This is what I have in mind: I sit in my office, open iTunes, which then plays songs that are stored on a hard drive that sits at home. But without using a desktop machine that actually streams the music.

Now, I'm not very literate in these things. What I thought might work, while staying affordable, is to get a Western Digital Mybook World Edition (WD's consumer NAS device), which has Ethernet connection and a so-called WD Anywhere Access thing. Then connect and mount this disk (maybe via smb?) from the internet and then let itunes reference all the tracks in my library to that mounted disk.

Would that work?

Alternatively, is there a solution that might work with my existing external USB drives by getting the latest Airport Extreme base station, to which I can connect USB HDs? But then how can I connect to these drives from the office?

what kind of computer do you use saint.panda? Mac or PC?

what kind of computer do you use saint.panda? Mac or PC?

Oh yeah, it's a recent Macbook

I might be a little confused here.

So basically you want to be able to access your iTunes library from your office without having the hard drive that has your music on it connected to a PC?

If so, then the Western Digital Mybook World Edition seems like it should work, considering they say that you can access it from anywhere, anytime with your computer being off.

I dont know the names, nor do I have one, but there are programs you can get (at least for windows) that allow you to basically log in to your home computer over the net, and view the desktop as it appears at your home computer. From there you can access files, etc. Obviously iTunes would have to be installed in both places, I'd imagine. I think the name is desktop mirror, or something similar. I think there is a monthly fee.

I might be a little confused here.

So basically you want to be able to access your iTunes library from your office without having the hard drive that has your music on it connected to a PC?

If so, then the Western Digital Mybook World Edition seems like it should work, considering they say that you can access it from anywhere, anytime with your computer being off.

Yeah, basically I just want to plug the hard drive into a Ethernet socket and access it via the internet. I was just wondering whether there's something like the standard approach to doing these kind of things.

I dont know the names, nor do I have one, but there are programs you can get (at least for windows) that allow you to basically log in to your home computer over the net, and view the desktop as it appears at your home computer. From there you can access files, etc. Obviously iTunes would have to be installed in both places, I'd imagine. I think the name is desktop mirror, or something similar. I think there is a monthly fee.

I think there is Remote Desktop for Mac but I only have a laptop, no other desktop computer.

Oh I see, you only have the one computer.

Hmmm...that I can't help you with. I can't imagine it working without some kind of NAS or something.

Yeah, basically I just want to plug the hard drive into a Ethernet socket and access it via the internet. I was just wondering whether there's something like the standard approach to doing these kind of things.

I think there is Remote Desktop for Mac but I only have a laptop, no other desktop computer.

The trick is that you'll either have your data out on the internet for anyone to access (and corrupt) or you can't access it. You could put a computer in the middle, but well, you don't have one . I'd suggest just having 2 hard drives that you mirror occassionally.

The trick is that you'll either have your data out on the internet for anyone to access (and corrupt) or you can't access it. You could put a computer in the middle, but well, you don't have one . I'd suggest just having 2 hard drives that you mirror occassionally.

It is not possible to password-protect the access to it somehow?

It is not possible to password-protect the access to it somehow?

Not in any kind of effective way. There is the option to password protect it with the airport extreme or time capsule, but I highly doubt it's secure. Also, it's fairly rare to have reasonable upstream bandwidth from home, so your listening experience will be lousy.

Ok, makes sense. Thanks.

And I just read on WD's website that sharing doesn't work for certain file types, including music and movies, great. Would have been really cool though.

I'd say just get a cheap refurb from Microcenter for US$299, and use it as a firewall.

Ok, makes sense. Thanks.

And I just read on WD's website that sharing doesn't work for certain file types, including music and movies, great. Would have been really cool though.

That is correct. I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy one of those drives.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/07/western_digital_drm_crippled_harddrive/

This would be a royal pita to do often, but you could consider using MOZY online backup, and doing a simple 'web restore' on your computer at work, downloading a specific album you wanted to hear that day, then playing it. You'd just have to have your hard drive connected to a computer to do the initial upload. You'd probably want to bring the drive to work for that part. A benefit to this obviously is offsite backup, incase your hard drive goes kaput. MOZY uses 448 bit 'blowfish' encryption, so its as secure as its ever going to be online.

I've tried this at my office (the web restore part, not the playback part) and it works (even if my home computer is connected at the same time).

Probably not your best bet, but its relatively cheap and I think its full of ass kickery.

That is correct. I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy one of those drives.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/07/western_digital_drm_crippled_harddrive/

WD can go straight to hell.