My Own Home Network Server

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Matthew Thompson-1279937

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Mar 13, 2013
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Okay guys i am not new to the Computer world and i know how to build machines. But there is one thing I am not familiar with. Which is setting up a home server. I want to be able to go anywhere in the world and stream or play a video or song or even see a picture from several 1tb Hard drives that are running back at my house. I am thinking it's something like a Server host or something. could someone shed some light on what exactly I am talking about? Thanks!!
 
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There are other solutions for this besides managing your own server.

One is Plex. If you subscribe to this service you can access the local content from any computer or smart phone with the Plex app anywhere in the world. If you run Plex on a computer or a beefy NAS, it will transcode on the fly so it will stream to your device in a format it can use. So you can use a BluRay quality MKV on your TV via a Roku and still stream from the same file to your phone.

Another is to get a "server in a box" such as the WD personal cloud storage.

Both have their advantages and draw backs. One problem for the WD system is the variability in the ongoing support for the Java computer interface as Java evolves.

I run music and...
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Solandri

Solandri

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Jan 4, 2012
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You mean something like this?

http://www.tonido.com/

I've found performance to be lackluster - about 1 Mbps or slower. But haven't figured out if that's a problem with their software or with my ISP (FIOS, but I get slow speeds with OpenVPN as well).
 
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hxdrummerxc

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Mar 1, 2014
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You could use any sever for that. Get yourself a Linux based server for cheap, put Samba (file server program) on it.

I got a dell poweredge 2950 server for free, from a friend that works IT for a company that was upgrading all their equipment. But you can find them on ebay for under $300 with dual quad core processors in them. They are old, not crazy powerful. But more than enough for a file server. They are better than using a PC for the server, because they have redundant power supplies, and more RAID options. You could put your several 1tb drives in there, and even run them on RAID if you want so that everything you store on one, is saved on another as a failsafe backup.

You would use Samba to set it up as a file server, then create account user names and passwords.

From there you just need a way to connect to it when your on a different network (not at home).
For that you use Dynamic DNS. There are some free DDNS websites out there, and some paid ones.
But basically you pick a domain (myhomefileserver.com for example) and the website will always link it to your ip address that you get from your ISP, when your ISP changes your ip address, the DDNS will automatically change you can always have access.


EDIT:
I guess you could really use any PC for the server too. But I would run a Linux one.
 
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Pooneil

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Apr 15, 2013
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There are other solutions for this besides managing your own server.

One is Plex. If you subscribe to this service you can access the local content from any computer or smart phone with the Plex app anywhere in the world. If you run Plex on a computer or a beefy NAS, it will transcode on the fly so it will stream to your device in a format it can use. So you can use a BluRay quality MKV on your TV via a Roku and still stream from the same file to your phone.

Another is to get a "server in a box" such as the WD personal cloud storage.

Both have their advantages and draw backs. One problem for the WD system is the variability in the ongoing support for the Java computer interface as Java evolves.

I run music and audio books off the WD cloud and video over Plex. Both provide the service to connect you to your home server when you are outside the local network.
 
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Pooneil

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It is a "server in a box" type NAS device. Once you register the device on the WD site, it is accessible through the internet with phone apps or with java based web pages on a computer. WD makes the initial connection between the NAS and the client. The down side is that the user is reliant on WD to maintain the firmware to keep up with Java security patches, something that is problematic with all hardware manufactures.

I had my WD before I settled on the Plex/Roku combination for home video distribution. But for music and audio books, the simplicity of the WD phone app to download and play is great.

Have you bought a Plex Pass?
 
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