NAS / Home Server Plan

[mojo8472]

Hey guys, huge fan of this forum. Been lurking for a while!

I've got a plan for a home server / nas device for me and my flatmates:

Essentially it would act as a NAS for streaming media around the house to Xboxes and PCs, also serving up files over the internet to our PCs when we're out.

It would also need to run our Skype phones (cheap students cant afford a landline!) which unfortunately ties the OS down to Windows.

From a hardware point of view, the plan is to use a cheap dual core pentium system with a reliable PSU and a bunch 'o' drives hiden in a wardrobe.

My concern is how to secure the system on the internet while still being able to serve up files online.

Would WHS be the best for this?

 

[jam3ohio]

WHS is certainly an option. I'd suggest posting also at www.wegotserved.co.uk and www.mediasmartserver.net for WHS experts who can answer detailed questions about that platform.

 

[bookmage]

WHS certainly does work for your listed requirements. You can stream to other PCs and to your 360s using pvconnect or another compatible plugin. Depending on your videos, you may need to transcode the video, which would require some processing power and ram... Haven't used the skype part, but since WHS is windows 2k3 under it, it should work.
You would want to implement port forwarding or try to let WHS auto configure it so only the website or ur required ports are available. you would still be vulnerable to regular windows attacks/viruses, so you would want antivirus in place. you could also run hamachi or some other vpn and elminate hte need for an open web server on the internet. It does depend on what you want to do outside your network.