Setting up a home network server

Setting up a home network server

There can be different reasons and ways for setting up a home network server. It is important to determine your needs first. Why do you want to set up a home network server? This question will narrow down your ideas regarding the setting up a home network server. The second equally important question will be the number of the computers that you want to serve using this home network server.

There can be three types of needs in case of the general people. You need to store the files. These files can be of different nature. There can be family photos. There can be financial records. There could be official documents. You may decide that certain files should not be viewed by the kids. There can be games which all the family members want to share on their computers. Even in case of files, the requirements of every family will differ a lot. The storage capacity of the hardware will also differ as per your storage needs.

The other important need will be that of printers. You have only one printer in the family. But not all the family will need it. If they need it, they may not need it simultaneously. Your needs will determine the software and the hardware. Then you can go for setting up a home network server. The third important need in the family is of course sharing the internet connection. What sort of internet connection you have and how can you share them is again a matter of the details which will defer from family to family.

It is possible to use your old PC as a home network server. This PC will be centralized repository for all the music files, document files, mp songs, photos of your family members. By definition the server s supposed to wok for long time. It is necessary that your home network server does not get over heated. Noisy and hot systems will not be useful as your home network server. You will have to see the technical details of your old PC. But I will just make it general.

For minimum changes which will cost you minimum money, you will need only two additional components. First is network adapter. The second is Linux operating system to use the hard ware effectively. Your original 20GB space remains untouched. For more up gradation, you can think of adding more space by using more used drives. Making it say 140 to 200 GB will make it still better home network server. Depending upon old PC details, if you have good processing power, you will have better home network server but will need lot of cooling power to keep your server cool. There are many forums which will help you to use your old PCs as a home network server.