Hello, my name is Beth Jenkins. I was told that I might get some
help with my questions on this chat room. The help I've received from
people I know really has not helped me at all.
I would like to hook one of my old desktop computers up to my home
network. I would like to use the computer to just store data. I take
a lot of pictures that I want to store ( in addition to many other
files) in a central location and be able to access it from any of the
other computers in my home network. I am confused as to what I need
to do. Should I just enable file sharing on the old computer? That
seems easiest. I was also told to install Windows server on the
computer by one friend, and another told me to install Free NAS on it.
NAS is Network Attached Storage I think and this sounds like what I
need but I am just unsure.
My information:
4 Computers on the network.
Some are wireless some are wired to the router.
I think all the computers use Windows 7 HOME EDITION.
I don't know the CPUs, space or HDs on the computers.
I have broad band.
Sorry if I left out needed information. IF there is something you
need to know please ask.
Again, I just want to basically use the old computer for storage
space. If someone can tell me which way to go about it:
Server Software
FreeNAS
enabling File Sharing ---
---
And WHY I should use that method I would appreciate it
If I should ask my question in another room just let me know that
also.
Thank you
Beth
First - I'm not an "IT Guy". I'm just a home user like you.
So take the suggestions with a grain of salt.
Historically, when desktop computers have "sharing" set up on them,
the greedy companies who write the OSes, restrict the maximum number
of connections. Let's say for the sake of argument, it was ten
connections. Would ten connections be sufficient "sharing"
to satisfy your four computers ? If the server runs out of
connections for any reason, the next connection attempt could
be denied. When the computer is no longer using the share,
you unmounted it, then the connection is no longer being used,
and can be used by another computer. We used to have puny desktop
computers used as departmental file servers at work, and ten
connections were shared by a user community of around 3000 people.
During the day, I'd frequently get a "denied" if I tried to connect
to such crap. But your situation, the ratio looks quite acceptable.
Note that, when counting connections, sometimes they're "burned up
in pairs". So if the number is 10 or 20, depending on the situation,
the actual limit might be 5 or 10.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...on-limit/e449bf9f-425c-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5
*******
Something like Linux might have less of a restriction in
that regard. You could load a Linux OS on the old computer,
and via "SAMBA" package, a Linux computer can interwork
with Windows computers. But at this point, that doesn't
look to be necessary.
*******
Depending on the age of the computer, it might be an
energy waster. One of my old, gutless computers,
was burning up 150W doing nothing. I have some
much more powerful machines now, that might be
around 75W. If the machine doesn't have idle power
saving features, eventually such usage can add up.
If you were in Europe for example, that would likely
be the very first question you'd ask. (I've noticed
they are very sensitive to electricity usage there,
and have no idea what a kilowatt-hour costs there.)
They make small, one disk boxes, that are "BYOD" or Bring
Your Own Disk. They can be used to share files, and might
use less electricity. The attraction of using an old
computer, is you're not paying for any more hardware.
The best I could find so far, is a two-bay unit for $120.
The hope would be, if they mention an electricity rating,
you *eventually* pay it back in saved electricity.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822336015
According to this, it draws 32.2 watts. (At ~12W per disk
drive, that leaves only 8W for the server electronics.) Treat
that number as a ballpark figure, as it could easily be
off by a bit.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ZyXEL-NSA-320-Bay-Power-Appliance/dp/B004BE6MVW
We can try looking up that box here, to get some idea of the
performance level to be expected.
NSA-320 (closest model is NSA-325)
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-charts/bar/1-filecopy-write
The NSA-325 isn't the same model, but at least you get the idea
that there are reviews around.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/...nsa325-2-bay-power-plus-media-server-reviewed
*******
If all the computers are Windows 7 Home, the one computer
we're missing in the picture, is the "old computer". Does
it run Windows 7 Home as well ? Windows 7 has the
"HOMEGROUP" feature. It is intended to make connecting
the computers easier. If the mix of computers is not
all Windows 7, then you want a "WORKGROUP" setup. There
is less to do there, in that when you set up each computer
in the first place, you may have set the Workgroup
value to WORKGROUP anyway. That's how I set up my
computers. It's only when absolutely all the
computers are Windows 7, that the HOMEGROUP is
an option.
You may also want to set up identical accounts and
passwords on all the computers. If you have Beth:MyPassword
on one computer, use Beth:MyPassword on the other computer.
As that may make connecting and sharing files easier. That
advice is to try to avoid permission problems.
I don't think there's much more to say about it, except to
try it. If you don't have an OS on the old computer yet,
then there may be some discussion possible there. If
all the computers are in a ready-to-run state, just do it
And even if the old computer is not ready to be a file server
yet, you can take one of the Windows 7 Home computers and use
it for feature testing. Set up a share on it, use HOMEGROUP
or WORKGROUP (whatever the situation will eventually demand),
and do your testing. Can the computers all detect the "server" ?
Or not.
You can find forums like this one, that are filled with recipes
for all sorts of stuff.
http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/27725-homegroup-vs-workgroup.html
Recipes:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/43961-homegroup-create.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/43972-homegroup-add-computer-join.html
If the computers are heterogenous (different)... Recipe to
help get all the workgroups set to something like WORKGROUP.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/51711-workgroup-name-view-change.html
I think the HomeGroup uses one password for the whole thing. Whereas
with the WorkGroup concept, you're responsible for ensuring
some accounts match so you won't have permission problems.
Since I have only one Windows 7 machine, it's pretty hard
for me to have HomeGroup experience. Whereas, I have
played with regular file sharing a tiny bit.
PS: To find the recipes on the sevenforum site, go to your favorite
search engine, and try syntax like this
site:sevenforums.com homegroup
and that will restrict the search to that one address domain. Once
you find a treasure trove, that makes it easier to "mine it".
Paul
