Home NAS server?

Grantapus

Grantapus

Member
I want to turn a old computer into a small home file server. I want my family to be able to access the server drives from there own computers. I also want a private session just for me, so that no one else can see my files. I was thinking a public section, and a private section that is password protected. I also want to be able to have a family member create there own private space. The computer will have 4-8 gb of RAM, and a i3 or i5 CPU. I will prob swap the old drives with a few WD 1 TB drives.

I know nothing about servers / file sharing / networking. I know I could share a drive in my computer, but I want to learn how to setup a real server. Do I need Windows server, or what?



Thanks.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Download ISO, install as OS. Similar to if you've ever installed Windows. You can even run it off of a USB drive as the 'primary OS drive':

http://www.freenas.org/download-freenas-release/

There are plenty of guides for whatever you want to do with it such as setting up Samba sharing (think Windows sharing or folders that you can mount as a drive) with specific user access per folder.

Windows Server wouldn't be horrendously difficult although it usually costs money. You could also roll your own Linux setup but most of the configuration would be very manual with text files.
 
Grantapus

Grantapus

Member
beers said:
Download ISO, install as OS. Similar to if you've ever installed Windows. You can even run it off of a USB drive as the 'primary OS drive':

http://www.freenas.org/download-freenas-release/

There are plenty of guides for whatever you want to do with it such as setting up Samba sharing (think Windows sharing or folders that you can mount as a drive) with specific user access per folder.

Windows Server wouldn't be horrendously difficult although it usually costs money. You could also roll your own Linux setup but most of the configuration would be very manual with text files.
Click to expand...
Windows server is not monthly or anything right?

Imagine Windows server was free.


Now which one would you choose?





Thanks for the help.
 
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