Installing the Squeezebox Server on the MediaSmart Server

PHOENIX, AZ – August 20, 2014 – Channel Master, the nation’s leading manufacturer of broadcast reception products since... more
PR release PHOENIX, AZ – July 9, 2014
Furthering its TV Freedom™ initiative for consumers, Channel Master announced today the launch of a new DVR+ model that includes a 1TB... more
I recently decided to give the Squeezebox Server on my MediaSmart EX495. If you are not familiar with any of the Squeezebox products, they are worth looking at if you'd like to have a device that can connect to your stereo and your network, and play your audio files from a centralized file repository. Squeeze products... more
So, today I decided it was time to add a few drives to my EX495, just to see how it easy it was, expand the capacity, and more importantly, ensure that I had some redundancy in the case of a drive failure.
After doing a bit or reading, I came to the realization that the MediaSmart Server does not use... more
As I mentioned in my 2nd article (Part 2 of Setting IUp my MediaSmart EX495), one other aspect of getting rid of the "network critical" warning on my Home Server Console dashboard was to enable remote access. As I said before,
Enabling the Web Services was easy enough. It was a bit of a magical experience,... more
I was nervous about setting up my EX495. I've built a lot of computers and even deployed some servers without keyboards and monitors, but I've never actually worked with a Windows box designed to function without a monitor and keyboard. I was certain it would all work, and I'm no stranger to accessing systems over a network, but it still wasn't clear to me how it would all work. I guess it was time to simply suspend disbelief and follow the instructions.
I unpacked my MediaSmart EX495 carefully and just took it all in. My first realization was that the system was much smaller than I thought it would be. From the photos, it just looks like a standard tower PC, and it is... but it is a mini-tower and quite small. At about 5 1/2 inches wide, 9 inches high, and 8 inches deep, I knew it would fit comfortably on a shelf in my office, and would look great, too.