Is it possible to play music over a network - without itunes

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-08-18 09:54am

As it says in the title. are there any other programs that offer this functionality?

Itunes keeps crashing on me..

I need something that doesn't use up many resources, the other computer in this network is rather slow. Is there anything like this?

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-08-18 10:30am

Destructionator XIII wrote:Well, I know on Linux, there are many options, but I am not as knowledgeabe about options on Windows.

One that comes to mind that would surely work, however, is putting the music files in a shared folder, mapping it as a network drive, then just open the the music from that shared folder anywhere on the network.

Thats what i've been trying to do. Im working on that at the moment.

I was just hoping there was something else with the convenience of itunes.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2006-08-18 11:08am

Any media player worth it's salt can do this under Windows is the network has enough bandwidth of a 10mbps lan. Just share the folder on computer A and use the files like you would normally from computer B.

As long as the source computer isnt pegging the CPU or have a sloooow laptop disk you'll be fine.

Funny enough that itunes would crap itself trying todo that.

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-08-18 11:15am

Xon wrote:Any media player worth it's salt can do this under Windows is the network has enough bandwidth of a 10mbps lan. Just share the folder on computer A and use the files like you would normally from computer B.

As long as the source computer isnt pegging the CPU or have a sloooow laptop disk you'll be fine.

Funny enough that itunes would crap itself trying todo that.

Im trying this, the problem is that the computers cannot see each other for some reason.

Even with firewalls off, upstairs can see downstairs but gets an error saying "permissions aren't correct" but downstairs can't even see upstairs. suffice to say. its annoying the crap out of me and i need this sorted for a party this evening

I've done it before at news years.. for some reason its not working now

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-18 11:24am

I use iTunes to play music off a P2 fileserver all the time.

If your network is busted, why not just transfer the data the old fashioned way, on a DVD or flash drive?

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-08-18 11:29am

Stark wrote:I use iTunes to play music off a P2 fileserver all the time.

If your network is busted, why not just transfer the data the old fashioned way, on a DVD or flash drive?

its a case of lack of space. I store all my music on my computer, i'm having a party this evening and i want to play music stored on my relatively new computer with several gigs of space on my dads computer which has.. none..

Its not a big issue if i can't, i have good enough speakers that i can get a away with blasting the volume up to full. I don't mind annoying the neighbours.. i was just hoping for a little more covenience.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-18 11:31am

If it's an established network it's a bit strange it doesn't work, surely?

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-08-18 11:39am

Stark wrote:If it's an established network it's a bit strange it doesn't work, surely?

Well yes, but my network is strange due to it being manually configured at every level. Also due to money being tight and pcworld selling us the wrong router for our internet and not being able to afford the correct one.

The router was purchased whilst i was away, by the time i was back it was too late to take it back. Typical eh?

ICS works, Sharing files through programs, like itunes works.

But the computers won't share folders. Needless to say im stumped.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-08-18 12:14pm

Do you have Windows XP? If so, is the Windows Firewall turned on?

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-08-18 12:26pm

Uraniun235 wrote:Do you have Windows XP? If so, is the Windows Firewall turned on?

I have zone alarm on mine, which is configured to let everything from the ip address in question through.

The downstairs computer has windows firewall, but i've switched it off for the purposes of trying to make this work

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-08-18 12:33pm

Okay for those who are trying to help..

I've managed to get both pc's too see each other. But They cannot seem to access each others files.. saying they don't have permission. Windows firewall is off. Zone alarm is off.

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-08-18 01:04pm

Thats not exactly the problem.

The two computers show up under the work groups tab on windows.

But they cannot access each other by clicking on them here. You can't see the shared folders at all.

Lisa · Post by **Lisa** » 2006-08-19 12:08am

I run into something like this at work all the time. The issue is Zone Alarm, dump it, you don't need it, specially when you're behind a router.

What often happens is Zone Alarm will say it's off or that it's allowed such and such permission when really it hasn't. I see this issue at least once every day when working with customer's PCs.

Personaly I find Zone Alarm to be a piece of shit, and often causes more problems then it fixes. I can't remember if it's Norton or Macafee that owns Zone alarm but I wouldn't run either companies firewall solution for just the reasons stated above.

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-08-19 06:09am

Destructionator XIII wrote:
Zac Naloen wrote:But they cannot access each other by clicking on them here. You can't see the shared folders at all.
Can you get into the shared folder by typing it's name? As in

\\computer_name_or_ip_address\share_name

in Windows Explorer (or Internet Explorer should be able to do it too)

where the share name is defined on the sharing tab in properties?

Right, i can get it by using the IP address. Nothing else works though. Which means its a DNS issue