How to create a home server for file hosting and media streaming

[caveman178355]

Hi, for a while I have been looking into making a server for my home to host pictures and other files (nothing massive) and stream films and music onto peoples phones and laptops (and the TV if its possible). I could not find a definitive guide so resorted (not in a bad way) to asking this forum .

My question is, how can I go about creating this server i.e. what OS, what upgrades (for the machine), settings for the server, connecting other computers etc. I have said what I want from the server (4 lines up) and the specs of the PC (Dell dimension e520 btw, im happy to upgrade too) is 1gb of ddr2 ram, an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 and 160gb of storage (am going to upgrade really soon).

Thanks in advance, any advice is great and also i have no experience with servers so if this is stupid or something, let me know.

 

[boosted1g]

You can use any Linux or windows OS and have a local file server; you don't need a special server OS, any version of windows can handle network file shares. All you do is once you have your OS installed and setup you just assign a folder to be shared on the network.
Now 160GB is not going to go very far when you start looking at video. I have over 5TB of video files.

For what you are wanting you will likely be ok without needing to do much of an upgrade outside of getting the ram up to at least 2GB.

Now if you are wanting to access these files on the internet that is a completely different can of worms. You cant just share your folder over the internet like you would your home network. You have to setup secure ftp server, configure router for it, and configure a client on every device you want to access the server.

 

[utgotye]

You can use any Linux or windows OS and have a local file server; you don't need a special server OS, any version of windows can handle network file shares. All you do is once you have your OS installed and setup you just assign a folder to be shared on the network.
Now 160GB is not going to go very far when you start looking at video. I have over 5TB of video files.

For what you are wanting you will likely be ok without needing to do much of an upgrade outside of getting the ram up to at least 2GB.

Now if you are wanting to access these files on the internet that is a completely different can of worms. You cant just share your folder over the internet like you would your home network. You have to setup secure ftp server, configure router for it, and configure a client on every device you want to access the server.

Or you could go for a cloud-NAS style solution to the internet access problem.

Hi, for a while I have been looking into making a server for my home to host pictures and other files (nothing massive) and stream films and music onto peoples phones and laptops (and the TV if its possible). I could not find a definitive guide so resorted (not in a bad way) to asking this forum .

My question is, how can I go about creating this server i.e. what OS, what upgrades (for the machine), settings for the server, connecting other computers etc. I have said what I want from the server (4 lines up) and the specs of the PC (Dell dimension e520 btw, im happy to upgrade too) is 1gb of ddr2 ram, an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 and 160gb of storage (am going to upgrade really soon).

Thanks in advance, any advice is great and also i have no experience with servers so if this is stupid or something, let me know.

I have an older dell with 6GB of DDR2 and an E6550 C2D CPU running WHS 2011 that is running well as a cheap file server. I dropped a PCIe x1 USB 3,0 card in it so I can run two external HDDs off of it in addition to the two 500GB RAID1 internal HDDs holding the OS, monthly system images and can't lose stuff.

I ca access this server from the local network from any/all of my devices ranging from desktops and laptops to phones tablets and consoles. I regularly stream media out to the lving room and watch it on the PS3. I also have access via remote web access from elsewhere. It works on the phone but not super well because the screen size doesn't lend itself to such things. Ditto with the tablet as well though it's somewhat better.

Accessing files from another desktop or laptop (like right now, at work) is a breeze, though RWA is limited to ActiveX so it's IE's way or the highway. I can remote into any system that has been "connected" to the server and it runs a remote desktop session. Truthfully, since IE blocked ActiveX for so long here I got into the habit of simply using Teamviewer to remote into my desktop at home. Fortunately that little issue has been resolved.

 

[caveman178355]

You can use any Linux or windows OS and have a local file server; you don't need a special server OS, any version of windows can handle network file shares. All you do is once you have your OS installed and setup you just assign a folder to be shared on the network.
Now 160GB is not going to go very far when you start looking at video. I have over 5TB of video files.

For what you are wanting you will likely be ok without needing to do much of an upgrade outside of getting the ram up to at least 2GB.

Now if you are wanting to access these files on the internet that is a completely different can of worms. You cant just share your folder over the internet like you would your home network. You have to setup secure ftp server, configure router for it, and configure a client on every device you want to access the server.

Ok, thanks for that advice. I was going to upgrade storage really soon and wasnt thinking of internet access just on my WiFi network.

