File Server- Help a Noob

[IainK]

Basically I want to use my second rig as a file server since I haven't even powered it on in weeks so is useless atm, firstly here's the specs of the rig:

CPU: Celeron D 336 @ 2.8ghz
RAM: 1Gb (2 X 512mb) DDR2 PC4200
HDD: 160gb WD caviar blue + 20gb IDE (will upgrade as needed)
GPU: Passive Ati x550

I was thinking of running it totally passively apart from the PSU fan which is almost silent anyway.

Now for the Questions:
1) will this rig be powerful enough?
2) what sort of things can you do with a file server? (ie can i store all my music and videos on it and wirelessly stream to any other pc in my house?)
3) I was thinking of using open source server software (suggestions?) but will it be compatable with other PCs using windows 7 and xp?
4) does it need a display/keyboard/mouse? or just for setting up?
5) can it be switched off and on easily without needing to be set up again? (my dad isn't too happy about leaving things on overnight etc)

thanks for your help :)

[Ian.H]

Sounds fine to me. I'm running a P4 2.4Ghz I think (paid £40 for it from the loot a year or so ago). It's running FreeBSD 7.2 currently.

I run movies and MP3s off it no problem.
I'm not a wireless bod, but I have 3 other boxes accessing it via ethernet without any issues. Can't see why wireless would be any different if you prefer that route.
FreeBSD (http://www.freebsd.org/[/URL) will always be my recommended open-source OS. I installed Samba on it which basically allows it to be shared as a windoze share (I currently access things as 'Z:\Media\Movies\Movie-A.mkv' for example).
Will need a display and keyboard to set things up. Then I'd suggest downloading PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/) so you can login from your main box via a shell and do things remotely if you need to do things on the cmdline (I only setup the base OS on the actual box. The rest I do remotely from my windoze box via PuTTY).
Can easily be turned on and off as you wish. Scripts get installed into '/etc/rc.d' (equivalent of windoze startup I guess) to run automatically at boot time.

All in all (albeit I'm familiar with FreeBSD anyway).. this lot would take me about an hour to setup (FreeBSD installs a lot quicker than windoze) :)



Regards,

Ian

[IainK]

manages to get a makeshift windows xp home edition server running, small OS partition, then the rest set as a sharing folder, running it with only one user so i dont need a monitor or any input device, just push the power button to boot it up, then press it again to turn it off :D so hopefully i can just sit it somewhere with one power socket and that'll be all the wiring, was bit of a pig to get it to connect to my windows 7 machines but got there in the end :)

[smifis]

Have you sorted out all of your permissions?

[IainK]

permissions....?

[smifis]

yup.

The they decide who can look in what folder and if they can write files, or read files, or rename, move etc.

[IainK]

oh, i've got it open acess, everyone can do anything, but the wireless network is password protected, i know it's probably not very secure but it's just pictures and music and films and stuff, nothing that needs tight security

[smifis]

I had major problems with setting up my shares on my server with permissions.

to start with, i just used to simple share and ticked, let users change my files but it locked out one pc for some reason. weird huh?

[iGoD ReleNtLeS]

just a quick one, instead of plugging in a mouse, keyboard and screen every time your wanting to change some settings or whatever, you may like to use a program called TeamViewer, a free remote access client that visually lets you control the machine over a network or the whole internet for that matter. Just a thought.

[IainK]

thanks for that, i'll check it out :)

[Nox]

if it's just a 'file server' any OS will do...

have a think about what you want to achieve with it above and beyond just a file server and go from there! :)

Nox

[IainK]

lol, all i want/ need it for is streaming videos and music from since I have an immense amount and it's annoying having to have copies of everything on every machine.
Am I right in thinking that they don't connect directly, but instead through the wireless router? because yesterday I was watching a film and it stuttered a bit every 10mins or so, is this due to a drop of signal? the werver is upstairs with the router downstairs, and it only has a cheap usb wireless dongle from ebay

[Nox]

how many computers you got in your house?

I have a 'Windows Home Server' that streams out to multiple machines around the house, including the TV one. We use the same machine to watch TV on. Automatic backups of clients, central repository for recorded TV, music, pictures, etc the lot.

I like it :D

Or you can go for linux or whatever if you just want a storage place and want to manage it all yourself - me, I went easy life :D

Nox

[IainK]

lol, cba to BUY windows home server, already paid enough windows tax :P

I'm just using it for storage really, and i've got 4 + the server which xp home can handle fine (can link up to 5 at a time I think)

[Nox]

well don't use the 240 day free trial then. I did and ended up not being to live without it :D

Nox

[smifis]

Isn't windows home server cheaper than windows xp/vista/7 anyway?

Saying that, i haven't looked through the software section since the last time i bought from novatech, about 3 months ago i suppose

[alexgamblin]

I heard home server was meant to be quite good,

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2010/02/19/asus-ts-mini-windows-home-server-review/1

[iGoD ReleNtLeS]

yes you can, but normally they use quite new technology being that the new CPUs and all the other hardware to go with it. But really all you need is an old 775 Pentium DUO and 2GB RAM (depending on OS). Im currently running a file server with a Pentium D 820 2.7Ghz 2GB RAM running windows home server 2010 Beta and several linux OS's for now and it runs them just fine, so you can probably save quite a bit if you just use old components as a file server isnt going to be used for anything highly CPU or RAM intensive so why bother with new components that are overkill for a file server.


Isn't windows home server cheaper than windows xp/vista/7 anyway?

Saying that, i haven't looked through the software section since the last time i bought from novatech, about 3 months ago i suppose

Yeh, its like £60-70, not much cheaper than windows itself.

[Mr. Pineapple]

I'm running a home server using an xeon 2.8ghz cpu 2gb ram and an 80gb ide drive it was running linux to I replaced the hdd to test windows home server (non beta) and it works great.

I have it seted up as a downloader aswell and I love it :D

Imo its a better choice over linux server, also better than 03/08 windows server editions.

[Juillen]

Linux any day for a base file server. Cost is only for the hardware (no license fees), easy access (ssh), you can use a whole variety of protocols to access it (though CIFS is pretty much normal these days; that being said, most of the embedded devices that pull data from a share are embedded Linux using Samba anyway).
Not to say home server doesn't do the job.. I just get the same benefits from both, except one is free, and one isn't..
In balance, I always found that a bit of a no brainer.

[Bertbass]

Have you considered using Freenas as your OS as it has CIFS,NFS.UPNP ,WEBSERVER AND Itunes support amongst other things .It uses standard computer parts , you can grow Hdd space as you use it . I set my system up in just over an hour , sharing to win7 ,linux and media players . File system is very stable as it is Unix , and the GUI is very easy to understand.