An idea, feedback would be appreciated

I've tried Orb and like you mentioned, the picture was terrible. I mean, downright awful. Unwatchable in my experience.

What is your upload speed? Picture quality has been decent for me since I upgraded to a 10/2.5 mbps package.

So I just need to get an old computer and put a few 1TB HDD's in there and set it up for remote access? Can only one computer access it at one time? Or is it only those who have the password for it?

That's pretty much all you need to do. A gigabit LAN card would improve transfer speeds, but isn't exactly required. You would also need a gigabit switch in that case, but that would also be necessary with the server you linked to.

I don't know the actual limit, but more than one computer can access it at a time. I guess the limit would vary based on the ftp software you use.

Password protection is typically optional, but I highly recommend using it.


If you already have the computer, I suggest setting up the network and giving it a try before purchasing drives and such. This way, you could have a good idea of what you are paying for, and it would allow you to fix any issues that might come up before spending a bunch of money.
 
If I were just to use an old computer I will have my dad grab me a Dell from his work and just put in an old 200gb HDD to test it.
 
If I were just to use an old computer I will have my dad grab me a Dell from his work and just put in an old 200gb HDD to test it.

That would be perfect. You don't need much power at all for local file sharing. For example, my file server consists of an 800mhz VIA C3 with 512MB RAM and debian 5.

If you want to use orb, windows is required afaik. I haven't tried it in WINE because I have serious doubts it would work properly. It also needs a bit more power, such as a P4 to maintain a steady framerate.
 
It would most likely be a P4 with 512mb ddr2 ram. But if I cannot get one of those, I will just go to Craigslist and find an used computer for less than $200. I should be able to get something decent for that.
 
It would most likely be a P4 with 512mb ddr2 ram. But if I cannot get one of those, I will just go to Craigslist and find an used computer for less than $200. I should be able to get something decent for that.

tbh, I wouldn't spend more than $100 on a pc for a server. The only features that will make a noticeable difference in performance are LAN speed, SATA revision, and OS.

Other things worth looking for are small size, low power consumption, and loudness. Since this is probably going to end up in a closet, efficiency is also important.
 
Alright I will defiantly keep those things in mind. I probably won't start all of the buying and setting up for another few months, I just wanted to get an idea of what I am getting into lol.
 
Alright and you guys especially you foothead have been extremely helpful. When I start all this work I will take pictures and give updates so others can do the same.
 
I built a media server out of a 1.1ghz Mini-ITX board, Micro-ATX PSU, and a 500gb HDD running Fedora 11. Worked fantastic until the 500gb Seagate HDD died about a year later but I backed it up because I could tell it was dying. I'm actually thinking of setting one up again now that my PC is out of space.

BTW, that was the last time I bought Seagate. Not the first time one of their drives screwed me over.
 
What did you have to do to set it up, and how easy/hard would it be to do?
 
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