How to stream music from your home computer to your office

blackpearl · 02-03-2008, 12:44 PM

We will use a Winamp plugin called AjaxAMP to transform your computer into a streaming web server that you can access from any web browser from any where. This is how to do it:

1. Download AjaxAMP and install it into your Winamp's plugin directory. You should have Winamp installed on your PC, because this works only with Winamp. The installer will put a file gen_AjaxAMP.dll in the plugin directory. You can also download the file in a zip file, unzip it and copy the file into the Winamp's pluign directory.

2. To test whether it's correctly installed, launch Winamp but don't play it, keep it minimized. Now open a web browser and type http://127.0.0.1:5151 in the address bar. Winamp should start playing inside the browser.

Winamp playing inside Firefox

3. If you do have a static IP address then you can access Winamp from any place by replacing 127.0.0.1 with your IP address in Step 2. If you don't have a static IP address at your home you have to get your PC a domain name to access it from anywhere on the internet. To get a domain name go to No-IP.com and register an account. Click on Add Host and register a unique domain name.

4. Now download No-Ip's Dynamic Update Client (DUC) from their site and install it on your PC. The dynamic DNS update client will continually checks for IP address changes in the background and automatically update the DNS whenever it changes.

No-Ip's Dynamic Update Client

Your computer is now ready to stream music to anywhere on the Internet. Connect your PC to the Internet, launch No-Ip's DUC and keep it minimize in your system tray and launch Winamp. Turn off your monitor to save electric energy and leave for office. From your office PC, type the domain name you registered on no-ip followed by ":5151". Now play whichever song you like.

If you can't access your PC from the Internet you might be behind a firewall or your router might have blocked port 5151. In that case you might set the necessary permission in your firewall and forward port 5151 on your router. To learn how to port forward your router click here.

Source