Setting up a server for home network.

[Kenpachi]

Hey.
Well, me and my lil brother are getting ready to move to a new appartment over the next week or so.

He had this idea that he wants to buy himself a laptop, and then we can use his old cpu rig (my old one) and set up a server on it for our home network (my gaming rig and his and his g/f's laptop connecting to it)

Primarily to be used for storage, But we want the ability to host very small scale SQL applications etc.

The burning question is Linux vs Windows for an OS.

Personally I like the idea, cause it will give me more practice and experience at setting up and running a server. (something that I would quite like to do as a career at some point),

Any tips or advice for hardware/software would be great.

gtg,

[xtopolis]

Well, being a PHP person, I would suggest a L.A.M.P. setup.

However, depending on your familiarity with Linux, you might stick with windows for "ease of use" (mainly in file sharing). You can still run a (web) server and have sql installed etc, I'm just not familiar with the Internet Information Services part of it (Windows).

Basically, look at tutorials for LAMP(Linux Apache MySQL PHP) or WAMP (windows..)
Also, consider what type of SQL server you plan to run.. I've obviously used MySQL as an example, but there are others such as Oracle, Access... etc

[Kenpachi]

Well, being a PHP person, I would suggest a L.A.M.P. setup.

However, depending on your familiarity with Linux, you might stick with windows for "ease of use" (mainly in file sharing). You can still run a (web) server and have sql installed etc, I'm just not familiar with the Internet Information Services part of it (Windows).

Basically, look at tutorials for LAMP(Linux Apache MySQL PHP) or WAMP (windows..)
Also, consider what type of SQL server you plan to run.. I've obviously used MySQL as an example, but there are others such as Oracle, Access... etc


yeh, im more of a php guy myself too. So ill be looking up the L.A.M.P setup.

[Shihou]

im using an atom based system for all my needs running linux.
the system has 3 NICs, 2 ethernet and one wireless and big harddisks as storage.

xampp provides everything i run. the box does my firewall (2 nics 1xWAN/1xinternal)
the wireless card (any atheros chipset will do) is set up as my wlan accesspoint
i use torrentflux (a web based torrent client) for my downloads and the disks in raid for failsave network storage.

this setup allowes me to turn off my high-power computers and still download, share internet/wireless/movies for all my computers.

5 watts 24/7 will cost about 15 EUR a year - depending on your contract

10W router
10W switch
150W small PC
250W full grown PC
30W external harddisk
+screen
+active sound
+... and so on
--------------------------
~500W ... 1500 EUR a year , prolly 1000 or up to 2000 if youre running loads of crap 24/7

the installation was far from easy and smooth, but its a money saver and im sure it could be done on windows too

[Lliane]

beeing a windows person i'd suggest go for windows :P the new IIS is really easy to use if u wanna launch any web apps or whatever u wanna do with it.
Even php is not the smalles problem and i have to admit... i have almost no knowledge about php/html/c++/java or whatever but give me the code and i get it working on the IIS. (me programm shit but i can read code easily)

hardwarewise... no idea. i stopped running a home server for years now cause all it did was stuff that wasnt really necessary.

Downloading? well, i download while i play or whatever and its so fast i dont need to let my pc run for 24/7.

Firewall... give a damn about a firewall on my private pc tbh. i have a virtual astaro running whenever my pc starts and thats for my pc only :P

streaming stuff inside the house can easily be done with a good external hdd which u can connect via wlan/lan to xbox/ps3/receivers or whatever u have to playback the streams.

The days of home servers have come to an end... thats what i think.

[Unisolblade]

windows or linux both should work fine for this whatever floats your boat .... but xtops is right if you dont know much about linux id go windows for the ease of use

[Shihou]

i went for this setup because i work in the IT, i love to set up networkstuff - it gives me a boner to have all those function in 1 box not bigger than a 14" laptop.

but its sure easier to buy some crapgadget for every thing - but not for the same price.

anyhow - de-rail alert.

if you only want to do simple stuff im pretty sure MS desktop sql engine(aka sql express?) and webserver on your local pc will do.

hands off linux - rahter learn knitting. the world does not need another nerd.

[Lliane]

lol shihou, u meant me with crapgadget for everything?
i also work in the IT and im so sick of setting up shit. i do it at work and i dont have to do it again at home! :)

[Unisolblade]

lol shihou, u meant me with crapgadget for everything?
i also work in the IT and im so sick of setting up shit. i do it at work and i dont have to do it again at home! :)

amen to that

[Kenpachi]

Well, to me. I want soemthing as a hands on project that I can use to learn a few things. That and I am aware of how usefull it can be. I may even be able to cancell my cheap web hosting service (that i use rarely, for small testing purposes).

[Shihou]

lol shihou, u meant me with crapgadget for everything?
i also work in the IT and im so sick of setting up shit. i do it at work and i dont have to do it again at home! :)

amen to that

youre prolly just underskilled and glad u can run home and hide from ebil computaz owning you all day long :p

if your lucky aion will come on xbox so no danger intulling drivaz

</jk>

ned bös - is nur spass

[Kenpachi]

I have decided I am going to go ahead and give the fairly new Ubuntu (server edition) a shot. I have most experience with Ubuntu after using is as a desktop OS for several months. Was a lot of fun getting windows apps like WoW running on it lul.
But in short, its the only one i have experience with and afaik one of the most user friendly OS's besides windows.

I'll also be grabbing this awesome little gem: http://ebox-platform.com/
Ebox, this should be nice for remote management of the server.