Media Server NAS

I haven't posted anything in a while - it's not that I haven't had anything to post, just been too busy.

So the first thing I've been messing around with is my little NAS - a D-Link DNS-323, with a single 1TB (for now). It's an awesome little box, nice and quiet (except at bootup when the fan swings into action) with great features. Power consumption is nice and low, and the HDD spins down when not in use so I get some pretty nice 'always-on' features without upsetting Al Gore ;-) There's really good community support as well with loads of other users out there. I really like the funplug stuff - where you can run pretty much a full *nix OS on it and all sorts of add-on applications without much effort at all.

I'm using the Fonz Funplug (FFP), which is as easy to install as dropping the script and a .tgz file and rebooting. Then change the root password, enable the sshd daemon and your away. Check out this list of pre-compiled add-on packages!

One of the primary goals of running the NAS was as a Media Server for my XBox360 in my bedroom. Something to stream TV/movies and Video Podcasts without requiring another PC running all the time. I started out with Twonky - the 30 day trial version and it worked like a charm, with only a few hiccups. One issue I had with it - and many others have experienced the same thing - is while streaming Music it just cuts out. The song time keeps counting but there's no sound. You can skip to the next song and it starts and plays fine for a while, then cuts out again.

So I thought I'd have a look at alternatives before parting with my 30 euros :-} The main app that people have been discussing is uShare. I started by upgrading to FFP 0.5 (delete the old one, reboot, put the new files on, reboot) then I downloaded the pre-built archive mentioned here, extracted it and ran the install script. A quick edit of the /ffp/etc/ushare.conf file to point at my media directories and its up and running.

So far it works great for Videos, Music is still a bit random with it listing all files instead of sorting by Album etc. But I'm looking into a fix. I'm sure someone else has come across the same thing and hopefully knows the resolution.

The other thing I'd like to be able to do is Wake-On-LAN from the DNS-323. So I can VPN in, SSH to the NAS and startup a PC if needed. I'm sure there's other cool things that can be done too, the combination of price and features makes this a really nice little box. Highly recommended.