Okay picking up where we left off; we have all the hard ware now what?
Well now it's time add the software.
Again, please note, those wishing to try this it is slightly advanced stuff (or rather well be) and I'll do my best to make it simple. That said there's still alot you can do without much risk; I'll do my best to point out when the risks start and what you can do to minimize those risks.
That said it's my opnion that even having a server for your home network is something everyone should have as it frees up your computer and sharing files in your house a snap (and that doesn't even cover the web aspect).
So please follow me over the fold and let's get started
You could have the most powerful hardware in the world and it won't matter unless you have the software to tell that hardware what to do.
So that's what we're going to take about because believe it or not there are a number of choices and each has it's own benifits though server software tends to fall into only 2 catogeries broadly speaking.
What's that division? Simply put it's the choice between having your server be your operating system (OS) and your server being on your operating system.
And for those that I've lost, let me put it this way; many (if not most) server software acts like your OS, you don't need linux, windows, mac os or anything like that the server software takes care of that. The other choice is server software that runs on your OS of choice much like how people run trillian, aim or any other program.
Each option has thier own postives and negatives which I'll go over with briefly, as well as provide examples of what I think are some of the best you can run with.
Server as OS:
pros: generally these are very skeletal in nature (or bare bones if your prefer) which means 2 things: one you get the most amount of free space to share and two the system requirements tend to be so ridiculously low that you could run this style of software even on a pentium III. These advantages mean that if you're looking at turning an old computer into a file storage system (with the help of a PCI SATA board) that you're looking at something like this
cons: That skeletal nature can work against you as the learning curve can be very steep; further while most of these programs have alot of flexibility it's my opnion that none of them have the sheer of flexibility of server software that runs on an OS.
examples: freenas and debian are the best I've seen. Even better both are freeware (though debian is linux based so becareful if you're using non liniux machines as it can be messy). Freenas is so bare bones that you can load it with 32 mb off a flash drive and it only uses 96 mb of RAM.
Important: there do exists exceptions to the above, for example Windows Home Server (which I have precious little experience with because it's not free and until recently you had to buy it with home servers) is a Server OS but it isn't that skeletal and is pretty easy to use (especially if the majority of your machines are windows). Frankly anything like that has more in common with server software on an OS because they tend to offer the same advantages and disadvantages.
Server software that runs on an OS:
pros: Alot of flexibility, you can pick which files to share and you can pick how they are shared. For example let's say you only want your music shared in your home net and your homework to be accessible though the internet while the server hosts your blog or own wiki. With an this style of software it's very easy to set that up (note it's not impossible if you choose the other way but unless you buy professional OS server software it's going to be more difficult and you may find it impossible to share everything exactly as you wish). The learning curve here while difficult isn't as near as steep.
cons: Takes up more space so you have less space to share, frankly though with HD space almost literally exploding this isn't really an issue (or I don't think it is). You can keep your OS with the programs needed to run the server on 1 HD and still have a 5+ terrabyte sytem (and that's with room left over)
Example: I only got one, but it's what I use
apache
Now what you choose to use is up to you, but as I use an OS that isn't my server there are options I have (like sharing in the network) that I'm going to go over.
So assuming you're like me and choose to seperate your OS from your server, the question is what OS?
To be blunt, I don't like mac OS, it's gotten better but it's still primairly just for graphics (and I'd frankly submit that windows based software is catching up); I could choose linux but as most of what I have is windows based it's just easier to use windows. Less cross compatiblity issues.
That said, there's no reason we have to use Vista (in fact I encourage people to avoid Vista, Windows 7 will be out soon enough); in fact if you're going windows it makes more sense to buy XP (as it's alot cheaper in terms of money and it has less sytem requirements). That said, there is a catch here not a big one but a catch still. The catch is that Windows changed the network sharing architecture when they released Vista, what this means is that XP computers and Vista machines don't recognize one another unless you patch XP. It's not difficult and takes maybe 5 minutes of your time.
Here's what you'll need to install on XP
I think that I shall end things here as I don't want to have this diary run too long.
Next time I'l talk about setting up your network, installing Apache and all the really fun stuff.