home server structure

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always a newbie

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Hi,
Hope you don't mind the location for this question.
My wife and I have 2 laptops, 1 average pc, and I have an iPhone. I also have an older 8 year old pc that I can get for free if needed. None are nice or new.
Ok is it a good idea to turn one pc into a server for the rest of our units? What would be the best tactic to going about that?
If it is pointless to do so please tell me,
It would be nice to easily back up files and have access to pics and programs from 1 central location, maybe remotely too, right now we just play musical USB flash drive. I do not have the cash to spend on pricy hardware right now. If it's not worth doing then I may just pic up a external hard drive and use thumb drives so I can clear out the laptops of rarely used programs. I do have wifi in the house if that helps.
Sorry it's a long and odd question
Thanks
Scott
 
If the computer is recent enough, you could possibly install something like FreeNAS and set it up as a NAS, allowing you to access the drives on there for backing up user data, and even possibly setup FTP so you can access the data from somewhere outside the home.
 
What I did was share certain folders on my desktop throughout the network and mount them on the rest of my computers. I have one that allows the users to read and write, as a "dropbox" folder for my network. The rest are read only, such as my music drive or my movies drive, so they can watch movies or something :tongue:
 
Hi,
Hope you don't mind the location for this question.
My wife and I have 2 laptops, 1 average pc, and I have an iPhone. I also have an older 8 year old pc that I can get for free if needed. None are nice or new.
Ok is it a good idea to turn one pc into a server for the rest of our units? What would be the best tactic to going about that?
If it is pointless to do so please tell me,
It would be nice to easily back up files and have access to pics and programs from 1 central location, maybe remotely too, right now we just play musical USB flash drive. I do not have the cash to spend on pricy hardware right now. If it's not worth doing then I may just pic up a external hard drive and use thumb drives so I can clear out the laptops of rarely used programs. I do have wifi in the house if that helps.
Sorry it's a long and odd question
Thanks
Scott

Setting up a server just to share files and centralise backup shouldn't be too much of a challenge. I say give it a go, you'll soon work out whether it is right for you.
 
Yeah I say give it a go, and if you want an extra challenge do it in Linux, I set up my file server on Ubuntu and it was fun to do, and still pretty easy.
 
Well I think I am going to try it guys. I like playing with Linux puppy now and will probably try a Linux program first. If I get in too deep you guys can always save me... Or laugh at me.

As always, thanks everyone

Scott
 
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