[Techtalk] Home server - Where to start?

[Svenja S.]

On 05/12/2011 12:14 PM, Meryll Larkin wrote:
> Weird.  I read Svenja's email and then all of your responses (which I found
> interesting and useful) but I'm confused as to how we got from step 1 to
> step 8.
Mh, I think all these bits of advice are exactly what I was looking for
(so thanks, everyone!), since I always feel like I have to get some
theoretical knowledge in order to find out what I actually want to do
and how.
> A home server for multimedia 
>     Does that mean you want it to be a home entertainment center (TV,
> movies)?  - you'll need HD video card(s), input cards for cabling if you use
> cable, output for speakers, maybe a projector
Check, seems like I've got all the hardware I need here ;)
>     Does that mean you'll be storing large files - will you need to back
> them up or would losing them be okay because you could redownload them?
> Will you need a backup plan or a storage expansion plan?
Haven't thought about backups, but up until now there is nothing I
desperately need to backup.
>      Do you want to be able to import/export files easily from this machine
> to others?  Maybe samba, maybe nfs maybe automount?
I don't know much about any about these possibilities, so this will be a
point where I'll start googling...
> How you configure a server is dictated by what jobs you want the server to
> do.
> An EEEbox would not be my first choice for a multimedia server because I've
> never seen one with more than 2G of RAM (test if you can get Hulu to run on
> it), and because multimedia files tend to be large and the EEEboxes don't
> have lots of HD space - but an attached external USB hd could fix that.  But
> if I was new to making servers and wanted to experiment, I wouldn't worry
> about wrecking a box that I got for free.
>
> There are file servers, mail servers, web servers, compute servers, database
> servers....
> Servers can do just one dedicated function or they can do many.
> Knowing what the hardware specs are and what OS (the default one, or Easy
> Peasy, or ??) is installed on it would also help.
>
> So Svenja, do you have an idea of how you would like this server to work for
> you?  
>
> Then our answers will be more tailored to what you are actually trying to
> accomplish.
>
>
> Meryll Larkin
>
I think I'm on my way to find out what I'm trying to accomplish, so
thanks for the advice (and questions)