Home only network

[mikep56]

Hi All,

I currently have about 6 PCs scattered about in different rooms of my house. How would I go about setting up another PC to be used as a file/services server? I am looking at Video On Demand, Internet Connection Sharing, printer sharing, etc.

Thanks for any info.

Mike

[rendrag]

well, whether or not you can actually accomplish your initial goal will hinge a little bit on your internet provider. But honestly the easiest way to accomplish this goal is get a router to go behind your internet provider's modem. That device will handle assigning IP addresses and related services. That means your server won't need to do internet connection sharing or DHCP, DNS, etc.

All your server would have to do would be VOD and file/printer sharing. That server can basically be anything you can throw together, however the specifics of what components to focus on, and where you can cut costs are really outside the scope of what we can cover here in a post or 2. There are plenty of resources on the web that have specifics on what you should look for, and how you should build your server depending on the desired application.

For file/print sharing and video sharing, you would need a semi-decent rig. I used an older 4-year old pc with a single core athlon 2200, threw in 1GB of RAM, and then bought 4 250GB hard drives, and set them up in a RAID 10. That gives me redundancy and good performance.

[mikep56]

Hi rendrag,

Thanks for the response. I guess I forgot to mention that the cable modem connects the the PC via USB, not ethernet. There is however, a built in ethernet port on the internet connected PC. So this PC would get the router between the built in ethernet and the other PCs?

Sorry, but I am just not very network-literate.

Mike

[rendrag]

Hi rendrag,

Thanks for the response. I guess I forgot to mention that the cable modem connects the the PC via USB, not ethernet. There is however, a built in ethernet port on the internet connected PC. So this PC would get the router between the built in ethernet and the other PCs?

Yes, you'd use an ethernet cable to go from the cable modem into the WAN (or internet) port on a router. As far as routers go, I use a modified Linksys WRT54G which is wireless-G. If the other PC's in the house want to stream video or any other bandwidth intensive application (copying files over a network, etc..) and you can't run network cables to each PC, you'll want to go with a wireless-N router, but I'd wait until it's an official standard and the prices have come down a little (next year IIRC). Wireless N has twice the bandwidth G so you'll be able to do more than just surf the web with 5 or 6 additional PC's floating around.

[cluberti]

Note that Windows Home Server can do all of those things you mentioned, I believe.

[nitroshift]

Note that Windows Home Server can do all of those things you mentioned, I believe.

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