Thinking about building a home server...

[xrs]

I’m thinking about putting together a home server. I have some old hardware lying around and a lot of hard disks, so thought it would be nice to have a central back up solution. I have a few questions though as I don’t really know much about home servers…

1. Can I connect the server directly to the internet on one Ethernet port, then using another Ethernet port on the motherboard, connect it to a router and subsequently split the internet to all of our computers?
2. If I install anti-virus and a firewall on the home server, will this mean that I will not have to install anti-virus and firewalls on my individual machines?
3. Will the server be compatible with Macs?

Cheers for the help.

 

[craptakular]

1/2. Sounds like your talking about a custom built router/firewall. There are some dedicated linux distro's that do this sort of thing.

3. Macs can read SAMBA shares if you use linux or if you intend to use windoze then I understand that works to.