Building A Home Server Part III
All the bits I purchased for my Home Server turned up last week. I didn’t manage to put them all together until last night, as things have been hectic recently (apologies for the lack of posts this month as a result).
Now I need to decide what OS/NAS software to run, and I’m having second thoughts about whether Windows Home Server is right for me.
I managed to put my server together in under 45 minutes as the case was really well laid out, and the Foxconn motherboard that I purchased had a very user-friendly layout that meant I only cut my fingers twice trying to connect all the cables!
Everything booted first time which was great, and after a few BIOS tweaks I think I’ve reduced the fan noise down to an acceptable level, even with the stock fans. This is very important to me as my home server will be in my front room and on all the time, so I don’t want something that sounds like a banshee.
I was a bit frustrated at first that my 120 day evaluation copy of Windows Home Server hasn’t arrived yet, but this might have turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I decided to have a quick look on Google to see if I could find a cheaper alternative to WHS that I could install straight away and evaluate while I continue to wait for the WHS disk to arrive.
I think I might have found one in NASLite-2. Although not quite free at $29.95, NASLite-2 is a Network Attached Storage (NAS) Server Operating System designed to transform a basic computer into a dedicated SMB/CIFS, NFS, AFP, FTP, HTTP and RSYNC file server. It can be booted from a HDD, Flash drive, CD-Rom and other options.
Although not as user-friendly as Windows Home Server (e.g. hot swapping drives, auto-backups, sharing etc), a NASLite-2 server would deliver against my network storage requirements and remote access, and although admin control (via telnet) so I can stick the box in a corner of my flat. I’m sure I’ll be able to cobble together a backup solution using existing software and tools on my PCs.
I’ve already purchased my copy, so I’m going to hopefully going to have time to install the NASLite-2 software tonight. Does anyone have any experience of NASLite-2? If so, got any tips to share? Or, would you recommend a different application?
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Comment by ThePetCat on 25 February 2008:
I tried streaming using various apps (different operating systems). Finally gave up a month or so ago when I received my latest pc (came with xp - again).
fixed up the old banger and now it serves as my nas machine.
though it’s really just networked xp with everything shared.
Comment by Sergio on 26 November 2007:
Everton - have you received the windows home server copy?
Comment by Everton on 25 November 2007:
@techpark
it’s only $30!!!!
@thepetcat
I agree about the upload times and moving files between Nas drives - it can be slow. I don’t think it handles multiple uploads well
In terms of streaming, I have no probs and it def streams rather than download the full file b4 playing - what app are you using?
Comment by ThePetCat on 25 November 2007:
I’ve been using NasLite2 HDD for a few about a week now, and I must admint, it was easy to set up, quick to install, and above all, it works. All machines on my home network can access my storage files, and all but 2 of them run different operating systems. I have a Vista machine, 2 XP machines, a mac and a laptop running Ubuntu. The actual Naslite machine is an old pc i reserected from bits and pieces of older machines. It has a 300GB HDD, which is partitioned and has 8MB for the OS (yes, only 8 megabytes). the rest is all storage.
I only have a few things I would like cleared up. Firstly, upload times… sticking anything on the NAS takes for ever. once it’s there access is fast though. The other thing is media files. most large files need to be downloaded to the local machine again to play (movies etc).
Other than that though, It’s really a great solution, and I do recommend it, for ease of use and it’s amazingly small size.
Comment by TechPark on 23 November 2007:
Do you know any best open source alternatives to NASLite…