Wanting to set up a server.

tech savvy

tech savvy

Active Member
I want to set up a server. However, this is new to me and I have no clue where to start. I have a few questions;

1) Do I need Windows Server?

2) Can I use the PC I'm on now?

3) Is it better to dedicate a whole PC just for the Server?

4) Can someone recommend me a good tutorial, very self explanatory. I found this tutorial, any good? - http://lifehacker.com/124212/geek-to-live--how-to-set-up-a-personal-home-web-server

P.S- If it's better to have a dedicated PC, can some recommend me a good build (Newegg) for $800 or less?

Thanks!

Edit: It's going to be used for downloading video's/music/documents.
 
tech savvy said:
I want to set up a server. However, this is new to me and I have no clue where to start. I have a few questions;

1) Do I need Windows Server?
Nope. You can use whatever you want, though generally most servers these days run linux or BSD
2) Can I use the PC I'm on now?
Sure
3) Is it better to dedicate a whole PC just for the Server?
Depends.You said your just using this to download stuff...I don't see how this warrants a "server" at all. What are you doing with this this stuff?
4) Can someone recommend me a good tutorial, very self explanatory. I found this tutorial, any good? - http://lifehacker.com/124212/geek-to-live--how-to-set-up-a-personal-home-web-server
Server setup is completely dependent on what OS and services it needs to run. Until that's clarified, it's pretty hard to give you a link to a tutorial.

P.S- If it's better to have a dedicated PC, can some recommend me a good build (Newegg) for $800 or less?

Thanks!

Edit: It's going to be used for downloading video's/music/documents.
Click to expand...


See bold. Also, what exactly is the full plan for this "server"?
The way you said it's just being to used to download stuff seems kinda pointless imo, unless it's a large amount of stuff and you wanted to setup a seedbox or something similar and then serve that stuff to your other computers.
 
Tell us what you want a server for. You don't use servers to download files, that's what clients are for, you would use the server if you wanted to host that data on the LAN or over the internet for others to access.
 
Ahh,ok... I said I was new to this,lol.

I want the server so that I can access it anywhere at anytime, to download video's/music/files/documents. Isn't that how a server works?

Edit: And yes, I want it so other people can access it(Friends).
 
You're better off saving money and investing in a good router that allows VPN (such as a nice ASUS router) and a NAS (Network Access Storage). No need to bother with a server.
 
voyagerfan99 said:
You're better off saving money and investing in a good router that allows VPN (such as a nice ASUS router) and a NAS (Network Access Storage). No need to bother with a server.
Click to expand...

M1kkelZR said:
Basically a fileserver really?

voyager's suggestion is the best by far then.
Click to expand...

Could ya'll/you point me in the right direction? What's the best router/NAS to get for my needs? NAS is the storage, correct? If so, will it be cheap to buy the NAS housing, then buy the HDD's separately? Or do I have to buy the NAS as a whole system? Again, thank you for the helpful advice.
 
Depending on your needs and budget you can find NAS on sale at the Egg all the time.
They usually are bundled with one HDD but have room to add on more.
Some of the others here may have more experience with them as I have never had a need.
I bought a HP server for my needs.
I'm going to be selling my server soon but with the weight I'll wind up putting it on Clist for local pick up.
 
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So far what I understand is that you want a server that is on 24/7 so if you want to download something you can, even if you aren't home, and then have the data that you download available to yourself and friends from the outside.

In this case, I would do what Voyagerfan99 recommended, a good Asus (or comparable) router. My Asus RT-N16 router running the stock firmware allows me to connect 2 USB hard drives to use as a NAS for both internally on my LAN, and externally over the internet using either the IP or through a DNS service such as DynDNS (so you can use geoff.dyndns.org instead of remembering the IP, especially if it's dynamic and changes).

The bonus here is that the router allows you to setup a Bittorrent service so you can send torrent files to it, and the router itself will download and store the data on one of your hard drives. This is cheaper, and easier than trying to maintain a server for these occasional uses.
 
Thank you all for the advice and helpful information. The router/NAS sounds like the way to go here, a lot less work/money involved,thank you.

Edit: I was looking through the NAS systems newegg has, and I see some have CPU/Memory on board, CPU speeds differ, as the Memory differs in size(256MB-1GB). It's kinda confusing. Is there anything in particular I should be looking for?
 
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Processor power and RAM are key factors to how fast it handles data during read and write jobs and of course the speed of the HDD's is a factor as well.

Another thing you should think about is how much space you need now but also in the future... My philosophy is better to have a NAS that has 4 or more bays than just 2 bays as you wont need to install 4 or more HDD's in a NAS with 4 or more bays but when the time comes it's easy to upgrade either with another HDD of same capacity or with a larger HDD depending on what you feel for when the time comes. Also making sure the NAS you get can handle the largest drives avalible today as in a few years they will be the common size and cheaper too hopefully.

One thing to remember if you plan to use RAID 1 (mirroring) is that when expanding a RAID array it will always form the avalible RAID size according to the smallest HDD in the array.

Example you have a 4 bay NAS with 2X500GB HDD's and you expand with one or two 1TB HDD's the RAID array will not utillize the full capacity of the new drives since it can never mirror a larger drive onto a smaller drive. But after the new drives are initialized in the array you just pull out the smaller HDD's and the RAID size should auto ajust to the new maximum capacity or it's done manually in the RAID management section.

I my self have NAS devices from Thecus and NetGear and I can warmly recommend both brands. My newest addition to my collection is a Thecus N4800 with intergrated mini UPS which is a 4 bay NAS with an Intel Atom D2700 Dual core processor, 2GB RAM, dual Gigabit ports and a ton of cool features like being able to link your DropBox account to the unit and Elephantdrive and other modules like antivirus for scanning downloaded data or just what ever is on the device at any given time.

There are several entry level NAS devices out there, NetGear's NAS devices are super easy to start from as they pretty much set them selves up but they also have the features for more advanced needs when required.
the NetGear ReadyNAS NV+ V2 is a good starting point if you are looking for a 4 bay device or the ReadyNAS Duo V2 if you feel the NV+ is too bulky or expensive.
 
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