Remotely Access iTunes?

[ste6168]

I am leaving school today to go home for the weekend. I would rather not take my desktop PC with the music home, but i would like to be able to access it from home (on my laptop). Is there anyway to do this that you would know of?

Thanks

 

[Karma]

You may try Remote Desktop, but beyond that their isn't really a way for that to work.

 

[giulio]

You can set up a VPN. At that point, the remote machine acts as if its on a LAN with your local machine. Turn on sharing in the iTunes preferences... you're all set.

 

[ste6168]

You can set up a VPN. At that point, the remote machine acts as if its on a LAN with your local machine. Turn on sharing in the iTunes preferences... you're all set.

not to sound dumb, but what and how do i go about setting up a VPN? Also i found a program called accessTunes... it supposedly allows you to view/play your songs over any internet browser, but i cannot seem to get it working at the moment.


edit to add link: http://www.zeleksoftware.com/accesstunes.htm

 

[giulio]

Dumb? Nah. VPN is hard core stuff. It's out of my expertise as well. I've used them but I've never set one up.

You cannot share music/photos across the net right now because your IPS(s) are most likely blocking the ports you need to use. A VPN gets around that problem.

The easiest way (it appears) to set this up is with HimachiX: http://spaceants.net/hamachix/
"A zero-configuration virtual private networking (VPN) application. In other words Hamachi is a program that allows you to arrange multiple computers into their own secure network just as if they were connected by a physical network cable. Hamachi is fast, secure and simple."

I've never used it though. Just too busy and havent gotten around to it. But I does sound nice to be able to share iTunes and iPhoto from home and listen to it at work as if it were on the work LAN.

 

[giulio]

COOL!

This really isn't a howto per se, but rather it brings the capabilities of a certain program to light. There are two prerequisites to this method of music sharing. The first is Hamachi. If you're reading this you most likely already have it. The second is iTunes......

http://forums.hamachi.cc/viewtopic.php?t=4202

 

[ste6168]

COOL!

http://forums.hamachi.cc/viewtopic.php?t=4202

thats great... thanks alot. although i already left school i just brought my external with me. I tried it here using my connection and an open wireless (shhh... dont let them know, it was only for a second) and it worked. Will definitely set this up once i get back to school for all future breaks/leaves... thanks again

 

[giulio]

I installed Hamachi on my home/work macs and it's all working... except for itunes. But I can remote pilot, mount AFP, etc. Just not iTunes... hm
You were able to get iTunes sharing to work?

 

[ste6168]

I installed Hamachi on my home/work macs and it's all working... except for itunes. But I can remote pilot, mount AFP, etc. Just not iTunes... hm
You were able to get iTunes sharing to work?

YESSS!!!! at first it was really buggy between my mac and PC, but now i am running PC to PC, with the mac sort of hanging out not bringing any music to the table, and it seems to be working fine... At first I was connected and everything and could see the other computers connected, but itunes was not shared. I restarted iTunes and it took a bit to come up, but everntually did. Now it is almost automatic... Hope you get it working

 

[giulio]

Nah I cant get the macs to share each other's itunes.

mini and XP are on a real lan, actually both on the same switch. so it's a no brainer that itunes is sharing between the two.
But imac is at a remote location. I can mount shares, remote pilot, etc. But all that is done by explicitely typing in the 5.IP address.
So I think the problem is that bonjour only broadcasts on the 192.network (or the first network), ignoreing the Himachi 5.network.
Bummer.

Can you try to share your mac itunes and play it on the PC? And if it works, can you reply with how you set yours up?

 

[ste6168]

Nah I cant get the macs to share each other's itunes.

mini and XP are on a real lan, actually both on the same switch. so it's a no brainer that itunes is sharing between the two.
But imac is at a remote location. I can mount shares, remote pilot, etc. But all that is done by explicitely typing in the 5.IP address.
So I think the problem is that bonjour only broadcasts on the 192.network (or the first network), ignoreing the Himachi 5.network.
Bummer.

Can you try to share your mac itunes and play it on the PC? And if it works, can you reply with how you set yours up?

yeah i can try that for you, give me a little bit though because i have no music on the mac at the moment (i will import a CD though). Also so we know for sure that its not streaming through my LAN or my wireless, I will connect to the neighbors for a moment... I will report back


edit*** actually I am trying it again no and for some reason i can see the other two computers in hamachi, but iTunes is not working. The two windows PC's share fine, but do not share unless hamachi is running. Wonder if there is something going on running hamachiX and normal himachi. I really would like to be able to figure this out.

 

[ste6168]

upon further examination, this system seems really buggy for some reason. This is my set up: An XP computer upstairs with two ethernet cards with internet sharing enabled. A crossover runs from this computer to a wireless router downstairs. Another XP computer downstairs which is plugged into the router, linksys BTW. Also I have my OSX laptop sitting next to the upstairs computer (for testing purposes ATM is connected to a neighbors unprotected wireless, normally use my own). Anway, because of the way my network is set up the two XP boxes normally cannot share music with each other, but now hamachi is running on both they are sharing great. For some reason though, my OSX powerbook can only see/connect to the upstairs computer, ignoring the downstairs XP computer. The upstairs XP computer can see and connect and share music with both, OSX powerbook and XP computer downstairs. The downstairs XP computer can see both, but can only connect to the XP computer upstairs. Really long winded I know, but i would love to get this working flawlessly. Let me know if you have any ideas...

 

[giulio]

Hamachi sets up a new network interface. to check that out, turn off hamachi and run ifconfig in terminal. Then run hamachi and run the command in terminal again. You'll see the extra network interface.
I think the problem is that mac osx only runs bonjour on the first interface, not both. So to connect to services, you have to type in the address manually, such as AFP://5.x.x.x or FTP://5.x.x.x

 

[PowerBookG4]

how did you install Hamachi onto your mac, I don't know my way around the command line.

 

[giulio]

The easiest way is with HamachiX - a graphical client. It does all the work for you.
http://hamachix.spaceants.net/

 

[XMARLTONX]

giulio,

Might I reccomend OurTunes?

 

[giulio]

I never heard of OurTunes. Looks like it's worth a shot, unless you have iTunes 7 installed.