imac setup and macbook as server?

PeakOutput

hello again im finally back on the emerald isle with a brand new imac 27inch woop woop

this got long, i apologise but appreciate the advice

so im about to go about getting things set up and downloading the programmesim missing etc etc and just thought id run some things by you guys to see if i have forgotten anything

first things first, i have 2 i tb external hard drives, i want to use one to back up my macbook and the imac and i want to use the other two for all my media storage which will hopefully keep the imac fairly snappy for a long time and it will keep usb ports free

my idea is to install insomniac on my macbook so i can keep it in a drawer somewhere plugged into the network with all the drives attached so that i can network with it threw the imac and access all the drives as if they were plugged into usb on the imac

problem is besides installing insomniac i dont know what to do as far as setting up the macbook to work that way as a server, any ideas?

now here are the programmes im thinking of using(the free ones anyway)

vlc - i would love to use quicktime for everything but unless there is a codec pack that makes it usable for all of my downloads i have to go with vlc. can vlc play hd content? does quicktime? what is the best way for me to view downloaded hd content?

i am having a hard time deciding if i want to keep using thunderbird over mail and firefox over safari or chrome, i am used to mozilla products but am willing to change and learn from scratch if there is a big enough advantage. one immediate advantage i can see is i just got an android phone and if i start using chrome they can sync up very nicely together so if you guys can give me an opinion on those things that would be great

for downloads i use speed download right now but its an older version and i dont want to pay for the new one are there any free download managers out there that are as good?

stuff it expaned - works brilliantly although it seems a bit buggy as at the end of most expands it says an error has occured and the expand has failed but the file is always fine to use

neooffice - nice and simple, just works dont want to bother with office for mac

adium - the lack of video really pisses me off, is there a free alternative yet? ihave contacts scattered over google chat, yahoo, skype, msn so right now that means i use adium, yahoo, and skype. i love the interface and customisation of adium but i need to conference and video call sometimes

is there a way to region unlock my dvd drive? i used up my 5 switches on my macbook pretty quick and given that this is an american machine i have to immediately use up one switch the first time i put in a dvd

conor.hogan.2

Can't help - sorry.

But - what are you using this setup for? Just curious because it is pretty immense.

Like how big is the internal storage on both machines and how much media do you have?

PeakOutput

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Can't help - sorry.

But - what are you using this setup for? Just curious because it is pretty immense.

Like how big is the internal storage on both machines and how much media do you have?

on the macbook its 160gb and on the new imac its 1tb. its really one tb for backups and 1 tb for media and then the onboard 1tb on the imac for all my files and documents and there will be a good bit of development done on that machine more then likely so want to keep it as clean as possible

i dont have a huge amount of media cause i havnt found a convenient way of using two externals with my laptop so iv been deleting things after my on board drive gets full. as far as it being immense i dont know is 2/3 tb that much anymore? i want to download 1080p movies now i have a way to play them in all their glory so iv a feeling its gonna fill up quick

edit; also i just like fiddling around and i have the hardware lieing around so might as well try and make use of it

conor.hogan.2

alri cool just curious.


Who do you get broadband off? If you download 1080p and are making dents in that storage you will be very much hitting caps no?

aidan_walsh

Wouldn't recommend keeping the Macbook in a drawer, the heat build up would be something else after a short enough amount of time.

PeakOutput

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Who do you get broadband off? If you download 1080p and are making dents in that storage you will be very much hitting caps no?

that is true alright im moving into a new house on sunday and have to look at the broadband options then. im hoping whoever is available in the area has a top of the line 'unlimited' package but ill have to wait and see i guess

also if the worst comes to the worst i could just use the college interweb to download those big files while im in there studying but id feel a little guilty about that

just a little though

maccored

i wouldnt waste a mb just to stick it in a drawer. get a cheap (as in one about to be dumped) pc, stick ubuntu on it and use that as your bastion server for your network. then run the macs on the network.

I also wouldnt use portable drives, especially ones with large capacity. they have a tendancy to fail. instead, I'd take the drive out of the external boxes and add them as internal drives to the ubuntu server - much more reliable that way as the drives are never being moved or connecting through cheap bits of hardware.

Ubuntu is free and if you look around im sure you could find a freebie old PC.

PeakOutput

maccored wrote: »

i wouldnt waste a mb just to stick it in a drawer. get a cheap (as in one about to be dumped) pc, stick ubuntu on it and use that as your bastion server for your network. then run the macs on the network.

