I'm thinking about getting myself a home server.
My primary need is something for extra storage, as well as backup of my photos and other important stuff. Secondly, I would also like something I can access remotely, have a simple FTP server, a web server and some other minor stuff.
I got to know about the HP MediaSmart server through a magazine I read, and after looking a bit around I think I might go for the EX470 version (clickey (http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/notebook/notebook_hp/home_servers/1/accessories/GG795AA%2523ABA;HHOJSID=FGTbLZGKdtnltQy2yQmPvfg7TsY2VXq4Drp3yBSbqnrCK7cbm9r6!253453391)). I can get that for 3995NOK (approx. 389GBP) in a Norwegian net shop, and for starters also plan to buy one, or perhaps two, disks on 1TB (no need to buy any more yet, as I ain't close to needing that much - they will just continue to fall in cost, so can buy more later).
From what I can see, it fills pretty much all my needs. The only minus I perhaps would point out, is that it has no HW raid support - however, Windows Home Server has the ability to specify folders to be duplicated over several disks, and since it's not much of my stuff I need redundant backup of, I find that sufficient.
So, what are youre thoughts? Anything I've forgotten about, or do you perhaps have any other hot tips?
Lots of good ideas here:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/85/93/
You might want to consider a network enabled hard drive setup. A lot of them come with web server etc too. We have one at work which can serve media files and has it's own web server built in.
I don't remember the make off the top of my head.
Maybe the Western Digital My World drives for instance? You would have to check what they can do obviously.
The reason I mention this sort of choice is that there will be less hassle for you in the long run as a server would require a fair amount of housekeeping, installation of drivers, Windows(?) updates and all the other things noe has to do when you have a PC/Server.
Quote from: Jabbs;245613You might want to consider a network enabled hard drive setup. A lot of them come with web server etc too. We have one at work which can serve media files and has it's own web server built in.
I don't remember the make off the top of my head.
Maybe the Western Digital My World drives for instance? You would have to check what they can do obviously.
The reason I mention this sort of choice is that there will be less hassle for you in the long run as a server would require a fair amount of housekeeping, installation of drivers, Windows(?) updates and all the other things noe has to do when you have a PC/Server.
I don't post links
just to spam the server, you know... :sideways:
Quote from: DogMeat;245632I don't post links just to spam the server, you know... :sideways:
Sorry DogMeat but was there any need to post that reply? My reply was offering slightly different advice to yours so I really don't understand your reply.
Quote from: DogMeat;245606Lots of good ideas here:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/85/93/
Seems like a nice link Doggers, amongst others I found a review of the MediaSmart which I'll read through.
Quote from: Jabbs;245613The reason I mention this sort of choice is that there will be less hassle for you in the long run as a server would require a fair amount of housekeeping, installation of drivers, Windows(?) updates and all the other things noe has to do when you have a PC/Server.
Thanks for your advice Jabbs :) I have thought about a NAS as well, but my needs extend a bit further than what your regular NAS box can handle (at least from what I've heard they are limited to). Personally I find it positive that it has an OS I can control and extra programs I can install - it makes it much more customizable, which I like.
If anyone else has any hints or advice to add, I'll be glad to heard them. I value the opinions and experience of you folks in here higher than some random geek I find through Google, so just bring 'em on :D
The advantage of the MyBook World as a NAS is that it runs embedded Linux, so you can install pretty much whatever you want on it with enough know-how. It does only have a 200Mhz CPU though, which isn't even enough to be able to push data out over Samba at 1Gbps, so having a gigbit network interface advertised is a bit of a misnomer. I run one at home, and find it pretty good. I'd say it doesn't quite extend to your needs, but i'd rather build myself a Micro ITX box and install Linux for about the same cost if not less than the HP jobby you're looking at.
Quote from: Jabbs;245653Sorry DogMeat but was there any need to post that reply? My reply was offering slightly different advice to yours so I really don't understand your reply.
Don't worry about it.
Quote from: Carr0t;245686i'd rather build myself a Micro ITX box and install Linux for about the same cost if not less than the HP jobby you're looking at.
Yeah, I know that probably would be the by far best alternative. However, when it comes to HW, I'm a big fan of everything which is "plug 'n play" - I suppose would manage to build myself a rig and set it up with Linux, but as that's not my favorite spare time activity, I prefer the way with the least hassle. Yes, I'm lazy, I know :flirty:
But I'll at least let you know what I end up with and how satisfactory it turns out.
Quote from: Bob;245750Yeah, I know that probably would be the by far best alternative. However, when it comes to HW, I'm a big fan of everything which is "plug 'n play" - I suppose would manage to build myself a rig and set it up with Linux, but as that's not my favorite spare time activity, I prefer the way with the least hassle. Yes, I'm lazy, I know :flirty:
But I'll at least let you know what I end up with and how satisfactory it turns out.
