I heard about hamachi (http://www.hamachi.cc/) from the Security Now! podcast (http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm) and I've been thinking about its possible implications for MythTV. Essentially the way it works is that it "tricks" computers into thinking they are in a lan when they are just both connected to the internet. It's a secured, VPN connection. What I am thinking is that you can use this to have a mobile frontend that just requires a highspeed internet connection to connect to your backend at home. I'm thinking of running some tests over at my mother-in-law's house, but thought I'd post here first in case either someone's tried it before or knows it won't work. So, what are your thoughts?

If you're going to try something like this, I strongly suggest you get the paid version. It allows you to disable the encryption to speed up data transfers. I use Hamachi on a handful of pc's and a few linux servers and I love it.

The main issue here is bandwidth. I'm no developer, but I imagine the frontend is pulling huge data chunks from the backend server when watching shows. Some people have reported problems with wireless due to distance and bandwidth issues also. Now, mythstreamtv..there's a different story. You can tell it to recompress the video, resize it, etc. to allow a low bandwidth 'frontend' to watch videos. http://mythstreamtv.sourceforge.net/ has the scoop on it's capabilities.

I've used it a few times and it's awesome. Having it on hamachi helps because I don't have to guess the IP or fight my firewall here.

dyndns.com is your friend

http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/

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R5F1 - Dell P4 2.4Ghz 500MB - PVR250 x 2 - GeForce FX 5200 - Onboard sound/NIC 80GB ATA/250GB ATA/400GB SATA

No it's not. With dyndns, if my mythbox reboots and gets a different IP, my router won't update dyndns with it's new IP. I'm sure I could futz with my router and assign a static IP, setup the static port forwarding and all that jazz..but with hamachi there's no reason to bother.