I also wouldnt use portable drives, especially ones with large capacity. they have a tendancy to fail. instead, I'd take the drive out of the external boxes and add them as internal drives to the ubuntu server - much more reliable that way as the drives are never being moved or connecting through cheap bits of hardware.

Ubuntu is free and if you look around im sure you could find a freebie old PC.

while that is good advice no doubt i have spent enough money in the last few weeks and will only be doing this with what i have lieing around unless someone walks up and give me an old pc that wont be happening im afraid

conor.hogan.2

I could be wrong but any consumer broadband package that is unlimited has a fair use of 250gigs which is decent but 1080p video will rip through that fast.

For example UPC have the 250 fair use - unless you get business packages.

barryj

Agree with Aidan on not keeping the MacBook running in a drawer. Heat is killer for electronics.

Am also puzzled as to why you don't just plug the external drives into your new iMac - there are four USB ports on the back. If you need more, then a small hub should do the job.

- barry

PeakOutput

PeakOutput wrote: »

vlc - i would love to use quicktime for everything but unless there is a codec pack that makes it usable for all of my downloads i have to go with vlc. can vlc play hd content? does quicktime? what is the best way for me to view downloaded hd content?

i am having a hard time deciding if i want to keep using thunderbird over mail and firefox over safari or chrome, i am used to mozilla products but am willing to change and learn from scratch if there is a big enough advantage. one immediate advantage i can see is i just got an android phone and if i start using chrome they can sync up very nicely together so if you guys can give me an opinion on those things that would be great

for downloads i use speed download right now but its an older version and i dont want to pay for the new one are there any free download managers out there that are as good?

stuff it expaned - works brilliantly although it seems a bit buggy as at the end of most expands it says an error has occured and the expand has failed but the file is always fine to use

neooffice - nice and simple, just works dont want to bother with office for mac

adium - the lack of video really pisses me off, is there a free alternative yet? ihave contacts scattered over google chat, yahoo, skype, msn so right now that means i use adium, yahoo, and skype. i love the interface and customisation of adium but i need to conference and video call sometimes

is there a way to region unlock my dvd drive? i used up my 5 switches on my macbook pretty quick and given that this is an american machine i have to immediately use up one switch the first time i put in a dvd

anyone got any thoughts on this part of my post? particularly unlocking the dvd drive?

conor.hogan.2

em - again I could be wrong but once you don't use the dvd player ie use vlc or whatever then you don't have to change the region as it is not checked.

no?


oh and dont use neooffice it is so slow - use openoffice (until libreoffice is out fully)

Sad Professor

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

em - again I could be wrong but once you don't use the dvd player ie use vlc or whatever then you don't have to change the region as it is not checked.

no?

VLC is able to bypass the region coding by reading the raw data off the disc. However, some drives (Matshita mostly) don't allow any access to the data on the disc unless the regions match. In these cases, VLC can't do anything. This is written into the firmware of the drive, so there's no getting around it without hacking it.

It used to be that only Macbooks used these drives. iMacs might still be okay, I'm not sure.

PeakOutput

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

em - again I could be wrong but once you don't use the dvd player ie use vlc or whatever then you don't have to change the region as it is not checked.

oh so i can use vlc to play a dvd instead of dvd player? i didnt know that ill give it a shot when the need arises. any way to stop dvd player from autostarting when you insert a dvd?

oh and dont use neooffice it is so slow - use openoffice (until libreoffice is out fully)

maybe this is old news or whatever but i thought neooffice was the open office version for mac?

Sad Professor

PeakOutput wrote: »

oh so i can use vlc to play a dvd instead of dvd player? i didnt know that ill give it a shot when the need arises. any way to stop dvd player from autostarting when you insert a dvd?

System Prefs > CDs & DVDs > set video DVDs to ignore.

barryj

PeakOutput wrote: »

maybe this is old news or whatever but i thought neooffice was the open office version for mac?

NeoOffice is just a port of the OpenOffice product, with the goal of being a bit more Mac-like than OpenOffice. So while both derive from the same source (openoffice) the look and feel is a bit different.

- barry

conor.hogan.2

try openoffice then try neooffice - oo is much faster.

hhm I rarely play dvds on my macbook - never realized that.

Talisman

You could use an Acer Aspire Revo R3610 instead of the MacBook as your media server. There are plenty of tutorials on how to install OS X on the hardware and then you could setup Plex to serve the content from your external drives.