Jolley FrankieSome time ago Damien published an excellent article on how to install and configure Jinzora Media Server on Ubuntu. Jinzora is a great and powerful way to stream music over the Internet, but setting it up can be a bit tricky. Today I thought I’d talk about some other settings that are a little easier to set up and that can work on other platforms.
GNUMP3d – GNU MP3 streaming/media server
Platform: *nix, Windows, OS X
Browser/Client Player: Client
Supported formats: MP3, Ogg Warbis
Configuration: Text file
So far, I think GNUMP3d is my favorite simple music streaming application. According to the website, it works on Windows as well as the UNIX type systems you would expect from GNU. I only tested it on Linux, and it was easy.
To install GNUMP3d, you simply download and extract the tar archive from the GNUMP3d website and run
Setup is done via a plain text file, the instructions are on the website.
Once it’s up and running, you type in the web browser with the address you set up (e.g. http://localhost:8888) and you should see a screen similar to the screenshot above. From here you can click on directories or individual tracks. Each click will cause the server to create a playlist file (.m3u), which your host computer will open in whatever media player you have configured for M3U files. I tested it through VLC, but the website notes that others, such as WinAmp and XMMS, work as well.
Another handy feature found in GNUMP3d, which seems rare for this type of software, is that it allows not only streaming but also simple downloading of music files. You can download MP3s as easily as you can stream them.
One thing I felt was missing from GNUMP3d was user access control. I wanted to be able to set permissions so that only those with the correct username and password could access my music collection. The README stated that a similar functionality was present in the previous release, but was removed because it didn’t really do anything to improve security. It did, however, allow me to restrict connections based on IP address. This worked well for me, as I intend to stream my home music collection from work, so I set it up to only accept connections from my employer’s IP address range.
Web Streamer
Platform: Windows (also reported to work via Wine)
Browser/Client Player: Browser
Supported formats: MP3
Configuration: Graphical
Atmosphere is the music streamer I’ve tested most on Windows. Like GNUMP3d, it runs a mini web server that gives you a viewable list of available music files. Unlike GNUMP3d, it is set up with the usual Windows GUI program.
One feature I really liked about Vibe was that it was very easy to set up the server so that it would only accept connections from those with the correct username and password. It doesn’t seem to use HTTPS, so I can’t claim how much that really improves security, but it’s a nice feature. At least it would prevent someone from accidentally accessing my server and using my bandwidth.
Icecast
Platform: Windows, Linux, BSD, Solaris
Browser/Client Player: Client
Supported formats: MP3, Ogg Warbis
Configuration: XML file
Of the software I reviewed for this article, Icecast was the most difficult to configure. The configuration is done through an XML file using a lot of unfamiliar terminology. I read documents on the website that clarified a few options, but a lot I had to figure out on my own.
Icecast streams music like a regular radio station, with a specific set of music streamed around the world. You don’t have the control over music selection that you have with the other options I reviewed here. This is good on the server side, since you only need to send one stream that all listeners will hear.
Apache
Platform: Almost all
Browser/Client Player: Either
Supported formats: Anything
Configuration: Apache configuration is a BIG topic which is better addressed elsewhere.
That’s right, a good old fashioned Apache Web server is all you really need for streaming/downloading music. It’s probably not the BEST option in most cases, but it will help. You just install Apache according to the instructions for your operating system and put your music files in a web folder. That’s it. You won’t have nice graphics, playlist support, nothing special, just a list of files you can click to download or stream, depending on your client/server configuration.