Hey everyone!
I decided to utilize some old hardware laying around my house and I'd like to use it to put together a small file server for my house. I have multiple computers so I think it'd be much nicer if I had a central location to store things like media and important data files (like quicken databases) so I can access and edit them via all my other computers.
The Server:
The hardware i'm using for the server is basically an old soyo barebones computer running an amd athlon 1500 (1.5 ghz solo core) processor with 2x 80gb ide drives running on the onboard ide controller. Like i said, old hardware lol.
The Clients:
Three particular computers I would like to access the files with are an EEE netbook running xp, my imac running snow leopard, and an older mac mini I will hook up to my entertainment center to stream media.
What the server needs to be capable of:
Well really the only requirement is file storage. It needs to be capable of read/write access from both windows and mac operating systems. A couple other features I'd like though are specific user file access, internet access, and software raid. I like the feature on windows machines where, depending on who remotely logs onto the computer, the files that are readable and writable are different. For example, I'd like to allow my brother and his girlfriend to access the server so we could all share an itunes library and movie collection, but I don't want them to have access to my quicken data and I want them to be allowed such privacy as well. Internet access is less important, but it would be nice to be able to access the files anywhere via internet since the computer will be always on and always connected. And finally, software raid, or at least what I think is raid lol. Its not necessary but it would be nice if all drives appeared as a single drive. The catch though is that I would like to have the option to add drives as I aquire them and have it increase that singular drives capacity. I don't even know if this is possible but I figure I'd at least ask
. I plan on adding pci sata or ide controllers since I come into possession of hard drives out of nowhere for some reason lol...
anyway, the big question: what operating system and software is the best for accomplishing the most of this criteria? I appreciate any help anyone can give me! I just don't want to waste the time loading os'es on the computer only to find out they can't accomplish what I want them to
I decided to utilize some old hardware laying around my house and I'd like to use it to put together a small file server for my house. I have multiple computers so I think it'd be much nicer if I had a central location to store things like media and important data files (like quicken databases) so I can access and edit them via all my other computers.
The Server:
The hardware i'm using for the server is basically an old soyo barebones computer running an amd athlon 1500 (1.5 ghz solo core) processor with 2x 80gb ide drives running on the onboard ide controller. Like i said, old hardware lol.
The Clients:
Three particular computers I would like to access the files with are an EEE netbook running xp, my imac running snow leopard, and an older mac mini I will hook up to my entertainment center to stream media.
What the server needs to be capable of:
Well really the only requirement is file storage. It needs to be capable of read/write access from both windows and mac operating systems. A couple other features I'd like though are specific user file access, internet access, and software raid. I like the feature on windows machines where, depending on who remotely logs onto the computer, the files that are readable and writable are different. For example, I'd like to allow my brother and his girlfriend to access the server so we could all share an itunes library and movie collection, but I don't want them to have access to my quicken data and I want them to be allowed such privacy as well. Internet access is less important, but it would be nice to be able to access the files anywhere via internet since the computer will be always on and always connected. And finally, software raid, or at least what I think is raid lol. Its not necessary but it would be nice if all drives appeared as a single drive. The catch though is that I would like to have the option to add drives as I aquire them and have it increase that singular drives capacity. I don't even know if this is possible but I figure I'd at least ask
. I plan on adding pci sata or ide controllers since I come into possession of hard drives out of nowhere for some reason lol...anyway, the big question: what operating system and software is the best for accomplishing the most of this criteria? I appreciate any help anyone can give me! I just don't want to waste the time loading os'es on the computer only to find out they can't accomplish what I want them to
