Sharing Music and Videos through Windows 7 Local Area Network

[D_chapple]

Windows 7 comes loaded with some smart file sharing feature. With the help of that you can create your own media server. You can share your songs and video through it. You can even share your picture. In this short tips I will show you the process through which you can keep a centralized location for your music. The location will be accessible through portable devices, tablet, android, etc. This is quiet fun if people at your home are able to share all the multimedia content. You don't have to waste time in copying those content one by one through your pc. If you own a laptop then you can still share the songs with others. We are going to use basic windows network settings here. And I am also going to recommend you some third party tools that will help you to access the content. To make this thing work you have to first enable File Sharing Settings. You have to keep the audio file in the public folder. And turn off password protection on that. Then only other people in the same network will get access. For that follow the below settings.

1. Click on Network > Network &Sharing Center. You can open this from Control Panel and system tray also.
2. From Network & Sharing Center click on Choose Homegroup and Sharing options.
3. Then click on Change Advance Sharing Settings.
4. Under Public you have to enable the first option - Turn on Network Discovery. If this is off then other system will not be able to detect your pc.
5. Then enable the second option - Turn on file and printer sharing. This will help people to access content from your pc.
6. Then enable the third option - Tun on sharing so everyone with network access can read and write files in Public folder.
7. You can also turn on Media Streaming if you want. This option is helpful for many tablets and smartphone. Once you are connected to the network through wifi through your audio player you can access the shared content. So turn it on .
8. Keep the password thing low and disable turn off Password Protected Settings. That's it. Now just move your songs to Movies folder under My Documents. It is essential that you must move it in the Public folder.

Accessing Songs from Andriod:

1. If you own a smartphone like Sony Xperia Z1, Samsung Galaxy S4, etc through the media player itself you will see the shared file.
2. But if you have other device then you can try using ES File Explorer. This tool give you access to share folders through mobile or tablet. You can instant download or stream content through it.
3. You can use Windows Media Player to control a device on lan. You have to add your songs in the library for the same.

[Baijayanthi]

The options are quiet effective. I was looking for a third party tool for this. But thanks for giving the simple steps. I had added all the songs in Media Player Library and play that through my mobile phone. I am able to play/pause and change the songs from pc itself. IT is quiet easy to manage. I have over 500 songs and all of them are sorted. The best thing about using media player is that you can also share the playlist with others.