Home Server - or - onedrive

wildefalcon

For years now I've run an atom win 7 machine as a home server, but I'm not sure it is good value anymore - the thing drops off the network, and as we now have a few win8.1 machines it sometimes only appears on the network list when it likes. Plus the cost of electric and noise of fans isn't desirable.

So, I was thinking about upgrading.

I'm using ms onedrive on the laptop and the tablet and was thinking that it might make sense to just move everything onto that, and do a backup onto a HDD every now and then.

At £60 or so a year it's probably cheaper in electric, more portable, and unlimited in space, more reliable, less private, about the same speed. If it sits on the directory structure like any other network drive it'll probably be used more.

I've a fairly decent connection to the net, and fibre is due in a couple of years, so speed should be ok.

Is it a totally stupid idea?

Big Lar

Dropbox ?
I got 50gb free for 2 years when I installed it on my samsung galaxy phone.

wildefalcon

I'd need heck of a lot more than that (>1Tb), which is why the MS offering (unlimited) is attractive.

Timfy

For that amount of data I would be tempted to look at a NAS solution... uploading terrabytes of data isn't really an option unless you have a specialist internet connection.

wildefalcon

Timfy wrote: »

For that amount of data I would be tempted to look at a NAS solution... uploading terrabytes of data isn't really an option unless you have a specialist internet connection.

Well, the initial upload would take ages, once.


I've tried a NAS in the past and wasn't too impressed.

ED E

The risk is you have a bitcasa situation where the service provider just suddenly changes their mind and ruins your system.

Get a 4 or 8 bay micro server(build if you like) and run it yourself IMO. Draw on mines about 30w or so, very reasonable.

wildefalcon

ED E wrote: »

The risk is you have a bitcasa situation where the service provider just suddenly changes their mind and ruins your system.

Get a 4 or 8 bay micro server(build if you like) and run it yourself IMO. Draw on mines about 30w or so, very reasonable.

You are right - the biggest fear I have is the MS being hacked or dropping the product. So far this decade I've had HP drop Webos Sync and MS drop Nokia Sync.

Would a modern NAS microserver be able to stream movies to a wifi connection, if hooked into the router ethernet? In otherwords, would it have the CPU to serve up streamed files?

ED E

If you buy a beefy enough one sure thing. You can even transcode on the fly for client devices if you use Plex.

wildefalcon

ED E wrote: »

If you buy a beefy enough one sure thing. You can even transcode on the fly for client devices if you use Plex.

Is it wife friendly? It really has to be invisible, otherwise I get the "waving arms in air, gesticulating and out loud muttering", which isn't good.

ED E

Small black box with very slow fans sitting under the TV/Hifi or in a press? Shouldnt do unless she's a real tyrant :pac:

Cuddlesworth

I'd think there are many that can transcode 1080p, but they can send it no problem.

wildefalcon

I must look into those - Thanks!

CountyHurler

We have had horrific experiences with OneDrive.. Only two of our clients use it and both have had a terrible experience... Constantly getting messages about "not synching for x reason"... rarely synchs properly... We had two 3 hour conversations with a microsoft tech support, where they connect to the offending computer and use a red dot on the screen to show you which items to click (so that they dont have to take responsibility for anything clicked)... it was released WAY ahead of being ready..

advertsfox

A NAS is your best option here for storage (unless your upload is insane). I personally run a basic Atom Nettop (ViewSonic VTO132) with WHS 2011 that handles Serviio and Plex simultaniously without issue, 1080p MKV streams play perfectly over 54Mbps network and I can backup to it as well (I don't since it's just a 320GB and it's purely for media). I use Google Drive (100GB) for my more important actively used items. You could link in a NAS directly to a WHS or as ED suggested, use a NAS (like Synology) thats supports uPnP. Also I've calculated with a Belkin Power Plug, my Nettop uses about €15 a year.

wildefalcon

advertsfox wrote: »

A NAS is your best option here for storage (unless your upload is insane). I personally run a basic Atom Nettop (ViewSonic VTO132) with WHS 2011 that handles Serviio and Plex simultaniously without issue, 1080p MKV streams play perfectly over 54Mbps network and I can backup to it as well (I don't since it's just a 320GB and it's purely for media). I use Google Drive (100GB) for my more important actively used items. You could link in a NAS directly to a WHS or as ED suggested, use a NAS (like Synology) thats supports uPnP. Also I've calculated with a Belkin Power Plug, my Nettop uses about €15 a year.

I think I understood most of that - is your nettop a little PC? Running the Microsoft Home Server os? Because if I could reconfigure my atom PC to run cheaper and better then that would be ideal. Less expenditure is better - ditch the big old HDDs and use little new HDDs with lower power consumption and a smaller PSU, etc.

Sorry about the dumbness of the post - I'm just too lazy to do this research anymore - getting old, I guess. Plus too much to do!

Thanks again.

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advertsfox

Yup, wall mounted Atom nettop with Windows Home Server 2011 - I run uTorrent, Serviio, Plex, Google Music and Drive on it and login via Remote Desktop (no monitor with it, all remote controlled).

To control the apps (Android phone), I use 2X Client (RDP for Android), Torrent Search, TorrentToise (uTorrent Remote is setup so I can send Torrents directly to it) ServiiDroid (app to control Serviio) and Plex (app to control Plex) - the rest is automation because Serviio and Plex auto scan my default Movies / Series folders and uTorrent automatically moves my new completed downloads via RSS Feed.

This way, you have a simple and quiet OS running anywhere in the house and you can connect a separate NAS to it for your 1TB storage (accessible over the network via FTP, SMB and Web) where you can direct all your files to be saved and then a plethora of devices can access the media content via uPnP (Smart TV's, phones, Playstation, Xbox, Laptops, Tablets) without a hassle. Screenshots below (please ignore the shady shows, some are for the missus)