Home network for a newbie

rordeb

Hello - maybe this is the wrong place to post this but am gonna give it a lash anyway. I am looking to set up a home server to carry out a number of tasks. One is the backup of 1 laptop and I pc. I also want to also setup shared centralised storage and finally I would like to (rarely access) my pc remotely.
The pc and laptop currently run windows XP home.

I have a third pc that will run the server - am thinking windows home network.

Any other free suggestions would be greatly A appreciated.

corkcomp

rordeb wrote: »

Hello - maybe this is the wrong place to post this but am gonna give it a lash anyway. I am looking to set up a home server to carry out a number of tasks. One is the backup of 1 laptop and I pc. I also want to also setup shared centralised storage and finally I would like to (rarely access) my pc remotely.
The pc and laptop currently run windows XP home.

I have a third pc that will run the server - am thinking windows home network.

Any other free suggestions would be greatly A appreciated.

based on what you've told us I wouldnt bother with the overhead of a dedicated pc / server.. a NAS device like iomega (well maybe some better makes out there too) will allow you raid protected storage accessable over the network and remotely also... you can access your pc remotely using logmein software or rdp if using ddns

rordeb

Thanks for the heads up - NAS seems like the way to go for me. Would anyone recommend a reasonably priced kit that can duplicate on Another drive (doesn't need to be full on raid)

bhickey

corkcomp wrote: »

........you can access your pc remotely using logmein software or rdp if using ddns

As far as I know, XP home can't be accessed with Remote Desktop. Even if it could be, you'd also then have to get Dynamic DNS & port forwarding setup to connect from the Internet.

For simple remote access you should probably check out Logmein & Teamviewer.

corkcomp

rordeb wrote: »

Thanks for the heads up - NAS seems like the way to go for me. Would anyone recommend a reasonably priced kit that can duplicate on Another drive (doesn't need to be full on raid)

most mid range nas boxes support raid 1 (mirror) or raid 5, redundant stripe.. Id be reluctant to recommend any specific one though because i've seen issues with two different ones recently!

NullZer0

http://www.openfiler.com/

rordeb

I'm still thinking about buying a hp media server with built-in Windows Home Server. Not really a raid device but - I like the easy using. Have downloaded a trial version of WHS on a spare PC and the 30 days are nearly up - liked the easiness.

Plebs

What's wrong with a cloud provider? I use dropBox.

The electricity costs on keeping a server up-and-running 24/7 is high.

rordeb

The hp media server should be cheap enough. Am conscious of the fact that cloud is a good way to go but I have alot of data to keep backed up and this clould become my free-ish home cloud.

I think home networking is gonna kick off in the next few years and wanna get stuck in - am nosey!