Anyone having a home file server? share your experiences
- Thread starter naro
- Start date
Mine is just a PC. Nothing spesh.
Im using a P4 2.6 although to be honest, I have also used an AMD K6/500 and there is no difference at all between the speed of the 2... Not for file sharing, and it shares files between all the PCs in my house, and there are a fair few.
Anyway, Its HDs are is just a 10GB Drive for its O/S - WinNT 4, and a couple of 320GB HDs for the stroage.
The Drives are on a IDE RAID Card.
I was putting some serious thinking time of using 2K3 Server, and doing it properly, and installing my other PCs over LAN from it, but costs tok that idea away, as I had a few years back done it with NT4.
Im using a P4 2.6 although to be honest, I have also used an AMD K6/500 and there is no difference at all between the speed of the 2... Not for file sharing, and it shares files between all the PCs in my house, and there are a fair few.
Anyway, Its HDs are is just a 10GB Drive for its O/S - WinNT 4, and a couple of 320GB HDs for the stroage.
The Drives are on a IDE RAID Card.
I was putting some serious thinking time of using 2K3 Server, and doing it properly, and installing my other PCs over LAN from it, but costs tok that idea away, as I had a few years back done it with NT4.
.
Just rebuilding mine using a P3-1gig, 256Mb RAM and a PCI mass storage controller to plug in 4 seagate PATA IDE drives (no raid)... OS wise I'm probably going to go with either debian + samba (and sshd for admin) or windows 98SE + VNC (for admin) (tends to result in less "waiting" hangs up over XP/2k3 on PCs accessing the network shares for some reason although its less secure against physical access)
reason I'm using this hardware is power and noise are considerably reduced over the 2.4gig P4 I used to use - it slowly got converted into a media pc so I want to seperate the tasks.
reason I'm using this hardware is power and noise are considerably reduced over the 2.4gig P4 I used to use - it slowly got converted into a media pc so I want to seperate the tasks.
After trying Windows XP Pro, Windows Server 2k3, Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, NetBSD for the file server OS.... They all had their ups and downs.
Win 2k3 although was only a trial OS because the full one is really expensive. It took a bit to set up due to my complete ignorance with Win2k3. Although got it in the end (apart from NFS and one or two other things). I got 180 days before it expires...
Fedora Core 4, easy set up, quick, most things done with point and click (GUI). Got samba up and running fast, NFS, FTP and web server without too much hassle. Had a few problems initially but due to its large support base there is usually hundreds of people who had experienced the same problem. Now for the downside, it is a bit bloated and slow. Also not a fan of RPMs, and they way Fedora does things differently, like where system configuration files are.
Ubuntu, good rock solid distro with the quickest setup time. But for some reason I just do not like Ubuntu.
NetBSD, a bitch to set up, never finnished setting it up, could not be bothered... Apart from that it was rock solid, none of this GUI crap...
Arch Linux, awesome simply awesome.... A bit of effort to set up but nothing too hard.
Windows XP Pro, now considering the server is usually open to the outside world (although it was sometimes) with this I also streamed TV to the entire house using VLC with its multicasting capabilities... As the VIVO of my video card works well with winxp. As for NFS (clients are mostly Linux, NFS > smb) tried to set it up, failed so far, but will get it eventually.
I use VNC and ssh for remote configuration.
Hardware I use WD 300GB sata, Maxtor 250GB, and soon a Seagate 500GB...
Asus A8N-SLi Premium, also to network everything togeather I have a Cisco 837 ADSL modem /Router.
Win 2k3 although was only a trial OS because the full one is really expensive. It took a bit to set up due to my complete ignorance with Win2k3. Although got it in the end (apart from NFS and one or two other things). I got 180 days before it expires...
Fedora Core 4, easy set up, quick, most things done with point and click (GUI). Got samba up and running fast, NFS, FTP and web server without too much hassle. Had a few problems initially but due to its large support base there is usually hundreds of people who had experienced the same problem. Now for the downside, it is a bit bloated and slow. Also not a fan of RPMs, and they way Fedora does things differently, like where system configuration files are.
Ubuntu, good rock solid distro with the quickest setup time. But for some reason I just do not like Ubuntu.
NetBSD, a bitch to set up, never finnished setting it up, could not be bothered... Apart from that it was rock solid, none of this GUI crap...
Arch Linux, awesome simply awesome.... A bit of effort to set up but nothing too hard.
Windows XP Pro, now considering the server is usually open to the outside world (although it was sometimes) with this I also streamed TV to the entire house using VLC with its multicasting capabilities... As the VIVO of my video card works well with winxp. As for NFS (clients are mostly Linux, NFS > smb) tried to set it up, failed so far, but will get it eventually.
I use VNC and ssh for remote configuration.
Hardware I use WD 300GB sata, Maxtor 250GB, and soon a Seagate 500GB...
Asus A8N-SLi Premium, also to network everything togeather I have a Cisco 837 ADSL modem /Router.
AHA Exactly what I say about Ubuntu... Lovely this lovely that but I just dont like it.
FileServers I tried Linux with, are Mandrake and Gentoo.
Didnt try Arch... You say its good? Right, I got it on a Cover somewhere, so Ill dig it out.
Fedora isnt my cup of tea for anything, so never got as far as even considering a FileServer!
FileServers I tried Linux with, are Mandrake and Gentoo.
Didnt try Arch... You say its good? Right, I got it on a Cover somewhere, so Ill dig it out.
Fedora isnt my cup of tea for anything, so never got as far as even considering a FileServer!
naro said:
no but I'm thinking of giving it a whirl now as I'm in the middle of setting up a temp fileserver for NAS useage, while awaiting RMA on my NAS enclosure.
not sure if I can get my old PC to boot off it... but if so I have an old MP3 player (that I don't use any more) that I could use as USB storage for the OS (saves having yet another noisey HDD)
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naro said:
Hi Naro,
My headerless media server is running WinXP Pro, and I use the remote desktop function for access.
However, I've been experimenting with FreeNAS, with a view installing it on my media server. My first impressions are that it is easy to install, free of economic cost and works great. Best of all, it will run on nearly any CPU and only needs a tiny amount of system memory, ideal for any ancient PC!
Regards,
Michael
naro said:
Youd be surprised... Its probably no worse than a warm room.
Ive tried a number of places...
Attic ( This I have converted into a PC Room ) and its lovely and freezing in Winterm but scortching in Summer so its not good for a 24/7/365 PC
Shed - Near perfect, had worried about damp, but this was not the case due to the airflow. Did that for a fair while actually using the AMD500
My mate up the road has an old coal bunker in his back and he has simply bricked up a Pc in there... Its got a hole though the wall into the house and everything is in there, plus Router etc and his PC is a full internet / File / MP3 Server etc and he is running Windows 95 and has never seen any need to upgrade because its doing its job just fine.... Had to add an IDE card a few years back cos the Motherboard could not access more than 8GB Drives, but apart from that... Oh, and its still AT too!!!
I have kind of a PC I'd call my file server.
It is a 3500+ venice @ 2808MHz with 512MB RAM and two 80GB hard disks.
Might not have much storage space but it's fine for sharing mp3s/mpegs, holding ISOs and storing some stuff I don't want to lose.
I use real VNC to access it when the monitor isn't hooked up for remote desktop.
It is a 3500+ venice @ 2808MHz with 512MB RAM and two 80GB hard disks.
Might not have much storage space but it's fine for sharing mp3s/mpegs, holding ISOs and storing some stuff I don't want to lose.
I use real VNC to access it when the monitor isn't hooked up for remote desktop.