windows network
How To Setup Xbox 360 Media Player ‘Ecosystem’ Guide: Part One
December 23, 2009
As promised in my How To Setup Xbox 360 Media Player Guide teaser, with this help of this guide you should be able to stream everything. Play anything. Hundreds of HD movies. Thousands of songs. No DVDs, no DRM, no getting up from the sofa. No need for your PC to even be on and above all, no fruit! I told you I’d show you how to do it, so here it is. From scratch.
Part One: Infrastructure and Software
I recommend that you follow this guide with a clean installation of Windows 7 on a modern, Intel, dual-core or better native PC (ie. Not VM or Boot Camp), with at least 2GB of RAM, an internal SATA HDD, wired Ethernet and USB2 onboard.
Continue reading »A Complete Xbox 360 Media Player ‘Ecosystem’ Guide (Teaser)
October 13, 2009
Stream everything. Play anything. Hundreds of HD movies. Thousands of songs. No DVDs, no DRM, no getting up from the sofa. No need for your PC to even be on and above all, no fruit.
For a simple, straightforward process for everyone to accomplish this and so much more with reliable ease, The Average Windows Nerd presents “Xbox 360 – A Complete Ecosystem Guide”, a practical and detailed step by step guide to making your Xbox 360 the media hub of your Windows 7 – networked Home, just like I did for “how to play iTunes H264 movie files on the Xbox 360“.
Continue reading »iTunes 9: So What?!?! – Part Two: Steal, Innovate, Repeat!
October 4, 2009
It’s Bill time again! (it’s always Bill O’clock in my house). I think Bill’s expression here, is a combination of shame and lust. Anyway, on with the whinging about Apple…
I always take delight in posing this quesstion to Mac Monks: “Well if OSX is so reliable and fantastic, where are all the Apple servers then!?” Exactly. There’s only one word in networking, and that word is Windows.
In part one of my iTunes 9 review, I told you how rubbish media sharing was in iTunes 9 and I told you why, but you know what? It doesn’t even matter. iTunes is a great audio manager and a competent audio streamer, but it’s no media-hub. Windows, however, is.
Practical sharing in Windows is so simple, I can cover it a paragraph. Here we go then…
Continue reading »iTunes 9 Review: So What?!?!
September 27, 2009
What can I say to follow up on my iTunes 9 teaser? Well, the scary doll from SAW said:
“Ringtones at a breakthrough price of $1.29” “We’ve bumped podcasts over and given the slot to ringtones”
Because that’s what everyone wants isn’t it? Not free, informative podcasts, oh no. Fucking shitty 30 second ringtones that cost more than the whole song, that’s what we want! – Assholes.
Continue reading »Windows 7 RC Essentials: Getting Started Guide – Part 3
June 15, 2009
You’ve read and followed part 1 and part 2 of my Windows 7 RC essentials guide to getting started with Microsoft’s latest operating system, so now here’s the 3rd and final part!
Part Three: Explore and Connect
So after your lightning-fast install of Win 7, it’s all gravy, right? Well.. no. Windows 7 contains this fuck-nut called HomeGroup. I’ve commented before on how simple and universal the HomeGroup networking infrastructure is with the X-Box, and that’s certainly true here. Unfortunately, it seems to absolutely disrupt network connectivity with anything that isn’t Windows 7 (such as Vista). I’m on a Windows Server 2003 Domain, so file sharing worked for me, but network printing didn’t.
Continue reading »The Digital Nomad: A Full Time Job – Part Two
January 27, 2009
I’m afraid it’s been a while since The Digital Nomad: A Full Time Job – Part One, so let me just re-cap…I wanted to “live the dream” of the Microsoft House, so to speak, and stream media all over the house, specifically video. As I found out, It really doesn’t work that easily in the real world, and after I was done complaining about Microsoft, I was about to tell you why.
I’m going to assume that you’re using a PC for all these shenanigans, because at least 92% of you are. If you are an 8% Mac user, please don’t respond in the comments section about how much easier all of this is on a Mac, because it isn’t (in fact, it’s worse), and because it doesn’t apply to most people, no-one really cares about what you think. This article does discuss Windows, but it isn’t about Windows. It’s about standards. It’s not my fault that you may be using Betamax. Now then, where’s my soap box…
Continue reading »The Digital Nomad: A Full Time Job – Part One
December 26, 2008
The reality of the “Microsoft House”
My goal in this whole endeavour was deceptively simple. I wanted to centrally store my media and share it across my home network to my various PCs and mobile devices. If you believe the hype, this should be simple, but of course, it’s not. The purpose of this article is to give a true and reasonable account of what it’s actually like to try and “live the dream” of the ideals set out in the “Microsoft House” and why it’s not what we all have in our homes, unlike Microwaves, DVD players and yes, iPods.
The recently banned iPhone ads (Apple are liars, but we all knew that) are a great example of what should happen, contrasted with what actually happens.
Continue reading »How To Play Apple iTunes H.264 Movie Files On Xbox 360
November 9, 2008
There’s always been something a little “hit and miss” about Microsoft Workgroup Networking. If the tides are right, if the lunar cycle is correct and you’re wearing compatible trousers, Workgroup networking might just work. This is why I run a Windows Server Domain at home and aside from the f*cking Mac (not mine, my dad’s), it’s reliable and flawless.
The Xbox 360 doesn’t recognize Domains, so it’s back to the wiji-board world of Workgroup networking! This is not a universal guide and is presented “as is”. I do not guarantee that this will work for you, however all steps outlined here are innocuous and entirely reversible, so you’ve nothing to lose by giving it a go. I set this up with Vista Ultimate, but I believe it will also work with Vista Home Premium and XP MCE 2005, or indeed anything that works with the latest revision of Media Centre Extender devices. If doesn’t work, feel free not to email me about it. Also, this is a power-user guide. I assume you know the fundamentals of Windows, Windows Media Player and basic Windows networking. Here we go…
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