As per the title says im wondering what would be the best way to make linux media server. Currently i have an old box set up running Ubuntu 10.10. What i want to do is have a UPnP media server so that my ps3 thats on the network can access the media whenever it needs to. I tried media tomb but it was having issues and taking *forever* to add files off of my HDD that has all of my media on it. I would also like it ( if possible, not exactly needed but it would be really helpful at times) is to be able for me to access my media from anywhere when im not at home. When im not at home where all my media is, i would like to be able to access it. "streaming" my media from there would be nice so i could watch my movies and such when im not at home, or find the one song im thinking of.

I was thinking of doing www.XBMC.org but i dont know how/ if it would do the streaming thing at all. I would like to get media tomb working if at all possible because it looked nice for being able to access my media from anywhere and listen/watch it. Pretty much what im asking you guys if you have any ideas on programs that i could use or alternatives to linux or media tomb that would work for what i want to do. Thanks in advance. Sorry for the rambling post and if something doesnt make sense feel free to ask any questions, I'm pretty tired right now..

For the remote access I'd personally go with a combination of an FTP or sFTP server (OpenSSHd should do nicely) and some flavor of VNC, but it's personal preference. On my Windows machine I used to use Winamp Remote, but that just lets you remote-control your media server, not bring the media to your local machine (and I don't know if WinAmp has anything even approaching a Linux version).

Yeah I might do the FTP thing, i have SSH on it already, which is really handy now that i somewhat know what im doing. I used to use winamp remote, and i could use it again, I would just need to install windows instead. I guess i dont really need to "bring" the media to my remote computer, it would just be nice, but i suppose a FTP would do that too. I guess a program for win or *nix that would allow me to stream my media remotely and have it on my network would work, just as long as its not really CPU intensive- cause this box has a 1.8ghz single core.. Not the best for some things but it should do for a HTPC as long as its not recording TV which i dont want it to do anyways.

I'd recommend sFTP over FTP; there's really no reason not to use it if you have it. I agree that recording TV wouldn't be the best use of this machine's resources.

Recent versions of Windows (at least since Vista) have media streaming built in, so you don't need to install anything fancy; just enable media sharing in Windows Media Player and the PS3 should be able to find it. I'm not sure how well Vista would run on an ancient machine but I heard they tweaked 7 quite heavily for netbooks (and it apparently runs better than XP on low-end hardware) so may be worth a shot.

Recording TV is not especially CPU intensive unless you're transcoding it to another format (which can usually be done in the background after it has been recorded in its original form).

Edit: I know this is not what you asked, but in my experience the Windows stuff "just works" out of the box.

Yeah windows has really gotten better in that respect at least on the LAN but for accessing it via the net when your on the go I'm not sure what to tell you. You could maybe just use the standard LAN stuff plus a VPN setup like openvpn.

On linux here are my suggestions.
For music accessing it on the go I'd go with mpd, but video not really sure what to tell you.
You could just serve it over a sFTP share via openssh but not many programs will support playing from that vlc might, but I think just plain FTP or http/s would be rather insecure so random people could waste your bandwidth.

For the upnp stuff ushare worked pretty well for me when I used it but it does have some limitations. Just setting up a basic samba server to access the file from your other machines would work pretty well also. A VPN for the samba share or upnp share would work as well for access over the net.

Alright, I suppose i can put win7 on the machine, i just need to find my key again. I guess i dont need to access it too much on the go so i could do winamp remote and ftp if i really need to download the file.

Opera may be a quick and easy way to access your music when you're away from your computer. I find it works quite well.

Oh yeah, i forgot about opera's remote access thing. I think im going to try XBMC on linux first, mainly just to see if my ps3 likes it or not. If it does, i might just do an ftp or some other way with XBMC remote sharing somehow. If that fails ( might lol) then i might just go with windows or just abandon the idea of being able to use my media remotely.

I'll consistently rail against Opera trying to be your entire operating system, but I'm still curious how that will turn out if you do indeed decide to try that.

It isn't trying to be an entire operating system; it's an Internet suite, so performs a wide range of Internet-related tasks. Sharing/streaming multimedia is a rather large chunk of the web, after all.

I might try opera if all else fails. Not saying i dont like the idea of using opera, i would just rather see if i can find a diff way first.

A traditional OS, I'll give you that. When something like ChromeOS is also heralded as a breakthrough operating system, though, I begin to get worried about where the division falls.

Well i found a program I want to use, but its windows only. I already have a VM ( windows xp in virtual box) running to run a few apps that don't need their own machine. What im wondering tho, is how to get virtualbox to allow windows to "see" the other 2 hard drives that are in my computer. Right now i can only get it to see its little 4gb partition, but not the drives that have all my media on them. I need it to see them and have full access to them. Is there a way to do this, or am i actually stuck having to use a different program that works in linux. If it helps, the 2 hard drives are on a sata controller.

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=15868

That helped a little, Im probably missing something really simple and dumb. But the windows VM isnt seeing the shared folders/drives at all. And i dont know why.. that link doesn't help much besides installing the guest addons.

EDIT:
Yeah.. I just totally missed something, that i should have seen.. It works now. Thanks ultdev!

Woot, I'm glad to hear that this is progressing smoothly, rcfreak0. At what stage of completion is the project?

Its almost done. I was too tired last night to finish it all up, but i have all my media on the same box now, and my windows VM now can see it all. when i get back home tonight Ill be setting up tversity and using it on my ps3. It should then be able to stream stuff from my server to my phone, which is pretty nice. So, it should be done tonight, as long as my router decides to play nice when i install the new one and wire the ps3 to my router.

EDIT:

Runnig into a few issues with getting my ps3 to find the VM, guessing its cause its a VM. Need to figure that out then im good to go. If anyone knows what might help let me know.