Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Squeezebox - Network topology and data scrubbing

I bought a Squeezebox Touch and plan to implement it - controlled primarily with iPads - as my primary music source.

I need help with various approaches to where the data lives and how the 1's and 0's fly about.

I'm trying to read through some of the SB forum posts (Thanks, Rick!) but a lot of them are very specific or problem related. And you guys have always been so kind and gracious, I figured I'd start a thread here, too.

Is there ANY advantage to having all the music stored on an external USB drive attached directly to the SB?

If I install SB Server on a network PC, does it have to be on the same machine where the music is located? Is it "better"?

For SB server to run, does a user have to be logged in to that machine, or is it enough for it to be "on"?

Do you have advice about tools, methods or procedures to make sure the SB Library is tidy and robust?

Are there indispensable third-party apps for this environment?

Thanks, guys. I've been through a LOT of ways to access music over the years; I sure hope this is "the one".