Setting up a personal file server?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
K

Kevin Andres

Honorable
Jun 12, 2013
18
0
10,510
Hi everyone! I apologize right off the bat if I'm in the wrong section of the forums with this question, but it seemed most appropriate to go here first! I just got a 2003'ish server tower (current specs unknown, I haven't played with it yet, but my brother who gave it to me thinks there is an issue with the RAID controller (whether hardware or software is yet to be determined, for aforementioned reasons). Anyway, before I get started on this little hobby\project of mine, I was looking for some experienced\expert knowledge concerning the topic.

This is my first ever project working with a "server". What I am hoping to accomplish is setting up either a local VPN or maybe just a ethernet port to ethernet port connection in which computers connected can access the server, upload and download files from it (word files, music, etc). I may buy a cheapo wireless router down the road if this little project proves to be a reasonable success for accessibility so that all my devices don't have to be physically connected to access my library of music.

I have tried googling guides for this specific idea, but I'm a tad bit overwhelmed and not quite sure what is what. The OS on the server is currently unknown, but if I had to give a wild guess I'd venture to say it has some version of Microsoft Server on it. If Linux is an easier path for this project, I am not opposed to going that route.

Any suggestions\advice are welcome :)
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
choucove

choucove

Distinguished
May 13, 2011
756
0
19,360
What to recommend for your setup is greatly going to depend upon more details of what you are hoping to achieve. Setting up a simple file share server is pretty simple to do and doesn't even require a full server OS to do for most home environments. You would need to network all of your devices together somehow (either all directly wired to a switch or router, or wirelessly connected.) Your server would have storage for shared files (pictures, movies, songs, etc.) and those are shared out to users on your network. The specific details about doing all of this really are determined by a number of things that we would have to have details on first, such as:

What operating system is your server running on? What operating system are your end workstations or computers on? Do you have wired ethernet to all of your devices? What kind of specs is your server?

You wouldn't need to create a VPN for sharing files, as a VPN is a secure means for accessing to an internal network from outside on the internet. Yes, you can set up a VPN for remote access from just about anywhere, but lets focus first on just getting the server set up and connected with the rest of your computers in your internal LAN network.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom