Since I have a lot of networked devices floating around the house, I think that it would be good to integrate them:
- LANDisk NAS storage
- Roku Soundbridge Internet radio
- Dreambox 500s (Linux) Satellite receiver
- Old PC in loft
Conceptually, the old PC will act as a server, delivering music content to the Soundbridge and video to the Dreambox. The content will be stored both locally and on the NAS.
Some of the videos will require conversion to MPEG-2 as the Dreambox has a very small processor.
The Soundbridge is connected to the stereo, which is in a different part of the living room to the TV (and with wooden floors, cabling is not an option), so it would be a real bonus if the video content could have its sound delivered separately.
Design
How do you design a network on Linux ? A very short search (via SearchMarked.com ) put me onto OpenOffice.org's Draw application (already installed on Ubuntu), and Mark Lautman's helpful Open Office shapes repository. A bit more googling brought me the Cisco templates (this is where I got the clouds from).
In Draw, choose Extension Manager from the Tools menu to import the Cisco Templates.
Choose Gallery from the Tools menu to see the new objects - the interface is a bit clunky, so I found myself toggling the gallery so that it was only visible when I really needed it.
Resizing the Cisco clouds leads to quite unpredictable results, but perseverance pays off.
Mark Lautman's shapes are a bit easier to use - just open the document and use copy/paste to import the shape into your document.
A few minutes later and an export to JPEG... voila:
The PC in the loft is already running Ubuntu 10.04 and serving weather forecasts to the Soundbridge, so the first stage will be to set up a media server.Building a home entertainment network:
- Designing a Network with Linux
- Installing Firefly Media Server
- Turning a PC into a Wireless Access Point pt I
- Turning a PC into a Wireless Access Point pt II
- Serving Video on Demand to a Dreambox
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