Am I going to hit problems with this plan?

[Skeeter]

Hi

rite, im coming home from uni in a couple of months, and the plan is to stick a couple of big hard drives into my old iDEQ SFF machine and use it as a server on my home network. The network comprises of me with a gaming PC which also pretty much does everything else, and a laptop for when getting out of bed is just to energetic. Then there is 2 more laptops, one for each of my sisters, and then a main family PC with an account for all of us (5 in total). The server will have a U drive for each user which will have their Documents folder redirected to it so that its the same documents regardless of which machine they get on. I will use offline files to allow access to documents on laptops away from home, and probably on my PC and the family PC as a sort of backup. I also want to use the server to store all my music and video content, as well as be an 'always on' box for remote access and downloads etc. I will most likely keep my locally stored music (on an external) but keep my vids on the server to free up space on my PC. So what were looking at is a single server to store all users data (live data though network drives) and music and vids.

Now, what I have at home is a 54Mbp WiFi router/accesspoint/adsl modem combo. The server will be connected to this router though a 100Mbp cable, along with the family PC, but my PC, and all 3 laptops will be wireless. The network will need to allow me to stream vids (SD content only, if I could afford a HDTV Id buy better networking ) aswell as sync offline files on all the machines. Max simultaneous use would probably be streaming a vid and some music, or a couple of vids, or maybe a vid some file copying and an offline files sync at the same time.

Basically, am I going to be ok, or should I give up now and save myself some slow networking hell...?

 

[tbz_ck]

Realistically you are looking at around 20Mbit/s or below for a wireless G connection. This is fine for SD vid streaming but I wouldn't expect it to cope well with multiple simultaneous streams and/or file copying synching.

If you don't need to buy any additional kit to try the network side its definitely worth a try before incurring additional expense. For that kind of setup though I'd be looking at Wireless N or Homeplug AV or bite the bullet and Cat5e cable the house! Homeplug will give you around 40Mbit/s with decent wiring (thats what I get), and N-wireless may give you more, it all depends on your signal strength and attached devices (if you are going N its best to get all client PC's using the N standard for maximum throughput)

T

 

[Skeeter]

Thanks for the input.

It will most likely only be me streaming vids, possibly my sister to her laptop every now and then, so single streams and offline file synching will prb be the most.

Ive been looking at the homeplug/powerline adapters. Thanks to BT the bay is full of cheap 200Mbit ones so if it doesnt work to well I may stick 2 of these in from the router to my room. The router is a 100mbit switch, so that will give me in theory a 100mbit connection to the server, leaving the Wifi for just the 3 laptops.

And ive also looked at the wifi N stuff, its quite expensive atm. Does anyone know if the Netgear or Linksys Wireless N routers have a 100mbit or 1Gbit hub in them?

Cheers

 

[tbz_ck]

I'm not sure. They could be 1Gbit hubs but more likely 100mbit

Not sure what brand the BT powerline stuff is. I went for Solwise and they are excellent.

 

[Skeeter]

the BT ones are Comtrend 200Mbit ones and appear to have good reviews.

Im going to setup the server and test it using my account. Ill play a video and then chuck a large file accross to simulate an offline files sync and see what happens.