In a previous post, I was describing how YOOS-Storage features are selected altogether to solve heavy file downloading and sharing. In this post I will deep dive into how third party software can read movies from YOOS-Storage. We will start from where we left, with a Chaplin movie downloaded to our server.
VLC, access through VPN
Connect to the VPN
VLC setup
Kodi, access internally
Get your IP address
Kodi Setup
Key takeways
VLC, access through VPN
Away from your home through VPN, things are very simple. The first step is to connect to your VPN.
Connect to the VPN
As usual, the VPN setup is located there. Once done, you will have access from your favorite VPN client. I am using OpenVPN Connect for Android.
Use VLC
Once connected to your VPN, open the VLC Android app. It will show the samba share as "Local Network", in which you can login and browse movies.
Voila!
Kodi, access internally
Things are a bit more complex directly from home, you need to fetch 1 crucial piece of information: your YOOS-Storage IP address.
Get your IP address
In order to browse movies from YOOS-Storage from inside your network, you will need to know YOOS internal IP address. For this:
- Connect to your 3g/4g
- Connect to your VPN
- With your favorite web browser, go to http://10.8.0.1:9090/
- Login
- Go to the "Networking" tab
- The IP address is the "eth0" IP address
Here my IP address is 192.168.1.246. It will be important in the setup below. Your VPN is not needed anymore from this stage, you can disconnect.
Kodi setup
Kodi is a fantastic open source media player. If you haven't heard about it, check it out! In my case, I have Kodi Xbox app configured to read movies from my YOOS-Storage. We will go through the setup in detail.
First, we add a Video Source, which we will pin to the Movies screen later.
Next, you are prompted for the connection information. This is were our internal IP address 192.168.1.246 (see above for tutorial) is important.
The shared folder name is the customized part of your Domain Name. If my Domain Name was lettuce-purple-cabbage.yoos-storage.com, my shared folder would be lettuce-purple-cabbage. Here my domain name is test.yoos-storage.com, hence the shared folder is test.
We are prompted to store the password in Kodi, so next connection won't need it again.
Voila!
Key takeways
In this article I went through the initial setup of 2 media player software, Kodi and VLC, to play media downloaded and stored on my YOOS-Storage.
I used 2 ways of playing movies: from inside my network at home, and from outside my network (anywhere in the world) via VPN.
Of course VLC and Kodi are not the only media player software around, and any combination (at home or via VPN) is valid: possibilities are nearly infinite!