It's been a while since I last posted on this topic.
As a quick reminder, I had setup an old PC as a NAS running Ubuntu 10.04 and used a Revo R3610 connected to the TV in the lounge to stream content. The Revo also had Ubuntu installed.
Still having heat issues in my main Office PC despite a good clean out; I suspect that my case and cooling fans are just not up to the task of keeping two SLI GPUs at the right temp! ;)
So what's changed??
Well I didnt bother with setting up a proxy or a VPN. I downloaded and installed Teamviewer (http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx) on the NAS and this gave me instant 'away from home' access.
I still had intermittent issues with Ubuntu though. My ability to resolve these issues without spending an evening on the Ubuntu forums also diminished as the glitches i had became more and more specific. The bottom line is that I have now removed all Ubuntu from my home! :X
Why? It is just too much of a learning curve and takes too much time to manage. Also, if anything went wrong whilst I was away with work, then my family had no chance of resolving it; my wife can barely manage to activate the TV never mind an Ubuntu Server!
I have given Ubuntu many 'go's' over the years but it never quite hits the spot; the apps just down step up to Windows apps and general setup and maintenance ALWAYS needs some terminal work - and i despise this; I dont expect to work in DOS for Windows so why should I in Ubuntu?? It is really only for the most basic user or the most advanced - just my opinion.
Anyway, with the latest version of XBMC for Win7, they have finally resolved HD playback, so I removed the dual boot and reset Win7 as the boot operating system. So far, XBMC has worked really well and not noticeably slower that Ubuntu.
I also ditched the NAS PC and instead invested in a QNAP TS-210 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/QNAP-TS-210-Server-iPhone-Streaming/dp/B002SD71FO). This is superb! I have two 500gb disks installed, setup to use RAID mirroring and so far it has worked really well. It uses Twonky (http://www.twonky.com/) as it's DLNA service, but i made sure I installed v6 from a QPKG ( a QNAP package file, used for installing custom apps).
We also received an XBOX360 at christmas so this can stream media from the QNAP too - although I am mystified why MS have deployed such a limited range of codec support and a basic media client - surely if they have embraced the XBMC project (or some flavour of it) they would have cleaned up in the home media player market; i just dont get it. I read a good article lately about how by restricting customers to some aspect of a web service actually encourages piracy; think Sky TV in pubs, where the landlord uses Greek TV to show football, or region coding on DVDs, or encryption on MP3 etc etc - the world is awash with companies who think that they can maximise £££ by reducing the service they deliver to customers....well maybe they do in the short term, but it is not a viable business model for the long term because the 'crowd' will always find a way around....perhaps if the US music industry had invested all those lawyers fees into a Spotify-type app years ago, they wouldnt have a problem now.......
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