[mikecole]

Does anybody have a problem with Squeezebox Server tying up their PC? When I run this, my mouse does not react well. Sometimes I have to click on something 3 or 4 times before the mouse click registers. In addition, surfing the net seems to slow down also. The CPU is loafing along at 3-5% so I am assuming it must be IO tying things up. Does anybody else have this problem?
 
I am probably going to build a music server from my wife's old PC. My plan was to put it next to my stereo and run a network cable from the PC to the Touch. The Touch would use the PC link to play music from the hard drive and use my current wireless link from the router for access to squeezebox.com for Internet Radio, Pandora etc. The advantage would be not having  the streaming music tie up my PC and the network. Will this work? Does the Squeezebox Server running on the PC need access to the Internet or does it run standalone? I would most likely have a wireless adapter on the PC which I would enable if I need to download music to the PC or get updates for the Squeezebox server or do backups from the PCs in the house.

[Phil A]

Don't have a problem like that.  It takes a bit for the PC to boot up with Squeezebox Server (I have a 5-6 year old Dell XPS down in the basement which is my current back-up PC and it has 3G of RAM).  I am not sure I am following what you are saying?  I stream music and internet radio (my Touch is connected to the network wired) and it does not tie up anything.  I have a Pioneer 1120 in the office system which is connected to the network and I can play the Touch too at the same time without tying up anything.  I plan on getting a newer PC soon (I use a MAC G5 Tower for now) and have it a bit more dedicated to store digitized music.  Both my MAC and Dell are about the same age.

[eclein]

mike-I think your idea is sound, but the PC running the server software probably needs internet access because it will need to stream Pandora and other stuff you may have listed.
I'm going to eventually do the same thing, a separate PC or more likely a Vortexbox appliance and just let all my music and DVD's be on a separate system, makes sense to me. I don't currently use any of the streaming radio stations etc..at this point in time so I'm not 100% sure but it would have to I think have internet access.

I know the Vortexbox appliances (which is kind of what we are creating) have web access to import tagging info for CD's and DVD's......some other folks here will know.

[lcrim]

There needs to be an internet connection the first time through for set up.  The Touch needs to see the local server and local music database.  The other part of this is that the Touch needs to register w/ my Squeezebox.com and it needs to download its firmware.  You can't use internet radio w/o an internet connection after that and you can't update firmware.
Putting the music server in the listening environment serves no useful purpose. The noise generated by hard drives is a real concern.  That server is better off out of the way.  The idea is that you have a networked device that serves up music.  The same music files can be used w/ other playback devices as one becomes more knowledgeable about the subject.
A dedicated but low level PC in terms of its up to date ness is fine.  It doesn't need a gigabyte network card.  It doesn't require an i7 processor, the latest front and side bus speeds are not needed.  On the other hand as the OP pointed out, Squeezebox server needs more processor and ram than many of the NAS boxes have.  Appropriate technology.  If you don't consider the future, claiming I don't use internet radio and such, you will be sorry when developments come along and you have to start from scratch again.  The trend towards getting music from the internet is still in its infancy.

[mikecole]

I guess I did not explain myself too well. The PC I would build would have a wired network card and a wireless network card. I would use the wireless card to access the Internet when I needed to download software or music to the PC. I would disable that card and use the wired network card to allow the Touch to access my music on the hard drive. I have a router that the Touch can access wirelessly. The Touch should be able to access internet radio staions, Pandora etc. via the wireless connection. I wanted to know if I could hook up a network cable from the PC to the Touch AND have the Touch be able to use its wirelss cababilites at the same time.
The computer would ideally be placed in the loft where the router is hidden, but my wife does not want a computer sitting amidst the furniture in there.
I have no idea why my mouse acts up when I have the SB server running, but it drives me crazy. That is reason enough to have a separate music server. The Vortexbox or at leastr the software had occurred to me. Does anybody knows what it uses to rip CDs to FLAC?

[lcrim]

The Touch can make a wired or wireless conection but not at the same time.  The firmware would require a reconfiguration each time the method of connectivity changed.  TouchToolbar2.0 can disable the wlan card but then it reboots leaving only the ethernet card working.  By holding down the power button you can put it back to factory specs (both cards) but that requires reinstalling the TouchToolbar2.0 each time.
Essentially, you can do what you want but it will be a bit clumsy, and you sure will learn how to configure the Touch.
The mouse issues are probably caused by SqueezeBox Server utilizing the resources on the PC.  Moving SBS to another PC will resolve that.  Vortex Box is an OS, not an app, it will take over and its Linux, are you ready for that?

Larry