IT'S SERVER TIME BABY

Do you have a lot of music and video files stored on your computer? Do you want to share them to different computers around the house? Do you prefer to have the files on a system other than your own?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above then you are a great candidate for a home server.

There are a couple of choices you have when looking for a server for the home. There are also a few things to consider when looking for a server.

One of the questions you should ask yourself is whether or not power consumption is a major priority. To most people it is as the costs of energy are not going to go down anywhere in the future. Computers of the latest generations have consumed a lot of energy with a lot of them having 350 watt to 500 watt power supplies (mind you most computers never run at that those peaks). A lot of the earlier generation computers such as about ten years ago (yeah you remember Windows 95 right?) use power supplies that are usually around 200 watts but tend to be less efficient with power use.

A lot depends on the operating system (or OS) installed on the computer as well. Windows 95, 98 and ME were never excellent at managing power unless you went into the power settings and made changes manually. Windows 2000, XP, and Vista are much better at managing power but also require more power hardware. Another option to consider is Linux. Due to the high complexity of setting up a Linux server I will not cover it in this article.

A lot to consider isn't it?

Another question to ask yourself is whether you want a full computer to serve your files or just a Network Attached Storage (or NAS).

NAS is another great option as they do not require an operating system to function and will operate with less power and will be quieter than a full computer. An example would be the Netgear SC101 which you plug into your home network via an ethernet cable for a price of $400 (CAD). All you do is setup the share name on the network via and Internet application (through any web browser) and you are off to the races.

Now if you would like the fact of having the ablility to upgrade and possibly faster access to your files a computer based storage unit is more important (also known as a server). Many large companies have had server for years to store files and programs but are not what we are looking for to run on a network at home. If you have an old computer hanging around that still works I suggest shaking the dust off of it and setting it up as a server.

This is going to get a little geeky but hang in there. The minimum specs that you should look for when selecting an old computer should be nothing less than a 233MHz (the Pentium MMX 233MHz processor is excellent) with at least 64 MB of RAM. To set up the server you will need a monitor, mouse and keyboard. In the best situation you should install Windows 2000 or XP on the computer but you will need at least 128MB of RAM to do so. In most cases you have left the old hard drive in the computer and it probably still has Windows 95 or 98 installed on it. Windows 95 is not suitable for a server as it crashes a lot. Windows 98 is much better. If you don't know where to look for all this information ask a techie friend to show you and I'm sure they will be happy to do so.

Once you have confirmed that your computer has Windows 98 or above on it with 64MB RAM and a 233MHz processor we can create a server. What we need now is some huge hard drives. Most people will only require around 300GB or storage. I would suggest buying an internal 300GB drive and attaching it via IDE. If your computer supports USB 2.0 or FireWire (IEE 1394) than the easiest way to expand the drives in the system is to add external USB or FireWire drives but keep in mind each external drive will need its own power supply.

Now all you have to do is share the drive through Windows and you are done. Click here for setting up file sharing in Windows 98/ME. Click here for setting up file sharing on Windows XP.

There are many resources out there on the internet as well for setting up a home server. Make sure you look at them too.