[gimzo]

Hi
I have a file server with my audio & video files, and would like to have XBMC for linux access files on it.
I set up samba, and samba is working ok, but I have some files that have ":" in the name, that not being legal character in windows file names, I get that 8.3 format name over the network.
What I really want is that xbmc can access the files without mounting it in the OS (so xbmc not supporting nfs, I'm not using it), xbmc wiki says there is samba, upnp dlna and ftp connection that can use all the features, with a warning that ftp is not the best choice.
So to ask a question:
What is the best to do now? To rename those files and use smb, to use upnp, or to use ftp?
What is the problem with ftp and streaming?
Does dlna support random characters in file names?

Thanks

[Zarbis]

Got the same problem and currently searching for solution.

[Keyzer Suze]

I am a but confused, you have your media files on a linux server and you have another linux server.

Why the restriction of not mounting it by the OS ?

[gimzo]

I am a but confused, you have your media files on a linux server and you have another linux server.

Why the restriction of not mounting it by the OS ?

Because the system will be used for web browsing by my family, they don't quite go along with computers, so I don't want to complicate, system hangs for 5 minutes if the server or network goes down while mounted using nfs, I plan to have more clients in the future (I intend to use XBMC boxes with pvr when analog tv is shut down here) and so on, it's easier for me to have xbmc use network resources and the like