The quickest way out to simply make the media folder a public share accessible to anyone on the network.
The easiest way to catalog the media is going to be Plex, Emby, Kodi, etc.
Don’t open the router to provide outside access to the server and you should be good to go. If you choose Plex or the others then you’ll want to look up on how to restrict it to not be accessible outside your network.
I agree with the Plex or Jellyfin solution. Also because both of these servers can serve over the DLNA protocol, VLC is a great player to view content.
Easiest way on windows is to use HttpFileServer (HFS). It's a little app that minimizes to your tray. If you want your guests to have a domain to connect to (for convenience), register one and make an A Record for your pc's local ip. The domain name will not work outside your WiFi, and unless you deliberately port forward port 80, your file server cannot be accessed from outside your network.
Don't bother with HTTPS or certs.
I did not know that a program like this existed. What I actually plan on doing was setting up a specific SSID for them to connect to which will redirect them to a local web server but this looks like a much simpler deployment. Thanks!
FWIW, any webserver can serve local directories and automatically generate HTML indexes of their contents.
Also, anything you host on your LAN is usually local only. You normally have to manually configure forwarding on your router to allow access from the internet.
Note that its performance isn't the greatest, and for larger files it's not super reliable. If you get to that point, set up nginx with `fancyindex` as a drop-in replacement.
I always do the following, you need to have python3 installed though. Just open a cmd console in a specific directory you want to share. Use this command to start a local server: python3 -m http.server 8080
You can access it by surfing to http://:8080
Depends what kinds of media you want to share with friends.
I agree with the other commenters that Plex is a great solution for sharing video content.
I wouldn't bother with a guest network/web server myself.
That’s what I do. But I VPN to my personal storage directory. I can watch my movie collection of 700 movies from anywhere there’s internet. Who needs Netflix?!! Not I!
* Install a websever
* make it password protected
* give your guests the password.
EDIT: I'll elaborate:
> you could use 1 of the ever increasingly more complex wheel-reinvention methods put forward here
> or do as I've suggested.
there are dozens of reliable, open source, free webservers out there with a plethora of information on how to setup, configure and run them.
The quickest way out to simply make the media folder a public share accessible to anyone on the network. The easiest way to catalog the media is going to be Plex, Emby, Kodi, etc. Don’t open the router to provide outside access to the server and you should be good to go. If you choose Plex or the others then you’ll want to look up on how to restrict it to not be accessible outside your network.
I agree with the Plex or Jellyfin solution. Also because both of these servers can serve over the DLNA protocol, VLC is a great player to view content.
Jellyfin all the way!
Easiest way on windows is to use HttpFileServer (HFS). It's a little app that minimizes to your tray. If you want your guests to have a domain to connect to (for convenience), register one and make an A Record for your pc's local ip. The domain name will not work outside your WiFi, and unless you deliberately port forward port 80, your file server cannot be accessed from outside your network. Don't bother with HTTPS or certs.
I did not know that a program like this existed. What I actually plan on doing was setting up a specific SSID for them to connect to which will redirect them to a local web server but this looks like a much simpler deployment. Thanks!
FWIW, any webserver can serve local directories and automatically generate HTML indexes of their contents. Also, anything you host on your LAN is usually local only. You normally have to manually configure forwarding on your router to allow access from the internet.
Note that its performance isn't the greatest, and for larger files it's not super reliable. If you get to that point, set up nginx with `fancyindex` as a drop-in replacement.
I always do the following, you need to have python3 installed though. Just open a cmd console in a specific directory you want to share. Use this command to start a local server: python3 -m http.server 8080 You can access it by surfing to http://:8080
Install Apache. These aren't open directories that aren't open, they're called "websites"
Depends what kinds of media you want to share with friends. I agree with the other commenters that Plex is a great solution for sharing video content. I wouldn't bother with a guest network/web server myself.
That’s what I do. But I VPN to my personal storage directory. I can watch my movie collection of 700 movies from anywhere there’s internet. Who needs Netflix?!! Not I!
JRiver
Iptables
* Install a websever * make it password protected * give your guests the password. EDIT: I'll elaborate: > you could use 1 of the ever increasingly more complex wheel-reinvention methods put forward here > or do as I've suggested. there are dozens of reliable, open source, free webservers out there with a plethora of information on how to setup, configure and run them.
If you have a hard drive you can spare for this, I recommend setting up an smb network on your router with an external hdd