Building A Home Server Part II
I was bored yesterday, so I spent some time buying components for my Home Server. I set myself a budget of £250 for the system and I ended up spending just over £130 which I’m very happy with. Here are the components I purchased:
Case: Foxconn TLM397 £28 (pictured above)
I went for this case as it had a lot of expansion slots (2x 5.25 External Bays, 2x 3.5 External Bays and 4x 3.5 Internal Bays) so there’s plenty of space for internal HDDs and external drives. It also has a 360W PSU which will be more than enough power as I won’t be running a graphics card. I didn’t need anything sexy as I’m going to stick the box behind my sofa. I just hope the fans are quiet…
Motherboard: Foxconn 6150BK8MC-KRSHN2 £60
I spent a bit more on the motherboard than I would have liked, but I was determined to get a micro ATX motherboard with Gigabit LAN for lots of streaming capacity and also one with 4 SATA II sockets. I also wanted a Socket 939 so I could use some of the ram in the study PC which has 4GB of RAM which is overkill.
CPU: AMD 64 x2 4200+ £45
After doing some reading on various Windows Home Server forums I decided to go for a dual core CPU as apparently the single core machines are ok for backup and file transfer, but struggle with streaming multiple HD graphics files. I went for the 4200+ as it was only £12 more than the 3800+. It’s the same CPU as I have in my main machine (HTPC has a 4600+) so I know it’s more than powerful enough.
Memory: 2×1GB DDR400 Free
Will take 2GB out of my main PC which doesn’t need 4GB anymore (I don’t think it ever did!)
HDD: 2×750 SATA II drives and 1TB Lacie External HDD - Free
‘Borrowing’ from HTPC. I have a 400GB in the study PC which is unused which will replace these drives. Hopefully the prices of 1TB drives will come down by the time I need one.
OS: Windows Home Server - Free
I’ll be starting with the 120 day demo. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get a full version out of Microsoft for free.
Overall I’ve specified a very powerful machine, which will definitely last a very long time. It’s probably got too much power, but for only £130 I’m not going to lose any sleepless nights over the cost. I really think I’ve built a system for the future, that will power my home for at least 5 years, maybe even more.
The bits should all arrive this week so I’ll let you know in part III how I get on with the construction. Hopefully I’ll have everything working smoothly before I go to see my parents over Christmas, so that I can test out the remote access to the full.
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Comment by Smackall on 4 December 2007:
-> Ian
Putty is for telnet which is basically for a Unix based OS. For windows you might better try Remote Desktop which comes as default in XP pro. Putty give you only keyboard interface, so you will need to take your keyboard as well to you bed until you configure your file server. And Naslite doesnt seem to have a GUI interface. Might be a ftp server if should help you, but I am not sure if ftp is supported in NASLite.
I am from India (+5:30 Zone)
Comment by Ian on 4 December 2007:
Here I go again - just had a thought, when I eventually get a puTTY remote session working will I see the remote PCs OS GUI (the wife’s desktop) or does puTTY only give me a black screen like DOS or what you guys call CLI?
I’m one of those users who’s takes his mouse to bed - I hate keyboard commands!
Comment by Ian on 4 December 2007:
Thanks Smackall, much clearer now.
I haven’t yet built the file server so I was just testing puTTY from my PC to one of the wife’s PCs, both running XP Pro. Presumably, therefore I need to configure the wife’s PC for telnet - how do I do that?
Even when that’s done, am I likely to run into firewall issues?
At this rate I’ll be monopolising a new page 3 as well as page 2 on this thread!
Did tell you I’m a novice (hopefully, quick learning one!)
By the way, I notice a lot of your replies are in the middle of the night, so presumably, you’re either the otherside of the planet to the UK, you’re a long suffering night shift worker or you’re like me, a long suffering insomniac! Which is it?
Comment by Smackall on 4 December 2007:
Putty is the client software for windows that can connect you to the telnet server on the NASlite. So your NASlite has to be configured for telnet and then from windows you need to use putty with the ip address and port to get connected to NASlite interface.
Comment by Ian on 4 December 2007:
Thanks guys for sticking in there with me - I’m slowly getting there (I think).
So I can run Naslite (installed on the file server) as the OS which has built in file management facilities. I can run a remote session using puTTY which will enable me to see (GUI window) & control Naslite installed on the server - yeah?
I’ve downloaded puTTY. I’ve opened the application & had a go (to test) at starting a remote session to access another PC on my LAN but receive a connection refuse message. This is where I’ve got stuck - remember I’m no where near as advanced as you guys!
I presume the remote session initiation is maybe being blocked by a firewall. If so, I’m note sure whether it’s my Linksys router blocking the session or whether it’s my software firewall (not windows but Norton Antivirus which has built in firewall). I’ve tried all the different protocols available (raw/telnet/rlogin/ssh) but all get refused. puTTY defaults to port 22.
Not very familiar with ports & their numbers or how to go about changing firewall settings so not to block my remote session initiations??? Also, does the remote PC have to be configured to give permission to be accessed & if so, what settings do I have to change on that PC?
Any help would be very much appreiated - it’s great having a couple of mentors!
Cheers
Comment by Smackall on 4 December 2007:
Naslite is based on linux and would definitely support these protocols. Or you will need to install VNC server or Telnet server on it. Then on the windows site Putty will do good for Telnet and VNC client for windows will do good for VNC. Both are free and they let you to see the interface on your Wondows end. telnet is for CUI and vnc for GUI. I am not sure vnc also supports CUI. but I feel it should be.
Comment by Everton on 3 December 2007:
@Ian
Doddle to setup. Just read the manual and download a client like Putty
Comment by Ian on 3 December 2007:
@ Everton (or is it Liverpool?!)
So you run Naslite & utilise the telnet protocol for RAS - yeah?
Is it difficult to set up?
Comment by Everton on 3 December 2007:
@Ian
Yes-that’s how I manage my installation.
Comment by Ian on 3 December 2007:
Sorry, just googled telnet & now realise it’s not an application but more of a protocol. Will I be able to set up a telnet with Naslite 2 USB?
Cheers