Best way to access/stream PC files while abroad?

Rainmaker · 20 Jun 2017 at 23:23

We're off on holidays next week. Unfortunately I'm a night owl, and we have two young children. As such going out for the night isn't an option and so I tend to end up sat up reading or whatever until stupid o'clock. The hotel has free decent wifi, so what are my best options to access my home PC files from abroad? I'll be taking my MacBook Pro and iPhone 7 Plus but the home PC is Windows 10 with 2TB of stuff I haven't watched yet.

Back in the day I'd have set up an FTP server or similar using a Linux VM with shared access to my media folder. These days, surely there's a more modern/easy/secure way where I can just view my files as a local drive and stream at will, just as I would on any other computer on my LAN? This may be more complicated due to the PC > Mac issue, but I'm hoping someone has an easy solution. VPN connection back to my PC and mount the drive as shared? Something else?

TIA.

Rannoch · 20 Jun 2017 at 23:27

Plex server on the home pc? It's free. I also use Air Video HD to stream from my home pc to iPad, works a treat.

pepp77 · 20 Jun 2017 at 23:27

Install plex server onto the home machine and set up a library of your media into it. Create a plex account, then when you are away just log into plex website and watch your media. I do this all the time when travelling for work.

Rannoch · 20 Jun 2017 at 23:31

Or get a seedbox that handles Plex for a month. Download files to the seedbox and stream from that. Your home pc doesn't have to be on.

Do you have a fast upload connection at home?

Rainmaker · 21 Jun 2017 at 00:40

Plex seems to be the answer then. Thanks guys.

Vargas said:
Or get a seedbox that handles Plex for a month. Download files to the seedbox and stream from that. Your home pc doesn't have to be on.

Do you have a fast upload connection at home?

It's 2.5 MB/sec (20-ish Mbps) up, but 2TB would take a fairly long time even then...

ETA: Plex all set up and working flawlessly (once I remembered pfSense port forwarding). What a seriously nice bit of kit! I might pay the fiver to unlock the iOS app but the web login works great. I knew I must have missed a better solution. I just set up NZBGet for remote access also, and now have an easily remembered ddns domain to make them both painless. Sorted!

Rannoch · 21 Jun 2017 at 12:29

Cool. I cant remember paying for the iOS app but it's certainly worth it. I use Air Video HD and prefer it to Plex for my iPad. You can download the files and watch them offline. I've watched a few good films camping on top of mountains in the past lol.