I'm not looking for anything too fancy or expensive. My current setup has been working fine for some time, but I'm starting to see where I may need a dedicated server for iTunes maybe? Looking for advice. My problem is that it seem more and more that when we go to watch a local movie we get the home sharing not enabled screen. Usually the fix is the reboot my Windows 7 machine. Not to hard, but the wife is not fond.

I do notice that usually when I hop on my system that there is a iTunes has stopped working Windows message. Usually closing iTunes and restarting does not fix at this point.

I have to reboot the system. My Setup Windows 7 64BIT w/ 2TB Internal Drive connected over ether to Airport Extreme Router iTunes (latest build) Backups to 3TB External drive using sync software nightly. I rotate them off-site every so often. ATV's connect over Wifi (N) Should I look at getting a mac mini? Other thoughts?

I use a Mac Mini connected to a RAID 6 disk array. I use it for several things: 1: iTunes library 2: iPhoto library 3: Home automation server 4: Time Machine backup server This disk gets copied once a week or so and the copies taken off-site.

I have another copy that gets updated every six months or so that is kept over hundred miles away. This is mostly for the iPhoto library that I really do not want to lose. The only issue I've ever had with the system is when updating various IOS Devices(iPhones, iPads) over Wi-Fi I sometimes have to restart iTunes to get them to connect. The Apple TVs have never had an issue.

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Yeah I just couldn't justify spending $$$ on a home server either. I really wanted a used mini for one, and that might still happen eventually, but a few months ago my work was allowing IT employees to go home with retired HP workstations that are very small form factor; I just tossed a 2TB drive into it and it functions great as the latest iteration of my home server. I've had an old laptop with a broken screen (with an external USB 2.0 drive) as a home server, a desktop tower as a home server, and now the little HP box.

Even more so if multiple Macs will be using this server as a backup destination. That's it, your Mac is ready! How to configure the Server app as a Time Machine server. Once the Server App is installed, it needs to be configured. For use as a Time Machine server the setup is a breeze. On each of the Macs you want to back up, open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, click Select Disk, and you'll see that the Mac automatically shows you the Time Machine disk on the server. Select it, and your backups will go to the server. I've got a Mac laptop and a Windows desktop, and my Windows desktop has a mighty large hard drive begging to be used for my Time Machine backups. Here's how to set it up.

You really don't need just a whole lot of horsepower to run a media server. I'm running Windows 7 (and iTunes of course) on it and seldom have an issue. Only time there's ever a problem is if it gets rebooted: while I do have iTunes set to start automatically, the machine knows the speaker port is not plugged in and so it tosses a 'there's a problem with your audio setup' warning that has to be acknowledged before iTunes actually launches.

So it's a quick RDC session each time the box is bounced, which is seldom. (I had it auto updating once a week but even disabled that due to this annoyance, now I just update it manually every couple of weeks.) I could plug the PC into my receiver or even some old headphones into it to alleviate it, I just haven't cause. Odd that you're having the iTunes crashing issue. Maybe a reformat is in order.

I've had up to 5 different streams off the server at a time and never once had any sort of hiccup performance-wise, despite it being 1 drive (and a WD 'green' one at that) over 802.11N (the server is wired, but the clients are all wireless. And since the only thing the server is running is the OS, iTunes, and MS security essentials, there's not much to trip it up. If you could pick up a used Mac Mini, as suggested, then that's a very viable option. If Apple came out with a Linux iTunes client (or server) I'd run Linux on the home server box.: As for a backup, I built an identical machine for my in-laws and put all the same content onto it. Whenever I add to mine, I take new stuff over there and update their box. If I ever lose my box, I know where to go to get it all back.