Building a new HTPC/Web server
July 11, 2010
The stars have finally aligned such that I’ve been able to put together my dream Home Theatre PC / personal server. Over the past 3 weeks, I’ve gotten the individual pieces ordered, installed, and integrated across several platforms. The result is a centralized server for media and hosting, which (through the miracle of SSH, DAAP and UPnP), I’m able to stream and control across a variety of mobile/remote devices. The setup is mostly complete, the pieces are below, with some commentary).
Network
- Comcast Business (static ip for hosting, 50Mbps down, 10Mbps up)
- Asus RT-N16 router with DD-WRT firmware
- *OpenVPN install to support remote/mobile media access
Server
- Optiplex 980 SFF (purchased refurbished from Dell Outlet)
- Notable hardware
- Intel Core i5-650M Processor (3.20GHz,4M cache)
- ^8 GB CORSAIR XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz
- ^Seagate ST32000542AS Barracuda LP Hard Drive – 2TB, 5900 RPM, 32MB, SATA-3G
- ^HIS H555HS1G Radeon HD 5550 (didn’t fit in case, need to RMA, using VGA for now)
- Notable software
- Fedora 13 (my linux distro of choice, totally painless install)
- MediaTomb (UPnP server, streams media library (*mp3, *.avi, *.jpg) to PS3 etc)
- Samba (Share Apache webdocs folder for cross-box development,
- *Deja Dup (simple backup of /home directories to cloud (Amazon S3) or e-SATA 2.5″ 500GB drive.
- RhythmBox (podcast harvesting, iTunes-like media library control, DAAP streaming)
- Apache (*hosting of currently co-located websites)
- NX/TigerNVC (for accessing machine remotely)
Clients
- Samsung-LN46A650 46″ HDTV
- PS3 (stock)
- MLB.TV (for watching the Twins and not the Giants (damn blackouts))
- Netflix (watching not-downloaded movies/etc)
- Motorola Droid (Android 2.2 “Froyo”)
- Nexus One (Android 2.2 “Froyo”)
- *Root to CyanogenMod 6 for OpenVPN?
- Android DAAP (plays DAAP-served music across network, provides access to media library from phone, nice)
- AndroMote (provides full access to UPnP media (from Meditomb) on phone)
- RemoteDroid (allows for mouse/keyboard control of remote machine via wif
- Dell Latitude e6410 (per usual, purchased refurbished from Dell Outlet)
- Notable Hardware
- Intel Core i5-520M Processor (2.4GHz)
- ^OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5″ 60GB SSD (using for an apps and boot drive, uses Samba share for all downloads/important stuff)
- 512MB NVIDIA NVS 3100M
- ^G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333
- YP021 Dell Latitude E-Port Plus Docking Station
- Random 24″ Dell lcd
- Notable Software
- RealVNC, N
- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
- Google Earth
Legend
^Not stock
*Not started completed
Photos
See Also
RemoteDroid demo from Joshua Sera on Vimeo.
Filed under: About Me?,Android,Computer-related?,Website-related
