Question about streaming your own music

[HiFiRebel]

Your QNAP might have a security advisor app or something similar. Running it will let you know problem areas, like the admin account, enabled guest account, default ports, outdated apps, etc. I changed and disabled all that default stuff on my Synology and router. Now I only use my VPN for... stuff.

I think it does, because I get regular email notifications about it not being ran in X number of days <facepalm>

It looks I need to do a bit of work on my NAS this weekend.

Cool, will be interested to hear what you find out


Ok, first of all, the security of the admin access and the streaming are most likely two separate issues.

I'm pretty intolerant of setups that lack security/privacy, I have a related day-job. I don't know of anything I would trust except for an SSH tunnel with at least 4K RSA keys (I don't trust elliptic curve ciphers and I can't spell them either ) blah blah blah because of this I use some flavor of UNIX for any server duties.

For Windows, I think it's pretty hard to secure anything unless you like hurting yourself, a (good) VPN is about all you can do. It should not add significant latency if you host your own VPN. What adds latency is if you use a 3rd party VPN since that's another n number of hops on to the way to the VPN and back for both the client (app) and server.



You can host your own VPN on Windows. I have used the built-in client, I am not aware if there is a server option that comes with Windows. But something like OpenVPN should be available and you should be able to set up a client using the built in VPN support on a modern phone.

This is not my area, so I would recommend making friends with the network guy(s) at your work (unless you're a butcher, baker, or candlestick maker with no "IT Dept." Those guys have to know a lot about not getting the company boxes compromised. Some of it is done with expensive hardware but they should understand enough to figure out how to do it in a home setup.

Yes, I'm on Windows. Windows 11 pro.

I don't host my own VPN. I didn't even know I could do that. I pay for a good 3rd party VPN service and use their app to connect. It takes away a small chunk of speed (I have a 700MB fibre connection), but ping jumps from my regular 5 to around 20-25.

As for IT dept. I'm my own boss, so you are talking to the IT department now

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I don't host my own VPN. I didn't even know I could do that. I pay for a good 3rd party VPN service and use their app to connect. It takes away a small chunk of speed (I have a 700MB fibre connection), but ping jumps from my regular 5 to around 20-25.

As for IT dept. I'm my own boss, so you are talking to the IT department now

So you have nobody yourself to blame

Anyway, be careful. It's an ugly world out there and among the sophisticated attackers who go where the money is, there are still a lot of piss-ant criminal "script kiddies" who download scripts from various malevolent sites and then go fishing. Those scripts are good enough, and computers are fast enough, to crack userid/password setups.

 

[HiFiRebel]

So you have nobody yourself to blame

Anyway, be careful. It's an ugly world out there and among the sophisticated attackers who go where the money is, there are still a lot of piss-ant criminal "script kiddies" who download scripts from various malevolent sites and then go fishing. Those scripts are good enough, and computers are fast enough, to crack userid/password setups.

Thank you! Yes, nobody else to blame but myself

I try to be security and privacy minded, but it's not easy these days. It all changes so quickly and I'm a busy guy. Hard to follow it all. They find more and more sophisticated methods of spying and hacking and we, as end users, don't really get better and better tools to defend ourselves. I have a firewall, antivirus software, but I have a feeling it's all 1990s technology compared to what a good hacker has available to them. Not to mention the gigantic scale of spying by governments and tech companies.

But I digress.

I will try to research NAS security subject a bit more. It will give me a break from watching headphone / amp / dac / streamer reviews Thankfully I can watch reviews while working, so that's a bonus

 

[msing539]

It will give me a break from watching headphone / amp / dac / streamer reviews

That's good, some of this stuff will rot your brain.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

That's good, some of this stuff will rot your brain.

Yeah, I don't watch any audio reviews at all.

 

[msing539]

Yeah, I don't watch any audio reviews at all.

I like Passion for Sound, Hans when I feel like going to sleep, and our boy Currawong... but if you type his name three times, he appears and likes your comment.

 

[HiFiRebel]

Ha! I only watch audio reviews when trying to spend my hard earned on a new gear. I had a long break from buying audio equipment as I was (and still am) very happy with my current audio setup. I just got the upgrade itch a little bit after a few years of not buying any audio gear, so here I am back in audio world until I buy something expensive and disappear for another few years to enjoy it.

There are a couple of useful reviewers on YT, but I agree most of is just time wasting click bait.

I just watched Hans' Eversolo streamer review and it helped me understand what the streamer is capable of. It was packed with useful information. I have watched a few others too, but all I learned from them was 'I like this' / 'I don't like this', etc.

 

[HiFiRebel]

Back from the gym.

Couple of things I noticed. The system is having a fit when I try playing flac's. I fired up an album in flac and it was a terrible experience. Start, stop, start, stop. 2 seconds of playback, 10 seconds of silence, repeat. It took me 15 minutes to listen to one 5 min song.

No such problems with mp3's however. It works great with mp3. It's just like having a dedicated player in my pocket. No dropouts, playback if butter smooth, gap between tracks is 1 second. Brilliant. Navigation also seems faster when I go around mp3 folders (might be a placebo though).

As soon as I try playing flac's - a stuttery mess.

Also since I have two SIM's in my phone and two data plans, I just pick one that has better signal at my gym and that worked great today.

So I'm happy I have it working and can listen to music. Unhappy about flac situation. Many of my albums are in flac.