Try installing Linux on a MyBook and think of it as a learning experience :D
Quote from: Bob;245750Yeah, I know that probably would be the by far best alternative. However, when it comes to HW, I'm a big fan of everything which is "plug 'n play" - I suppose would manage to build myself a rig and set it up with Linux, but as that's not my favorite spare time activity, I prefer the way with the least hassle. Yes, I'm lazy, I know :flirty:
But I'll at least let you know what I end up with and how satisfactory it turns out.
Much the same way. I don't mind it with a PC and Windows, it all seems to work out in the end. When it comes to Linux things seem to get to be so much more work. Simple things become a struggle, but pre-setup it's easier to modify than to start from scratch.
Quote from: Jabbs;245755Try installing Linux on a MyBook and think of it as a learning experience :D
MyBooks already run Linux, BusyBox to be specific. You can also install other versions on there, but they need to be capable of running on an arm CPU. One of my workmates has a completely different Linux installed (though I forget the name of it). I stuck with BusyBox but got ssh running then installed the arm version of Twonky so it would run as a media server for the 360. Works quite well, and certainly fast enough to stream 720p HD signals from the box and over a wireless connection to the 360, but I only get about 7-9MB/sec when transferrign files to my PC from there, which only works out a little under 100Mbps, so 1/10 of what the NIC can actually do. And when it's pushing that much data the CPU is running flat out. I get a lot more going PC->PC through our switch.
Quote from: Bob;245750But I'll at least let you know what I end up with and how satisfactory it turns out.
I promised to tell you what I went for and how I liked it. I hadn't forgotten - it was just placed quite far down in my memory stack :flirty: - but here goes:
I bought the the HP MediaSmart EX470 and have been using that for about half a year now. It came with a 1.80 GHz AMD Sempron 3400+ processor, 512MB of RAM and an 512GB HD in one of the four available drive bays - and I also bought an extra 1TB drive.
The initial setup was so easy that my mum could have done it. I plugged it to my network, turned it on and inserted the CD with the connector software to my laptop. After a couple of minutes it was all set up - both with the server and regular backup schedule of the important stuff on my laptop.
The first time I transferred most of my files which has been filling up my laptop to the server, I was really surprised by the speed. I "only" have a 100Mbit wired network, which turned out to be the bottleneck. The files were flowing at close to 12.5MB/s speed, so you'll need a gigabit network to go beyond this.
It took a bit of time to set it up properly for remote access, but that's just because I sit behind a double NATed network (both my landlord's router (which has the worst configuration interface I've ever experienced) and my own router). After I got it fixed however, it hasn't been any problems since - I can log onto it from wherever I am and get hold of (or upload) files I might be i need of.
Since it basically is just an ordinary Windows computer (the Windows Home Server OS is pretty much a 2003 Server with a pretty GUI), you can do about anything you want with it - just log on through remote desktop instead of the Home Server console, and you have full control over everything. The Home Server console is very nice to use for the normal tasks you expect from a home server, and easy to use for those without much computer knowledge, so no reason to not use that if you're not going for more advanced stuff. If you're going to install any normal programs though, you have to go through remote desktop ("special" programs designed for Windows Home Server can be installed through the console as "add-ins").
Besides the backup of computers on your local network (which seems to work great: incremental backup, so the size of the backed up content is as small as possible), you also have the option to enable folder duplication (if you have more than one disk) for one or more of the shared folders on the server. I find this very nice, as I only have to "waste" space on redundancy for those files that really matters.
It isn't as quiet as a laptop - obviously - but it doesn't bother me too much to have it in my living room (just haven't been able to get a network cable to any other room yet, will probably move it). From time to time the disk balancer seems to be working a bit over-time (even when I haven't written anything to it in a long time - but haven't had time to investigate any closer why) which causes "normal" disk activity sounds, but it isn't too bad.
I think this is a better option than the normal NAS because it actually is a real computer, meaning you can run any program you'd like no it. I even have F@H going, which is a nice bonus :flirty: I think this is a better option than buying a cheap computer and installing Linux on it because of how easy it is - it's just plug-and-play and works from day one. Now the backup system only works for Windows computers, but as the shared folders on the server are normal Windows shares, you can easily mount them from a Linux system if you need that.
So, after six months of use I don't regret I bought it. It has worked flawlessly the whole time, and boy am I glad I had it when my laptop went bye-bye just recently :)
Thanks for the info Bob - very useful to have a proper (unbiased) review. :)