The AudioTron seamlessly connects your PC and your stereo.

Like any self-respecting computer jock, I have a vast collection of MP3s and Windows Media audio files on my computer's hard drive. I gleefully categorize and pore over this collection like a keyboard-and-mouse version of John Cusack's record-indexing character in High Fidelity. I have party playlists, slow groove favorites, and late-night mixes. My hard drive is a flexible jukebox of kicking beats. There's just one problem: It's locked up in my study, far away from my living-room stereo.

What I need is the perfect connection from my computer to my stereo. I want the flexibility of being able to organize and create cool mixes on my PC, but I want the music to play throughout the house, so I can lounge on the couch and with a touch of button move from Joy Division to Shuggie Otis to any of the other 700 CDs I have available. But I don't want wires dragging through my house, and the stereo must play just the music from my computer, not the other sounds, too. The last thing I need is a "You've Got Mail" sound booming through my stereo while I'm chilling to J. Lo.

Enter two modern marvels that are now available for home consumers: wireless networks and digital audio receivers. Wireless systems, also known as Wi-Fi, have been a big seller this year. I took some time to set up my network, and I won't bore you with the details, but if you want a primer on it, click here. Once you've set up your network, a perusal of sites such as buy.com or news.com's product reviews gives you dozens of options to choose from for your digital audio receiver. These devices are basically scaled-down computers that play music files and connect to your stereo.

When choosing a digital audio receiver, the important things to consider are the file formats you want to play over the system, how the system stores its music files, and the method for connecting your receiver to your home computer. I went with a system from Turtle Beach called an AudioTron because it can connect to my existing home network and because it doesn't store the files on its own. Instead, it uses my computer as a central storage device. For more on why this was important to me, click here. I bought the AudioTron from buy.com for $292. I then needed a way to connect my receiver to my existing wireless network. Buy.com had just the trick, a wireless bridge from Linksys for $105. Think of a bridge as a wireless extension cord that connects computers to the network. All this shopping took me a couple weeks and $397, but I had the gear and I was ready to go. What follows is a chronicle of the frustrations and the triumph of setting up an AudioTron. Do try this at home.

Saturday 8:27 p.m.
The first thing to do is set up the home computer for file sharing. The AudioTron will connect automatically to my computer, but by default Windows does not permit such connections. So, I tinker with Windows to allow another computer to connect to it and access files. I right-click on my music folder and pick "sharing." Windows warns me that sharing can be very dangerous. In fact, it warns me twice. I bravely go forward, and Windows launches the setup routine for allowing me to share files. A reboot later, and I've created a workgroup, which allows my multiple home computers to connect securely to one another and share information. To make sure this works, I use my laptop's media player to successfully play Outkast's Stankonia album from the home computer's hard drive.

Saturday 8:35-11:30 p.m.
These three torturous hours involve no music whatsoever. They basically involve me trying desperately to understand how my wireless network functions and how to connect a computer—or in this case the AudioTron—through my wireless bridge. If you are interested in learning how this went, click here.

Sunday m idnight
I take the AudioTron out of its box, power it up, and connect it to my Linksys bridge. I pop in the AudioTron configuration CD and run setup. The program automatically starts searching the network for my AudioTron, but after about five minutes it gives up. I'm faced with a dialogue box that lets me do nothing. I start fiddling around. When debugging a network, it is very convenient to confirm that each device is really connected to the network. To do this, you run a program called "ping" (a reference to Ping-Pong). This will talk to a machine and make sure it is alive and well. By fiddling with the options on the front of the AudioTron machine, I discover its IP address and successfully ping it. If you want to know how to do this, click here.

The instruction manual is still insisting that I use the non-functioning setup program, so I ignore it. I launch my browser and type the AudioTron's IP address directly into the "address" field. For the first time tonight, something works the first time out. My browser shows me a set of configuration pages that allow me to circumvent the bad setup program by connecting directly to the AudioTron. The Web page is cool, albeit a little poorly designed. It shows me all the options of the AudioTron, all the files it can see (which is presently none) and how to make playlists, set the alarm clock, configure my favorite songs, and more.

1 a.m.
One of the features from the AudioTron sales pitch that I was most looking forward to was how it would "automatically detect all folders full of music on a network." When I turn on my device it looks valiantly for music to play, but it fails to find anything. Instead I get the message: "NO BROWSE MASTER WAS FOUND." Who knows what a browse master is—certainly not the documentation. I go back to the Web and start surfing. Finally, I find my fellow pilgrims on the road to the AudioTron. There is a support group for us, with a complete archive. Lots of people have questions. Very hard questions. But no one seems to have the answer to my question: How do I make this thing work?

2 a.m.
My lifetime companion has now turned out the lights in our study/bedroom, leaving me in the dark both physically and emotionally. I have searched the documentation, the Web, my horoscope, but the truth eludes me. Perhaps a good night's sleep will help.