why a (home) server?

[georgeb]

Howdy

We have an (older) P4 desktop lying around that's probably worth about $80 or so. every now and then i read about one of you guys setting up a 'home server' - what is the purpose of such a machine and what do you'll get out of doing it?

Sorry about the newb question but i want to (finally) figure out this server thing before i get rid of the old boat anchor.

[j-dawg]

I've got a bunch of computers and like to watch movies, TV shows, etc. on them. Some of these are laptops. By having a file server, I can watch them wherever I want.

I am content to watch on a 12" screen, but others are not. That's why I'm setting up a PC to connect to my family's TV, so my sister can store files on the server and watch them on the big screen.

[rkawakami]

A home server can be used to do many things:

- a file server (as j-dawg mentions); a way to access data from any other computer on your network, given you understand the limitations of bandwidth for some files (wireless connections will probably be slower than an ethernet cable for example; streaming videos/music may be subject to stuttering if others are transferring a large amount of data)
- backing up files; given that you have a large disk drive or drives, you could use your home server as a repository of important files needing backup from your other computers
- a print server; having a printer connected to the server and making it shared allows everyone access to it
- a web server; assuming you have a broadband connection to the internet and you know some HTML, you could host your own web site

[Miller88]

I do it for a few reasons.

A hobby - I like to play with web sites, etc.
Storage - I have a lot of files
Accessing files - I can access any of my files on ANY computer.

[whizkid]

I had a home server set up for my own domain; mostly for personal e-mail. I felt better knowing it was all on me, but it got to be a pain to keep updating.

I threw in the towel when Comcast blocked all traffic on port 25. I could have upgraded to business level service for $20 more a month, but I found a great local e-mail host for $15/mo. I save a little on my power bill now too.

[Miller88]

I had something similar happen. I went to college in Aug of 06 and my parents moved to a new house in Nov of 06. I spent at least 3 days trying to figure what was wrong with my router and/or server. Turns out, Adelphia (now time warner) blocked port 80. It was solved with a quick port redirect.

But I think for something like email, a big company could do it better. When I am at college, I have the computer set to reboot every 3 hours because of the network dropping all the time.