You can see, there is a lot to decide when you are setting up media in your home today. Sure, most people just get a television and a cable box. That’s for the noobs, the low-tech crowd. I would love to be a part of the high-tech crowd, but that means more bank* then I have. Since I don’t have that kind of scratch**, I’ll have to be content with mid-tech solutions.

Before starting the job and implementing any technology, I must first decide what I want my home network to do. I would like my network to:

- serve music and movies files from a central location, not from individual files on individual machines (I guess this is a media server);
- allow my family to save and access their files from a central location simply;
- allow all my devices to see the internet and the network, either wirelessly or via Ethernet;
- back-up user data on and off-site, simply and without user intervention;
- allow remote access and maintenance (via internet from Studio B) when necessary.

I know that none of these tasks is impossible, but making certain that the system is low cost is paramount. I don’t want to purchase any more hardware, since I already own:

- Toshiba Laptop (Vista)
- Mini PC (Home built with XP)
- Gateway Laptop (Windows ME)
- Mac Mini (Leopard)
- Macbook (Leopard)
- 1TB External Hard Drive (USB)

The problems I forsee:
- multiple platforms (Mac and PC)
- multiple operating systems (ME, XP, Vista, Leopard)
- multiple novice users (wife and kids not really big on complicated network protocols and structures)
- no installed Ethernet (and I’m kicking myself for THAT!)

This is not a post of solutions. It’s not even a post of ideas. More than anything it’s a brain dump, so I can figure out next steps. Of course, if you have low-cost solutions, links to expert advice, or just feel like joining in the fun, go ahead and comment.

** “Scratch” is one I learned from my old band director. It’s safer for me to use than “bank” but pretty much labels me an old dude.