Streaming Media

I no longer carry an mp3 player or have the need for one. This is not to say that i do not listen to music. On the contrary I listen to music nearly all the time. Since I am always at a computer I decided that the best mp3 player would be one that had a very large hard drive for massive music storage. While the option to purchase a large storage mp3 was there, I decided that by simply using Gnump3d on my home computer I would be able to use my home computer as a streaming music server and have access to anything that I wished.

Gnump3d will allow you to streaming any media, mp3 or even video, across the Internet to a browser of your choice. There are already many online streaming music web pages, what Gnump3d allows you to do i skip the advertisements and commercials and full control of what media is served to you. Gnump3d has some great features even though it is a simple media streaming program for servers. The only downside to Gnump3d is that it is made for Linux. Personally this is not a downside but a glowing feature in itself, but I am also not a Microsoft fan. That being said Gnump3d is not that hard to set up once you have a little bit of knowledge.

Gnump3d can be downloaded for free from a number of places with a simple Google search. After installation the "Gnump3d.conf" file is what controls how Gnump3d runs. The first thing that I would recommend doing is to change the default port number Gnump3d runs on. Typically you should change this to something like 5940 or some other random number. This keeps your open port access away from basic port scanners. The next thing during the setup will be to tell Gnump3d where your media files are hiding, simple type in the textual location which will look something like "/home/user/music". Since everyone has a different computer setup I can not really help on this one. Outside of these two configuration changes the rest are simply optional and extras that don't change the functioning of Gnump3d's base functions.

The true trick to Gnump3d is that to access your computer and Gnump3d you must know your IP address. This is that pesky number in the format of "12.550.58.526", which can be found by simply using Google (once again) and searching "What is my IP". This can be a real trick too because many people have dynamic IP addresses. This combination of port number and IP address adds to the security of your computer to outside people other than you, or anyone who has knowledge of these two sets of numbers.

If you are one of the unlucky chosen to have a dynamic IP address, this being that your ISP every so often rotates your IP address without your consent, there are steps that can be taken to keep your computer accessible no matter when your IP changes. Simple web sites such as DynDNS can track your pc and keep you up to date on the IP Address. Another option which is much more technical is to have you computer automatically check its own IP address and then e-mail the results to your e-mail account or even to your phone. This is a neat little trick which never fails to boggle non-technical persons minds.

Before you access Gnump3d for the first time you must make sure that your router is set up for port forwarding, instruction on this can be found online or by calling your ISP. You then must allow Gnump3d access through your computer's firewall. You are using one correct? Now you must start Gnump3d every time you restart your computer, this can be automated but I find the option nice to have. Simple type "/etc/init.d/gnump3d start" into a terminal, this twill set Gnump3d to indexing your collection that you have specified and bring itself online. Now once on the Internet simply type in your IP address followed by your port number, which will look like this "http://12.550.58.526:5940". The next thing you know you will have any music or video, and as much music as you can fit on your home computer's hard drive at your finger tips.