Home server/network

I_AM_BOWSER · 6 Sep 2019 at 18:33

Evening all,

I currently work from my home office (garden room) where I have my computer, plotter, printers, etc. I spend a lot of time in there but would also like to do some work from elsewhere in the house so I am not always away from the family.

I have 2 rooms downstairs with TVs that I would like to be able to work from. So my question is what would be the best way to set up a home network/server so I can work from these rooms. I would need access to databases and documents from my main computer which I’m guessing would be some sort of server. I was thinking of using a couple of old mini itx builds I have and using the TVs as monitors.

I have zero clue about any of this so any information would be greatly appreciated.

Quartz · 6 Sep 2019 at 19:17

For simplicity, if you want a separate server, get a box running Windows Server Essentials 2016 and put your data on the shares.

OTOH you could just share your data directly from your PC.

Avalon · 10 Sep 2019 at 03:15

At the simplest level, just share a folder from the existing PC and use RDP to initiate anything overly complex/has licence issues locally on the office PC. If by plotter, you’re cutting film rather than drawing, then you need to be around to load it anyway.

DataVampire · 13 Sep 2019 at 17:24

Quartz said:
For simplicity, if you want a separate server, get a box running Windows Server Essentials 2016 and put your data on the shares.

OTOH you could just share your data directly from your PC.

I have tried to do what you have mentioned server 2016 essentials 2016 is a right royal pain in the ass to run on home gear for example if you had a spare rog board laying around nope you cannot use it it doesnt detect half the drivers not to mention there isnt many so network doesnt work usb doesnt work properly. The motherboard in question i tried was a rog hero vii, a real shame.

Avalon · 13 Sep 2019 at 21:49

DataVampire said:
I have tried to do what you have mentioned server 2016 essentials 2016 is a right royal pain in the ass to run on home gear for example if you had a spare rog board laying around nope you cannot use it it doesnt detect half the drivers not to mention there isnt many so network doesnt work usb doesnt work properly. The motherboard in question i tried was a rog hero vii, a real shame.

You’ve seemingly taken a simple idea and complicated it to the n’th degree here. The data is already on your PC in the garden, just share it. If you really want to go server, then you’ve discovered that intel NIC chipset that ASUS used as a selling point is unsupported in Windows Server OS’ but very similarly named and fractionally more expensive ones are. You’ll also likely discover that uncertified drivers may well exist. Failing that Single/dual port PCIe intel NIC’s go for around a fiver delivered on a well known auction site, i’ve yet to find an OS that isn’t supported on them at this stage.

chroniclard · 13 Sep 2019 at 22:12

Isn't windows server essentials hundreds of pounds?

DataVampire · 14 Sep 2019 at 02:20

Avalon said:
You’ve seemingly taken a simple idea and complicated it to the n’th degree here. The data is already on your PC in the garden, just share it. If you really want to go server, then you’ve discovered that intel NIC chipset that ASUS used as a selling point is unsupported in Windows Server OS’ but very similarly named and fractionally more expensive ones are. You’ll also likely discover that uncertified drivers may well exist. Failing that Single/dual port PCIe intel NIC’s go for around a fiver delivered on a well known auction site, i’ve yet to find an OS that isn’t supported on them at this stage.

yes you are correct in the fact that you can just throw in another pcie nic, that problem is sorted nps i agree and that is what i did, what about board chipset, intel drivers for example, those drivers ar enormaly auto installed by windows , there are currently hundreds of post sup in the rog forums about trying to use rog intel boards with server 2016 essentials. is there drivers out not many i have found for the board i tried, it also coudl be fact that the motherboard is quite old now , i was jsut trying to explain although very badley that really speaking it "can be" hard to get home gear to work on a server os, for example jsut putting a an othe rnic in when ther eis one on the board already could potentialy hold a pcie card slot up for a raid card ect?, In other words the nic is the asy part to solve sadley the rest is not , you jsut end up with a lot of ? in the device drivers, no uncertified drivers to use or anything as i said this is a very common problem and like i already said coudl be due to the motherboard i tried being so old. but yea its a common "rog" board problem.

DataVampire · 14 Sep 2019 at 02:23

chroniclard said:
Isn't windows server essentials hundreds of pounds?

It depends where you actualy buy it from, plenty of places sell it quite cheaply, It is more bennefitial or cheaper to by the essentials with in built cals than it woudl be to buy the server 2016 standard which i belive only comes with 1 . im not a expert by any means.