Streamer versus Computer?

[antcollinet]

Everyday I reset the router to factory setting then restore latest backups. And every 3 hours I renew the public IP address from ISP. Of course, reset for new connection from VPN service providers such Mullvad VPN every hours.

Also, I change my email address everyday and my phone number every week. Lastly, change ISP every month

None of that stuff is helping you (even if you are actually doing it), and is certainly not providing value comparable to the inconvenience.


Just ensure. your router firmware is up to date. There are no un-neccessary open ports, any device that is listening to open ports is secured to the hilt, you are running an up to date secure OS.

Use a password manager with long random, unique passwords for all sites.

Secure all accounts with two factor authentication - pass keys are good (avoid if at all possible, texts sent to phone number). If you can't do all, then in order of priortiy.
Banking, (your bank almost certainly forces you to use two factor at least)
Email (if a hacker has your email, they will be able to gain access to all of your other accounts if they are not secured with two factor)
Any site that has your credit card stored,
Any site you make purchases from.
Any site you have any sort of financial arrangement with
Everything else

As far as email goes - I use a provider that supplies unlimited aliases. Each organisation I give my email address to gets their own unique version of it (Eg [email protected]). If any of those start attracting spam, they get black holed, and a new email address set up with that organisation. Any organasation that "releases" an email address more than once has all accounts closed and I no longer deal with them - unless absolutely essential.

My personal email address is only ever given to friends and family. I get very little spam.

Then - just never click on a link in an email. No matter who it is from. Never reply to an email from a friend asking you to provide any sort of financial item (money, vouchers etc). If you are worried about them call them and speak - you will in almost all cases find their email has been hacked)


None of the above is inconvenient or time consuming once set up. In fact password managers and biometric security make everything quicker and easier.

 

[killdozzer]

This wasn't an easy one for me. I'm somewhere in the middle. I admit I haven't read all 8 pages of this thread. I just cast the vote and I'm posting the comment:

I have a server, so you might say I stream. It's like having your "own" cloud. But this server was never accessible on Internet and I never forwarded my ports (deliberately).

I'm a bit older and I still hold on to an idea of owning. So, even in this digital era, I prefer buying a copy of digital files (lately I've noticed you gat a download key when you buy a record. That's nice and it saves time for ripping). I had a huge collection of CDs and I ripped those and also I bought a lot of digital files. Still, all of these are on my server, on a SSD and backed up on an external HDD.

I really feel better this way.

One other thing, I've noticed streaming often finds a way to lag, stutter or glitch. Everyday it's something new. As soon as you think you got it sorted, It finds some other way to mess up your listening experience.

And I have a voice of an angel (a deaf angel, mind you, but an angel non the less). So I play Mrs. Huston "I Will Always Love You" very loud and I sing along and I'm ki*lling it! I even outperform her. And just about when I see myself as a new global star, the streaming freezes and the sound stops and I'm left alone with no support hearing my horrible dreadful voice... I bleat like a goat. And I think it's future Skynet messing with me.

 

[Aure]

I don't understand why the question. Have you not made up your mind? Computer adds ambient noise.

Hello,

I think the noise generated by a PC has been a non-issue for many years now.

Even on a desktop or gaming PC, most motherboards allow you to adjust the fan curves and CPU settings. Fit your PC with decent fans such as Arctic or Noctua, and for music listening it will be effectively inaudible.

A Tiny PC like my Lenovo ThinkCentre is also inaudible. A Mac mini or a MacBook is virtually silent as well. I used to own a Huawei MateBook D16, and I never heard it either. Even a low-cost Asus laptop was inaudible, although it was only being used as a Daphile server.

Nowadays, there are also plenty of fanless PCs available if you want a completely silent system.

I also noticed that someone mentioned not wanting to be bothered by Windows updates or background services. As far as I know, those can be configured or even disabled if needed, can't they?

Personally, I use both for speaker listening: a Daphile PC to host my music library and a Chromecast Audio to play it back.

 

[killdozzer]

Hello,

I think the noise generated by a PC has been a non-issue for many years now.

Even on a desktop or gaming PC, most motherboards allow you to adjust the fan curves and CPU settings. Fit your PC with decent fans such as Arctic or Noctua, and for music listening it will be effectively inaudible.

A Tiny PC like my Lenovo ThinkCentre is also inaudible. A Mac mini or a MacBook is virtually silent as well. I used to own a Huawei MateBook D16, and I never heard it either. Even a low-cost Asus laptop was inaudible, although it was only being used as a Daphile server.

Nowadays, there are also plenty of fanless PCs available if you want a completely silent system.

I also noticed that someone mentioned not wanting to be bothered by Windows updates or background services. As far as I know, those can be configured or even disabled if needed, can't they?

Personally, I use both for speaker listening: a Daphile PC to host my music library and a Chromecast Audio to play it back.

I don't think fans are what is meant when noise is called into question. Depending how exactly you use your PC as a source, they are very noisy - meaning they add noise to the signal. For example, 3,5mm headphones out carries a lot of noise (similar to ground, I can try and record it and post it here). Also, even when using another input selection, you can plug and unplug the 3,5 and it will crackle rather loudly in your speakers.

If it's Bluetooth, try and type in your WhatsApp (if you have it installed on your PC) while playing a FLAC file. Or play something wireless while downloading something... In short, it's often a mess.

Fans used to be built in amps as well (and still are in some), so I don't think it's fans that add noise.

 

[Aure]

@killdozzer : Hmm, you're right. I was probably thinking more in terms of a living-room listening setup than a desktop setup. Mea culpa.

 

[OCA]

No, I will never trust any router which does NAT jobs. Everyday I reset the router to factory setting then restore latest backups. And every 3 hours I renew the public IP address from ISP. Of course, reset for new connection from VPN service providers such Mullvad VPN every hours.

Also, I change my email address everyday and my phone number every week. Lastly, change ISP every month. I wish I could change my name every year but it cannot.

I hope you are not using Windows:

Microsoft Confirms Windows Has a Global Device ID You Can't Turn Off

It's designed to manage software licensing, but Microsoft can also use it to identify individual users.

tech.yahoo.com

 

[RexrothPigeon]

I'm a bit older and I still hold on to an idea of owning. So, even in this digital era, I prefer buying a copy of digital files (lately I've noticed you gat a download key when you buy a record. That's nice and it saves time for ripping). I had a huge collection of CDs and I ripped those and also I bought a lot of digital files. Still, all of these are on my server, on a SSD and backed up on an external HDD.

this is how i do it too, except my backup is on dropbox rather than my own hardware