sharing music files

[TimH]

Greetings to all. I have some questions about sharing music files that I would appreciate some input on. It sounds simple but may be trickier than it seems.

 

All of my music files are on an external hard drive attached via USB to an Airport Extreme router. I have one Macbook where the iTunes library index/data file resides and which I use for primary ripping and playback. I would like to occasionally be able to play the music from that external hard drive on another Macbbook Pro I have or a Windows XP desktop machine, both of which have access to the Airport Extreme. Should I just point iTunes from each machine to the Airport Extreme and let each machine's iTunes library file Add all of the music data to its library? Should I uncheck something to make sure all of the actual music doesn't try to load back onto the hard drives of those machines? Should I be careful about anything as far as matching up the libraries from time to time or creating confusion amongst them? Is there a better way to do this? Keep in mind that there will not be an "always on" server, nor is the Airport/HD setup really an "intelligent" NAS.

 

Thanks.

TheOtherTim