Sound output across the network possibility

[Thompson Freeman]

On 02/10/2008 10:29:12 AM, Stewart Williams wrote:
> Sorry if this has been asked before, but I thought  
> someone may know the exact answer quickly.
> 
> Computer A = Fedora 8
> Computer B = Fedora 8
> 
> On Computer A I have headphones connected to my speaker  
> jack and is where I listen to my music. However, I store  
> also music on Computer B and have no speakers connected  
> to the soundcard.
> 
> What I want to know is, is it possible to say double  
> click on an mp3 file on Computer B and have it output the  
> sound through my network to the headphones connected on  
> Computer A's soundcard?
> 
> And also (not essential) is this also possible if  
> Computer A is running Windows?

I can (sort of) think of a couple of ways. If the two  
machines are physically close enough, as has already been  
mentioned, physically wire the speaker jack from B to the  
input of A. Not terribly elegant, but simple and works.  
Next up would be to remotely mount the file system from B  
on A. Options include, but not limited to: NFS, Samba, and  
sshfs. I use NFS personally to get my limited music  
collection routed around the home network, but Samba might  
be better if you plan on running sound through box A  
running Windows. In either case, media files play on  
machine A as if they were hosted locally.

After those two classes of approach, I guess that you could  
get into some sort of streaming solution, but you're _way_  
out of my league there. It also seems that PulseAudio has  
network capabilities. If you get _that_ to work nicely for  
you, you may meet with widespread disbelief on this list  
however, as lots of us seem to have trouble with Pulse.

Hope this helps.