 

[caveman178355]

You can use any Linux or windows OS and have a local file server; you don't need a special server OS, any version of windows can handle network file shares. All you do is once you have your OS installed and setup you just assign a folder to be shared on the network.
Now 160GB is not going to go very far when you start looking at video. I have over 5TB of video files.

For what you are wanting you will likely be ok without needing to do much of an upgrade outside of getting the ram up to at least 2GB.

Now if you are wanting to access these files on the internet that is a completely different can of worms. You cant just share your folder over the internet like you would your home network. You have to setup secure ftp server, configure router for it, and configure a client on every device you want to access the server.

Or you could go for a cloud-NAS style solution to the internet access problem.

Hi, for a while I have been looking into making a server for my home to host pictures and other files (nothing massive) and stream films and music onto peoples phones and laptops (and the TV if its possible). I could not find a definitive guide so resorted (not in a bad way) to asking this forum .

My question is, how can I go about creating this server i.e. what OS, what upgrades (for the machine), settings for the server, connecting other computers etc. I have said what I want from the server (4 lines up) and the specs of the PC (Dell dimension e520 btw, im happy to upgrade too) is 1gb of ddr2 ram, an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 and 160gb of storage (am going to upgrade really soon).

Thanks in advance, any advice is great and also i have no experience with servers so if this is stupid or something, let me know.

I have an older dell with 6GB of DDR2 and an E6550 C2D CPU running WHS 2011 that is running well as a cheap file server. I dropped a PCIe x1 USB 3,0 card in it so I can run two external HDDs off of it in addition to the two 500GB RAID1 internal HDDs holding the OS, monthly system images and can't lose stuff.

I ca access this server from the local network from any/all of my devices ranging from desktops and laptops to phones tablets and consoles. I regularly stream media out to the lving room and watch it on the PS3. I also have access via remote web access from elsewhere. It works on the phone but not super well because the screen size doesn't lend itself to such things. Ditto with the tablet as well though it's somewhat better.

Accessing files from another desktop or laptop (like right now, at work) is a breeze, though RWA is limited to ActiveX so it's IE's way or the highway. I can remote into any system that has been "connected" to the server and it runs a remote desktop session. Truthfully, since IE blocked ActiveX for so long here I got into the habit of simply using Teamviewer to remote into my desktop at home. Fortunately that little issue has been resolved.

How would i actually set up all the file hosting and streaming though, as in what settings do i need to set...? (links to articles would be fab)

 

[utgotye]

Creating shares is easy through Windows so no worries there. The streaming is a bitt different. Because I'm streaming to consoles mainly, there's really next to nothing involved beyond the aforementioned sharing. Depending on your file types, transcoding may be necessary but I do my best to convert most everything to formats I know will be understood and not have to worry about only the audio or video stream playing.

Consider looking at Plex. They have great FAQs and tutorials on their site.

https://plex.tv/

 

[Emanuel Elmo]

Hi, for a while I have been looking into making a server for my home to host pictures and other files (nothing massive) and stream films and music onto peoples phones and laptops (and the TV if its possible). I could not find a definitive guide so resorted (not in a bad way) to asking this forum .

My question is, how can I go about creating this server i.e. what OS, what upgrades (for the machine), settings for the server, connecting other computers etc. I have said what I want from the server (4 lines up) and the specs of the PC (Dell dimension e520 btw, im happy to upgrade too) is 1gb of ddr2 ram, an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 and 160gb of storage (am going to upgrade really soon).

Thanks in advance, any advice is great and also i have no experience with servers so if this is stupid or something, let me know.

After you decide on what device you want/need for your server, you can go ahead and use PLEX.

IT will let you stream all of your content to anything that you want. Phone, tablets, tv, computer web browser, etc. It will even let you stream your content outside of your home as well.

 

[Emanuel Elmo]

Creating shares is easy through Windows so no worries there. The streaming is a bitt different. Because I'm streaming to consoles mainly, there's really next to nothing involved beyond the aforementioned sharing. Depending on your file types, transcoding may be necessary but I do my best to convert most everything to formats I know will be understood and not have to worry about only the audio or video stream playing.

Consider looking at Plex. They have great FAQs and tutorials on their site.

https://plex.tv/

This is me waving me fist at you sir for beating me to the bunch at the suggestion. A damn good one too. Use plex all the time.

 

[utgotye]

My system is a little underpowered to make use of Plex to it's full potential. If/when I decide to do more with Plex I'll slap a Sandy i5 off ebay in a cheapo motherboard and roll that way.