What do you use?

It's been bugging me for ages. There are lots of options, but none of them are satisfactory. I'll list the ones that come to mind, and I'm very interested to know what other people use.

I want to access pdf files and other documents, mp3s, videos in all formats and my photographs. They are stored on a Linux server. I have a static IP address and a decent broadband connection, so the server side is rock solid sorted.

1. Tonido

This is a bit of a hot topic on here right now, so I've tried it and I have to say it displays the basic framework of an excellent solution. However I do not think it's ready for Showtime by a long stretch. The way it insists on using its really bad inbuilt media players totally sucks. It also only allows access to one file at a time and deletes your documents after you open them. It takes ages to open even a small video, and only plays about 0.1% of my collection. Even the mp4 videos I have, it only plays less than half of them as a fixed size with no control. My usual video players are fine, if the file is on the SD card.

2. Dropbox

Everyone's favourite. It's bloody great, but I'm limited to 6.5GB so video and music is really a no-go. I use it for my important documents and precious photos, because they only add up to a fraction of the space a single video would take. I really want to access my films though, and they're all over 600MB.

3. Box.net

Again bloody brilliant - better than Dropbox is some ways, especially the fact I have a 40GB allowance. However, that's still only 1% of the 4TB I actually want to share. The thing is, I don't need all my video backed up in the cloud - I just want to access it directly from my server.

4. SMB

For Android I use AndSMB which is of course free, and works very well indeed. However, this particular app doesn't stream media - it only lets you copy it to the SD card. Also I do not want to port-forward an SMB share to the entire world because of the security risks.

What I really want is something that acts just like Windows Explorer, lets me browse anywhere and just open what I want in the app that I want. I still find it hard to believe that such a thing isn't installed by default on every mobile device ever made, but I'll be darned if I can find something!! Maybe I should have a Windows phone instead..?

What are your experiences?

I know NOTHING about it, but what was that Slingbox thingy mags used to rave about?