If you've got a home server, and I know quite a few people here do, then what do you use it for?

What OS does it run? How much power does it use? What spec is it?

I often wonder why people bother!

I have a old laptop mobo that runs Damn Small Linux off a USB drive as a server. It has a 160gb IDE HDD plugged into it which I use as storage, and a 500gb SATA-USB thing.

I have loads of pcs dotted around the house that i use as storage/folding and torrenting boxes, which either run Win2k or DSL.

No, I've no need to, so I can't see the point, and why waste the 'leccy?

That's my thinking, but I know a lot of people do. But why?

I can perhaps see why people might do it in a big shared house, so people can torrent on one machine for example. That way it saves bandwidth, because some stuff will only be downloaded once instead of multiple times, and you can restrict internet access through the router. If you want to play games, then a server would be useful, I understand.

But for a normal family? I just don't see the point.

Yes I do.

Currently specs as follows@
E2120 cpu
2GB RAM
6x 1TB HDD in RAID 5
Mini P180 case
Arctic Freezer pro

Currently drawing less than 100w at the wall.

Running as a file server with occasional torrent duties (new linux distros, free HD content etc)

That server is a higher spec than both my computers!

There was a time when I was considering setting up a small box for use with Time Machine. I was looking at those really really tiny machines though - the ITX ones. 12cmx12cm I think they are.

In the end though I decided that it was going to be too expensive to justify.

I've got an ITX machine.
Quad core 2.4GHz
2GB RAM
250GB HDD
onboard 7 series video.

Currently running ESXi

Got another 1GHz one for testing as a TV frontend.


Yes I have too many machines.

I've got a server.

Current specs:

2.4GHz Athlon X2 (4850e I think)
4GB RAM
2x1TB + 2x500GB for storage
1x750GB to back up the machine
Chieftec Dragon case.

It's very useful, we have 4 big downloaders in our house of 5. All music/videos/photos are stored on it so there's never any need to download anything twice. Also if someone downloads something dodgy the facist security on the server would have a better job of getting rid of it than some of the girls' computers.

It streams music to the eeepc i've got in the kitchen for music whilst eating/cooking (HDD isn't big enough to store it on there), streams music and movies to the xbox in the front room, lets me have the exact same stuff on my laptop as I do on my main PC so it feels like i'm taking my main PC to uni, backs up all my machines "just in case".

I know i'm running too many machines at the moment (PC, Server, PowerMac, Eeepc, Samsung laptop, Acer laptop) but seeing as we went "bills inclusive" with rent this year I figure I should take advantage while I can >.<

I did, until I realised what it was costing in electric. Basically, I left the media centre on 24/7 and it was very handy.

Primary duties:

P2P
Email server
Web server
FTP server
File server
SNMP
Backups
Media centre - scheduled recordings and watching stuff.

Spec: 500GB mirror, Athlon XP 2500, 1GB ram.

It enabled me to synchronise stuff with my laptop from anywhere with web access, and the web server was for active content not catered for by my free hosting. I now have a better free host and I'm experimenting with Dropbox.

The SMTP server now runs on my office PC, which is fine provided it's turned on - which it is if I'm using it, obviously.

I only turn on the FTP if someone needs it, which isn't often. Otherwise, it's blocked at the router. It can be annoying sometimes, because I also used it to transfer large files home. This is probably the function I miss the most.

I don't bother with SNMP any more, partly because my new router isn't very good at it and I have log files which cover most things.

I no longer need a separate P2P server now I have a much faster connection. It used to take a week just to download a single 130MB file, but now it takes about 2 minutes.

I still do my tertiary back up to the media centre, but I don't need to do it often so I just switch it on as required. My primary backup is to a second internal drive, and my secondary to USB drives. I also have portable and on-line solutions for stuff that's more important, although to be perfectly honest if I lost all my data it wouldn't be a crisis - it would just be rather sad.

I'm also running Apache on my office PC, mostly for testing rather than as a live server.

However, I'm seriously considering alternatives. The amount of stuff running on my office machine is now annoying, and it would be more convenient to have an always-on solution. I've acquired a 1TB NAS which I'm playing with. If I can run a few extra demons on that it would be great, and it only draws 15W total.

I used to run a separate server.

From 2002 through 2006, it was a SUSE Linux box (Athlon XP2000+, 2GB RAM, 80GB IDE), running as a Windows 2000 style domain server (pre-ActiveDirectory and NFS server, plus IMAP e-mail and printing).

In 2006, I switched it to using Windows Server 2003 SB on the same machine. A much better experience for a Windows based network. Samba under Linux can act as a domain server, but it is a pig to implement and maintain, compared to genuine Windows. (Note: If you go with a domain, you need Windows XP Pro or Vista Business or Ultimate on the clients, Home will swear blind there is no server).

I have a server

Anyone guess what I'm running on it?

Current specs:
E7400
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L
4GB DDR2 RAM
2x 500GB Maxtor hdds in a software mirror
2x 1TB Hitachi UltraStar in a software mirror
Antec 380W, 80%+ efficiency
Running OpenSolaris 2009.06

I use it to store an ever growing collection of legal films, I'm slowly working through the purlpe one's DVD collection so she can leave all her DVDs at home next year.
I also virtualise various OS's on it, like Windows for compatibility (though I've yet to use it), Ubuntu to play with and more OpenSolaris VMs to upgrade with the developer releases to see what's new, to try out things I want to implement on the main machine but I'd rather bork a VM than the actual OS...
Last year I used a VM on it as a face to the outside world, set the router up correctly and could SSH into my network from work or up in Aber or back at the parents, this meant I could copy anything important over the internet to my server, and if I was at work, I could get to my Mac if I had left it on. I'll probably do this next year too.
In the next year I'll be setting up a Sun Ray server on there.
In the next two years I'd like to make it an LDAP server to manage users that don't leave the house (and possibly those that do too) and manage IP addresses on the network, multiple /etc/hosts files FTL

Forgot to say, today, I no longer have a server. I moved it onto a virtual machine on my Mac, but it must be a good 6 months since I fired it up.

Several virtualised servers installations that are used for testing e.g. sharepoint etc.

Switched to using them when I bought a separate networked HDD for back up.

Its easier just to share partitions around the LAN, 4 or 5 PC's / Laptops in the house.

Not exactly, but my computer acts as the house music and video file store, is the primary streamer to the 360, and under my desk all the lan cables converge on the switch...

I've been entertaining one mind, I'm rather keen on an FTP, but I'm looking to switch to an provider that gives me a static IP (or two) for that... thinking it'd be nice host me & my mate's small website projects.

I'm contemplating setting up an SVN/Bugzilla Dev server, combined with a NAS box. Need some money first, though