Well this is my first post for connecteddigitalworld.com and I thought what better way to start than write a review for a fantastic piece of software. I’m a home server owner and use it as storage for lots of films, music, files etc. and love how easy it is to access them from anywhere in the world with practically any device. But I also feel that home server is lacking in the area of media streaming, either through a browser or to a mobile device.
This is where subsonic comes in. It’s an application which can be installed on all three major operating systems (windows, mac and Linux) that allows access to your whole media collection (originally just music but now supports video) through a browser, desktop app or mobile device. I tend to use it mainly at work, to listen to music or podcasts, but I’ve also used it at friends houses to listen to a new CD.
The installation of the software is probably one of the easier tasks I’ve come across. The first step is to download the software from the Subsonic Website. As the software is open source and distributed under GPL, its free to use. For this review I’m using the 4.4 beta 1 version of the software and as the installation asks no questions (apart from installation directory), I will skip that part and link straight to the software itself. During install, it automatically registers itself as a service, so that’s one less thing to worry about. As I’m using this on windows home server, I need to modify the default port so it doesn’t stop the home server website from working. This is done by opening the control panel in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.
From here, select the setting tab.
And then change the default port from port 80. I’ve selected port 8080 as I know its not used by any other software on my server and that’s probably the same for you too.
From here, the next set is to set up the software. This is all done in the browser. Navigate to http://localhost:8080 (or which ever port you chose)
On the welcome page the next step is to change the admin password, set up the music folders and also create your own personal ***.subsonic.org domain.
The user section is very easy to configure, which means you could set up as many user accounts as you need (I have yet to find an actual limit on the amount of users one server can have). Different rights can be given to each user, as shown below.
Thanks Jay – I'll give this ago myself!
Thanks. WIll try this today. How does this compare to Webguide and Twonky ?
Hi Shri,
It’s very similar to webguide but it can be tweaked to play nearly any file type.
Twonky works as a DLNA cserver, allowing DLNA compatable devices to stream music from your server, e.g. PS3, DLNA TV etc. Subsonic does not have that functionality so would have to be in conjunction with twonky.
Hello Dude,
You have provided very good site about streaming software. This software can be used to listen to streaming audio as well as serve streaming audio in various file formats. Thanks a lot…