PC that has SC installed on the wired port of router as well for reliable performance ? Or do I have to put the music file on internal or external HD of the PC that has SC ?

Thanks

[dave77]

Use an old laptop

If my old laptops are anything to go by re overheating, I'd be worried if you plan to keep the laptop on 24/7

[tcutting]

The biggest problem I see is MULTIPLE WIRELESS HOPS between your music files and your player. If your Squeezebox is also wireless, here's what your looking at:
NAS--wireless-->router--wireless-->SqueezecenterLaptop--wireless-->router--wireless-->Squeezebox
In other words, 4 wireless hops which are all competing for your limited wireless bandwidth, and each has opportunity for inteference issues.
If at all possible, the machine running Squeezecenter should be wired to the router. Putting the music files on that PC would also be preferred, but accessing from a remote share should also be OK as long as that's also a wired connection. That way there's only 1 wireless hop to your player. Of course, if that could be wired as well, then you won't have to worry about wireless issues!

[fsong1169]

The biggest problem I see is MULTIPLE WIRELESS HOPS between your music files and your player. If your Squeezebox is also wireless, here's what your looking at:
NAS--wireless-->router--wireless-->SqueezecenterLaptop--wireless-->router--wireless-->Squeezebox
In other words, 4 wireless hops which are all competing for your limited wireless bandwidth, and each has opportunity for inteference issues.
If at all possible, the machine running Squeezecenter should be wired to the router. Putting the music files on that PC would also be preferred, but accessing from a remote share should also be OK as long as that's also a wired connection. That way there's only 1 wireless hop to your player. Of course, if that could be wired as well, then you won't have to worry about wireless issues!

Thanks. I don't think I can eliminate wireless completely as running wires up and down in the house is too much of a hassle. Will try to keep minimum hops as you suggested.

Still the question: if I put SC on the PC that connect to router on wired port, and then connect NAS to router on wired port as well, would I expect many problems ? I would think ethernet connection is pretty stable compared to external USB ?

[tcutting]

I think the nas should work fine wired.
My suggestion would be to go ahead and setup Squeezecenter and start using it. You can use Softsqueeze to emulate the hardware player (it even has skin so it will look like a classic, complete with "virtual" remote). You can run Softsqueeze on a laptop even in the location where you'd eventually place your Classic. The advantage to this is you can have Squeezecenter up and running, work on library organization, get a feel for the user interfaces and options. Be aware, however, that the actual hardware player will be more stable in many ways than Softsqueeze - especially with unusual file formats and internet services (internet radio, services like LastFM, Pandora, etc.)

[fsong1169]

I think the nas should work fine wired.
My suggestion would be to go ahead and setup Squeezecenter and start using it. You can use Softsqueeze to emulate the hardware player (it even has skin so it will look like a classic, complete with "virtual" remote). You can run Softsqueeze on a laptop even in the location where you'd eventually place your Classic. The advantage to this is you can have Squeezecenter up and running, work on library organization, get a feel for the user interfaces and options. Be aware, however, that the actual hardware player will be more stable in many ways than Softsqueeze - especially with unusual file formats and internet services (internet radio, services like LastFM, Pandora, etc.)

Thanks for the excellent suggestions ! It's a good idea to test this out prior to getting the actual box.