Monday, August 01, 2011

Streaming your music at home on the cheap… Using IIS to stream your music to your Windows Phone 7 (or iPhone/Android)

IIS Workstation - How do I listen to songs from my laptop on my Windows Phone 7?

“I have about 6 GB of audio collection saved under folder ("Songs") on my machine. I never felt it practical to sync my entire collection, however, every now and then I would miss listening to a song I hadn't synced yet ... so I had to find a solution to this problem... The answer to the above question is fairly simple - I used IIS
3 things I am using for this setup to work are: My laptop, Windows Phone 7 Device and a wireless router.
The laptop and HTC HD 7 are using the linksys router for obtaining an IP. Therefore they are pingable to each other. Once you confirm the ping, install IIS on your laptop or desktop machine in case you dont have it installed already. once IIS is installed, do the following:

Well, that's about it. You can now browse your website by opening up IE on WP 7 and accessing your machine IP address. Following are a few things you should know about what kind of files you can place in this folder as not all files that play on your machine will play on your windows phone 7.
a. MP3 will be streamed automatically from your machine to your windows phone 7 device. There is nothing you have to do to make this work.
b. WMV will be streamed by default as well. For details, check: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff462087(v=VS.92).aspx
c. You are not using any dynamic technology here. You are *NOT* using silverlight or Flash. Therefore, your MP3 files will work perfectly on an iPhone or an Android device as well.
d. If you want to make the page look good, you can download various custom directory browsing modules available on the internet.
e. This setup will of course work only in your home network
…”
The geek level, yet its simplicity, is cool.
Please note that you should do this with care and caution. You don’t want to do this on a notebook you travel with, etc.

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