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I'm planning to buy a Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server and I have the following questions:

  1. If I'm running the server at home, and my ADSL modem disconnects and then connects again, do I have the same IP address?
    In other terms, if disconnections happen when I'm not at home, can I still easily access to my server?

    1b. Might I have trouble if I run a server at home (just for me and few friends)? Let's say I have a normal ADSL connection.. if I run Snow Leopard Server, is the connection going to be unstable.. or might I have any other problems with it?

  2. Can I play music from my server with iTunes without copying it onto my laptop? I know I can sync iTunes on several Macs, but instead of syncing (and having multiple copies of files) can I just play the music directly from the server with my laptop iTunes (without a local copy)?

  3. Can I sync the Mac mini and MacBook iTunes remotely? If I'm not at home?

  4. Can I sync calendars without MobileMe?

  5. Can I play videos from the server filesystem? Let's say I have some MPEG videos in a server folder, can I play them via streaming to my laptop if I'm not at home?

  6. Is Mac mini quiet enough to run in my bedroom when I'm asleep?

  7. Can I use Snow Leopard Server as a normal desktop OS? I mean, is there something I cannot do with OS X Server, and I can with OS X?

  8. Can I access to the desktop of my Snow Leopard Server from my laptop? Can I control it remotely if I'm not at home?

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1 and 1b depend completely on your ISP – Phoshi Jun 18 '10 at 18:37
ok, so well... let's say my ADSL connection is quite stable, when I use it with my laptop, and iPhone. But I never used these devices for 3 days without interruption.. so I was wondering if generally, keeping the mac connected, might cause the connection to crash – Patrick Jun 18 '10 at 18:44
Unlikely, however your ISP may dislike you using a lot of upload, and if you do disconnect for any reason, whether you get the same IP is totally up to how they do things. Vaguely related to 6, I often run my desktop while I sleep next to it, the trick is just to whack power saving mode to maximum - I'd imagine that's default on a mac mini. – Phoshi Jun 18 '10 at 18:58
@Phoshi. Ok, thanks for the Power Saving mode tip! I actually don't need a lot of upload, I'm going to use the server for me and some friends, I don't want to store a website on it.. so I hope I won't have problems. The IP is always the same, if it disconnects and reconnect, right ? I can buy a domain and register with my home ip ? – Patrick Jun 18 '10 at 19:07
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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

First of all, sorry for my english...

1) It might change if you don't have a fixed IP addrress, check with your ISP. 1b) Check with your ISP again, but if you pay for an ADSL link, I hope for you that it's at least stable

2) Yes you can. You just need to play the music from the remote local

3) If you are not at home, no. Or at least, create a job that will sync it

4) Sorry for this one, I can't tell

5) Yes you can.

6) Absolutely!

7) Why wouldn't you be able to?

8) For sure!

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up vote 1 down vote

For #1 - depends on your ISP, as others have said. However, if you set up an account with DynDNS you can get your mac (or often your router) to update its DNS entry with the latest IP address as it changes.

To be honest, I'd be more concerned about whether your ISP will let you access your server than whether the IP address is static (although one will often tell you about their attitude to the other).

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