trying to idiot-proof my MacMini music server setup

Not quite getting your setup. Any chance you could draw up a quick network map and post it?

Sure. Both Airport Extreme and ASUS are creating 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless LANs. Cable from study to living room is about 50ft; actual separation is about 20ft and 3 sheetrock walls.

I'm thinking I should put Spectrum modem in living room (and run their coax to there) instead; otherwise leave drawing exactly as shown, except maybe move Airport Extreme into living room, return ASUS, and use simple switch in study. I don't much care about wifi performance in study, and it's silly to have two wifi routers. Alternatively, tell Spectrum I want to sign up for their wifi service, with gateway in living room, so I can complain to them about poor performance; and I can pay for first year of their wifi service with monet from returning ASUS.
 

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Sure. Both Airport Extreme and ASUS are creating 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless LANs. Cable from study to living room is about 50ft; actual separation is about 20ft and 3 sheetrock walls.

I'm thinking I should put Spectrum modem in living room (and run their coax to there) instead; otherwise leave drawing exactly as shown, except maybe move Airport Extreme into living room, return ASUS, and use simple switch in study. I don't much care about wifi performance in study, and it's silly to have two wifi routers. Alternatively, tell Spectrum I want to sign up for their wifi service, with gateway in living room, so I can complain to them about poor performance; and I can pay for first year of their wifi service with monet from returning ASUS.

Your second router, the ASUS, is it connected as a router with NAT or do you have it bridged or are you using it as a simple switch?

If you have both routers (the Apple AE and the ASUS) set up as NAT routers, then you are using a double NAT. Generally, double NAT is to be avoided unless you have a specific technical reason to use it.

A common configuration for home use is to have one router and then use switches to increase the number of ports. If you want to expand your WiFi, you would set up a second WiFi device (such as a router) as an access point (no DHCP server, no WAN connection).
 
Sorry, I'm still confused. What exactly connect by WiFi? From what I see, everything is hardwired Ethernet.
Sorry, I only showed hardwired stuff. Wireless clients include: my Macbook Air, my Android phone, wife's work Windows machine, wife's iPad, wife's iPhone.
Your second router, the ASUS, is it connected as a router with NAT or do you have it bridged or are you using it as a simple switch?
Sorry, I am clueless about this stuff. I simply plugged the ethernet connection, which leads into living room from Airport Extreme in study (see drawing in post #106), into the WAN port on the ASUS router. That's it, did no setup or nothing. The issue you bring up is reinforcing my growing conviction that I should just have one wifi network and locate it in the living room. The question is how best to do that: locate Spectrum modem in living room with Airport Extreme (or ASUS) connected to it, and let that cross-house ethernet cable just feed a switch in the study ?
 
Sorry, I am clueless about this stuff. I simply plugged the ethernet connection, which leads into living room from Airport Extreme in study (see drawing in post #106), into the WAN port on the ASUS router. That's it, did no setup or nothing. The issue you bring up is reinforcing my growing conviction that I should just have one wifi network and locate it in the living room. The question is how best to do that: locate Spectrum modem in living room with Airport Extreme (or ASUS) connected to it, and let that cross-house ethernet cable just feed a switch in the study ?

All you need to do is reconfigure your ASUS router. You want to set it up to extend your wired network. That way every device can access every other device. You cannot do that with a double NAT like you have currently.

I suggest Googling how to set up ASUS router to extend a wired network. In short, you will not use the WAN connection on the ASUS and you will have to change the settings in the ASUS. It may take a while to figure it out, but it will work. I have an ASUS router connected to my Comcast connection with a Apple AE hardwired to extend my network to the living room. Works very well with a WiFi at each end of the house.

An easier answer is to get a second Airport Express and plug it in. There is an option in the initial setup screen to extend a network. That is basically what I did to extend my ASUS router/WiFi. Or you could just swap your ASUS and Apple routers. The Apple Airport Express is simpler to set up than the ASUS.
 
All you need to do is reconfigure your ASUS router. You want to set it up to extend your wired network.
Is this what you mean ? It's from the manual; it doesn't say anything about not using the WAN port though.

I think you're right though: just put the ASUS in the study, connected to the cable modem. Set the AIrport Extreme in the living room A/V area as the secondary router. For one thing, the AE looks a lot better (ASUS has 4 antennae sticking out) and let Airport Utility worry about how to set it up properly.
 

