Personal home server

Dawelio

Active member
Heya lads,

So some of you may and will most likely think I'm a bit dumb for even creating this thread and even thinking about this "idea"... but I've been in the thoughts for some time now, of a small personal home server. Mostly for myself, just because it would be quite cool to have an own server =00=, but also for my mother, to upload and store all of her Photoshop work. Like a personal home server.

Now, I have no idea nor any knowledge regarding this... only that the CPU doesn't need to exactly be an i5, or even an i3, a server can get away with about 2GB ram and only thing is lots of HDD space. Not sure regarding wireless internet though, since dragging a cable to it would be difficult.

So my question to you guys are... where do I begin?, do you guys know or have any tips of any good server tutorial/setups on Youtube?, what are the "requirements" for an personal home server?.

Can you build a relatively good home server for just £400?... What would your build specs for that kind of a server be?.

Would/can I control it simply, mostly and only from my own PC or does it have to have it's own keyboard, mouse and monitor?. Can you setup different accounts/folders for like myself and my mother, to have like, let's say... she will have a space of 5TB and I will have a space of 2TB?. And can I setup different permissions, like I'm the only one that can do anything to it, and she can only upload, download, edit and re-arrange her files?.

Again, this is mostly just brainstorming... but would be nice to get some more information on this, hence this thread.

Lastly, I've been in thinking in the lines of an Fractal Design Node 304, 804 or 605.
You guys have any other recommendations, tips etc?.

Thanks,
Chrazey
 
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Sounds like you're in the market for a NAS :)

For setting things up for the first time you'll need a keyboard, mouse and monitor. When things have been installed you can use remote desktop sessions for management. That way you could put it away somewhere and you can manage it from your own computer. I do recommend using a wired connection though for a Srv.

Regarding the permissions and such, you can set up everything the way you want it. There's really loads to play with here. Make sure to disable inheritance though should you want very specific permissions on certain folders & files.

I haven't worked with it myself yet, but I've heard that FreeNas is a very good program, and it's free too. I'm Always on Windows Srv 2008 at work so I have no need for FreeNas :p

Other people will help you out on the hardware here. It doesn't need much anyway, I bet you can find loads of recommended builds around FreeNas and such
 
KB & Mouse - only if it goes wrong

Folder sizes no its easier to attach drives

Yes you can set different users up with different access rights


hardware wise the OS will use more than 2GB probably, Id say a basic one would need 4, youll only end up running plex on it anyways :p
Other than that build it to be cool and quiet (drives can even seem much noisier at night)

If youre not running at raid card get yourself a UPS so you can set a schedule for it to be running too, you can get a reasonable one for about 60/70 quid
 
Regarding the Network. Connecting a server via wifi should be the very last resort. Even as wifi has improved over the years, it's asking for trouble imho.
 
Can you build a relatively good home server for just £400?...

Absolutely. My brother built a home server for under that. It is really the best way to go, IMO. But I guess it depends on what you need it for.

Here is a nice "How To" breakdown that might be of help: http://www.howtogeek.com/221001/how-to-set-up-your-own-home-vpn-server/

One thing you will need to do though is go with a good hosting company. I think my brother might have gone with this. They should have options for using one of their servers, or hosting your own. You'll have to just do some research.

Good luck though. Sounds like a fun project.
 
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