Your 5 Machines in your house have taken control over you: Files are all over the place, your emails are on separate machines, and you’re sick of it running around like a maniac with a thumb drive to push data back and forth in between your machines. That’s when a network comes in handy. A ordinary File share does indeed help with your problem, but its not the perfect solution. However, you have to create a system with ONE centralized point: A Server. Not only does this system allow you to backup all your computers on this big storage device, it also allows you to push ALL your data and User Accounts on one Computing Machine running a Server OS like Windows Server 2003, which is perfect for Home Use because of it’s many configurations, especially on the User-Management side. Take me as an example: I have a network with with 5 computers and one Dell Optiplex GX270 acting as a Server running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise. It: Hosts my files, Hosts my Intranet Site, which is used for Shopping lists etc., it hosts my emails, it hosts the user accounts, and i have certain apps on the Server, that are accessible trough remote Desktop. All in all it is a enrichment of my LAN, so I didn’t regret getting the Dell from hell for about 100$. For example: I can login on any computer in this household with one and the same user name and password, and I have all my network shares on these computers such as my Emails and User-Rights-Settings, which have been initially set on the server machine. Another beautiful thing is the integration of new machines into the network because you don’t have to create new user accounts, which takes a lot if time. However, the process of integration into the network strengthens the relationship between you and your new pal, but without doing that boring work you can do creative things or browse the Web instead, and enjoy your new box.
My Dell from Hell
As a home user you can take the same advantage than businesses take from their servers.
Before Integrating a Central Network point, make sure that you aren’t a 100% computer dummy. If you are, I’m sure there is a “Windows Server 2003 for Dummies” book out there so don’t worry. If you can’t read (which I can assume you can, because you’re reading this), just contact a local geek.
The Second step is to make sure, if your operating systems are compatible with Domains. Incompatible Versions of Windows usually contain a “Home” or “Basic” at the end. You want to actually find a Business OS, which is easily integrated into a Server Environment.
The Third step is to make sure if you have everything you need, like LAN cables and Network Switches. Mostly that is the case because you already have a existing Internet Connection, which is normally distributed though these given components.
The Fourth step is to buy a server. It doesn’t have to be a Dell Octa-Core-whore; A simple Pentium 4 will do the job BIG TIME. If you are running a lot of applications on the server with remote desktop you will of course need a more powerful machine with a lot of RAM. For a normal household with about 5 people a Dell Optiplex GX270 is perfect. I got mine for about 100 Euros, which is a reasonable price for a Sturdy, easy to maintain nicely expandable office machine with RISER CARDS (!). If you are a octa-mom, you and your family need a faster server. I would recommend a Dell poweredge or IBM xSeries 1 Unit thick Rack Server.
The Fifth step is to decide your Storage option. Internal Hard drives are not to recommend, because the RAID options on a desktop machines are fairly poor. However, a company called Data Robotics produces a great product called Drobo, which can hold up to 16 TB as the size of Single Storage Volumes increases. 4 Hard drive Bays are available and Hot-Pluggable, that allows the user to exchange the storage device at ANY given time. The company developed a System called “BeyondRAID” which means complete data redundancy when a harddrive fails. Just buy a new HDD and put it in the slot of the failed HDD. The Drobo will automatically restore the data on the broken Disk. Your family vacation pictures are saved!
The bad part is the price of the Drobo which is currently at 500$ WITHOUT Harddrives.
Link: Drobo
Drobo
The Sixth step towards a centralized Network is to choose the right Operating System. I usually recommend Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, but this OS is very expensive. You can also choose a Linux OS, but I cannot help you with that, because the world of Linux is very different than a Windows environment. The integration with Windows is very seamless and is mostly OOTB (out of the box) without any 3rd party apps, on which you have to rely on a Linux Server.
The Seventh Step is setting everything up the way you want to have it. This is the part, which is individual from every network to another, so im not going to dive into this at the moment.
The Eighth step is enjoying and being proud of what you have made. See guests being stunned by your system, when they can log in on every computer in your house with their own user name and password. See their jaws drop when they see your Server room (especially when you are a octa-mom and you got that power edge). Just relax now and let the system maintain itself.
The User administration of the Windows Sever family is really likable: Your Kids didn’t behave, and they looked at porn in the internet? Right click their User name and lock their account. Voila! Your kids will be quite pissed, but you will love your server…
In addition you can lock certain features of Windows from the server, like the command line prompt and the task manager.
Everything is just so easy with a server in your home, you’ll first notice the benefits when you have one.
Any questions left? Ask them in a comment or send an email to computec@askcomputec.com
Tags: server home
Leave a Reply