 

[piakoB]

Plex Server and Plex AMP are not that hard to get running. You can run the server on a NAS or a PC. Log into your Plex account and add libraries pointing to the music folder location(s). Plex will need to index everything which takes some time. Then download Plex amp for you phone and log in and your libraries should be there. I forget whether the phone app solely relies on tags and metadata or whether or not you can browse files and folders. The nice thing about Plex is it works either with or without a subscription and Roon maybe more cumbersome for you to setup. Roon is also a subscription service and requires a server (what they call a “core” device and your in-home controller / endpoint). Roon ARC is their mobile solution. You could experiment with both Plex and Roon and find which one you like better.

 

[HiFiRebel]

Plex Server and Plex AMP are not that hard to get running. You can run the server on a NAS or a PC. Log into your Plex account and add libraries pointing to the music folder location(s). Plex will need to index everything which takes some time. Then download Plex amp for you phone and log in and your libraries should be there. I forget whether the phone app solely relies on tags and metadata or whether or not you can browse files and folders. The nice thing about Plex is it works either with or without a subscription and Roon maybe more cumbersome for you to setup. Roon is also a subscription service and requires a server (what they call a “core” device and your in-home controller / endpoint). Roon ARC is their mobile solution. You could experiment with both Plex and Roon and find which one you like better.

Thank you!

I'm in the process of setting up Plex... well, I have it mostly running. It just takes forever to scan my library and there are so many mismatches (I have some obscure old stuff there) that it will take me hours to manually edit and match metadata. But so far so good. I have Plex Media Server setup. I have Plexamp app on my phone. I can see music on my phone. There is some kind of network error and it tells me I won't be able to access remotely, but before I attempt to fix that I want it to finish indexing my files (it has been quite a few hours already).

If Plex is not to my liking I'll check Roon. I have watched a couple of videos on YT about Roon, so I have a vague idea what it can do and how it looks. It's interesting but also quite expensive. I'll wait and see what I think about Plex first. So far I like what I see. It's so strange to see some of the artists. I have listened to their music, but never seen a photo of some of them (quite a few of them actually)

 

[msing539]

Thank you!

I'm in the process of setting up Plex... well, I have it mostly running. It just takes forever to scan my library and there are so many mismatches (I have some obscure old stuff there) that it will take me hours to manually edit and match metadata. But so far so good. I have Plex Media Server setup. I have Plexamp app on my phone. I can see music on my phone. There is some kind of network error and it tells me I won't be able to access remotely, but before I attempt to fix that I want it to finish indexing my files (it has been quite a few hours already).

If Plex is not to my liking I'll check Roon. I have watched a couple of videos on YT about Roon, so I have a vague idea what it can do and how it looks. It's interesting but also quite expensive. I'll wait and see what I think about Plex first. So far I like what I see. It's so strange to see some of the artists. I have listened to their music, but never seen a photo of some of them (quite a few of them actually)

I would put like 100 songs in a separate folder, let it index that, and see if you like the playback functionality when on the go. Before spending the time indexing and renaming on something that might not work the way you want.

 

[HiFiRebel]

I would put like 100 songs in a separate folder, let it index that, and see if you like the playback functionality when on the go. Before spending the time indexing and renaming on something that might not work the way you want.

Good idea! I wish I thought about that earlier. It's mostly done though. A few more random tracks / mixes / albums here are there. I'll continue tomorrow

 

[HiFiRebel]

For those that use Plex. I think I have everything working. I mean it plays music on my phone, I haven't tried outside the house yet.

But I have one problem and I'm not sure if that's a feature or a bug. When I try to play music directly from Plex Media Server in my Firefox browser, the player starts for a second, I can see it showing up at the bottom of the browse, but it immediately disappears and no music is playing. Not even for a second. Should I be able to play music from Plex Media Server or would it only play from an app, like Plexamp?

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Thank you!

I'm in the process of setting up Plex... well, I have it mostly running. It just takes forever to scan my library and there are so many mismatches (I have some obscure old stuff there) that it will take me hours to manually edit and match metadata. But so far so good. I have Plex Media Server setup. I have Plexamp app on my phone. I can see music on my phone. There is some kind of network error and it tells me I won't be able to access remotely, but before I attempt to fix that I want it to finish indexing my files (it has been quite a few hours already).

If Plex is not to my liking I'll check Roon. I have watched a couple of videos on YT about Roon, so I have a vague idea what it can do and how it looks. It's interesting but also quite expensive. I'll wait and see what I think about Plex first. So far I like what I see. It's so strange to see some of the artists. I have listened to their music, but never seen a photo of some of them (quite a few of them actually)

Roon will not work with untagged files.

For those that use Plex. I think I have everything working. I mean it plays music on my phone, I haven't tried outside the house yet.

But I have one problem and I'm not sure if that's a feature or a bug. When I try to play music directly from Plex Media Server in my Firefox browser, the player starts for a second, I can see it showing up at the bottom of the browse, but it immediately disappears and no music is playing. Not even for a second. Should I be able to play music from Plex Media Server or would it only play from an app, like Plexamp?

I don't know, but usually you have to have some filetype association so Firefox knows what to do with the stream.

 

[HiFiRebel]

Roon will not work with untagged files.


I don't know, but usually you have to have some filetype association so Firefox knows what to do with the stream.

I got it to work. It was Firefox blocking the player.

I'm not sure I'll be using it while I'm on my computer though. I have Foobar2000 set up just as I like and it is set up as WASAPI event, so what's the point using Plex for when I'm at home.

The only cool thing is that Plex makes 'radio stations'. So I can select music genre I want to listen to and it will shuffle tracks just in this genre / style. That's cool.

I think Plex's free account is enough for me. I don't see much benefits of paid membership. I'm not interested in downloading music to my phone.

I've not tested it outside yet. Very busy weekend. Lots of work. Tomorrow I'll be going to the gym, so I'll test it then.