Most of us have heard of Internet radio, podcasting and shoutcast.  These are all methods of streaming audio and video from a central server to various clients.  At work a lot of people listen to shoutcast radio streams because it is convenient.  Well I grew tired of listening to the same shoutcast stations and wanted a way to listen to my music collection which is located on at home.

I found there are several open source Linux and Windows applications available to do this.  The quickest and easiest method for me was Edna.  Edna is a light weight and fast python script that streams your music and allows you to browse your collection through a web browser.

The install process was very simple and took all of a few minutes.  After the install I just punched a hole in my home router to let me in from work and I was off to the races listening to my favorite tracks from home.  Edna dynamically creates a web interface for you so when you download new songs they will show up without restarting the server.  The stream buffers quickly from my shaw cable connection and I couldnt be happier with my new tunes :).