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How's your battling going? Haven't seen much from you lately (am assuming that's a GOOD thing...).
Well, I was out of town for 10 days. But when I got back, the Mini happily played music, accessing it via FSSS (Finder-sidebar screen-sharing) from my Macbook, not iOS iTunes remote (but I haven't even tried the latter yet). So I'm feeling pretty good, might even enable BitPerfect soon. Thanks for asking.
 
How do you rip new material into your library? Through the (remotely controlled) MM or directly via MB or even through a networked PC? I'm thinking of doing something similar to your MM setup once I get a better read (if ever) on where Apple's going with FLAC support.
 
How do you rip new material into your library? Through the (remotely controlled) MM or directly via MB or even through a networked PC? I'm thinking of doing something similar to your MM setup once I get a better read (if ever) on where Apple's going with FLAC support.
Yes, on the MacMini, controlling it using FSSS from my Macbook. I think that makes the most sense for me ...
 
Yes, on the MacMini, controlling it using FSSS from my Macbook. I think that makes the most sense for me ...

So MacMini has an embedded optical drive? Or is your Macbook providing its drive as a remote to the Mini as well as providing the remote control via FSSS? Not quite getting how you move a CD's contents to iTunes library on the server's hard drive.
 
So MacMini has an embedded optical drive? Or is your Macbook providing its drive as a remote to the Mini as well as providing the remote control via FSSS? Not quite getting how you move a CD's contents to iTunes library on the server's hard drive.
Yes, the Mini has an internal SuperDrive (CD/DVD). I bought the mid-2010 model for this very reason: it's the only one of the newer "unibody" type that also has an optical drive. My Macbook is actually an Air as has no optical drive (available in eBay for $200 or so). The other choice was to continue to keep the master copy of my iTunes library on the Mac Pro (tower) in the study and periodically move it to the Mini.
 
Do you TimeMachine your Mini, Book, and Pro to a Time Capsule or the like for backup/restore purposes or are you riding bare-assed?
I just do it manually. The Mini is the only place I care about having my iTunes library anyhow. So I'll just periodically back it up to an external HDD (it's not like I add stuff to the library that often anyhow).
 
You don't sync iPods to iTune Playlists to use in your cars? That's a big part of the whole reason for my setup (along with whole-house and dedicated 2-channel listening). With the new iFlash hard drive replacement boards hosting SD or SSD storage, you can put together a monster 200+GB iPod for under $150.

On backup, I HIGHLY recommend picking up a Time Capsule (2 or 3TB) and configuring Time Machine for automatic operation. Works like a charm and your only manual backups are the ones you do occasionally to move Time Capsule snapshots to offsite storage.
 
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Just thought of something. You know how, during ripping, iTunes often prompts you to resolve which metadata to use (slightly different album names/versions). How do you visualize and input your selection to the MacMini when this occurs? If you have to drag your laptop (for video and keyboard) over to the MacMini just to rip a CD, that kinda defeats the purpose of a headless setup, no?
 
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You don't sync iPods to iTune Playlists to use in your cars?
Yeah, I do that too, also very occasionally. I don't add stuff to my iTunes library that often and it's not that important to me that it be in my car right away, unless it's some new album I truly love.

With the new iFlash hard drive replacement boards hosting SD or SSD storage, you can put together a monster 200+GB iPod for under $150.
Hadn't heard of iFlash. Yeah, my 32GB 3rd Gen iPod touch is running out of memory for sure. Doesn't look like iFlash works with it though.

On backup, I have a theory (maybe I read it, but I think I made it up) that there are 3 sources of risk, in decreasing likelihood and greater impact:
1. Hardware failure (your hard drive crashes).
2. Theft (someone breaks in your house and steals your computer).
3. Disaster (your house burns down).

'So those all need to be addressed. Time Capsule only addresses the first (thief probably steals it too, and it doesn't survive fire); so I keep main backup HDD in locked closet. Fire doesn't help with that though; so super-critical stuff, like financial records, goes to Dropbox (in an encrpyted file, of course). Anyhow ...
 
Just thought of something. You know how, during ripping, iTunes often prompts you to resolve which metadata to use (slightly different album names/versions). How do you visualize and input your selection to the MacMini when this occurs? If you have to drag your laptop (for video and keyboard) over to the MacMini just to rip a CD, that kinda defeats the purpose of a headless setup, no?
I don't have Mini set up to just automatically import a CD when I stick it in. But I don't have to "drag" my laptop over; it sits next to my "command chair :)" from which I can view the Mini's video on my TV (or on the laptop). So it's all actually quite convenient. And like I said, I don't add albums often.
 
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