A Hypothetical Person With A Hypothetical Question:
He has a good computer just setting around. He use's it to back stuff up on. He has a cable modem & a fairly fast connection. He has unlimited monthly uploads & downloads limits. All his computers are networked together via a router.
He would like to use one of his computers as a standalone server. (fttp?)
What he would like to do is put music, music videos, and other stuff on it. Then share it with friends. "By Invitation Only". A place for friends to Upload & Download. He's not asking about the legality of it.
Would it be easy for him to do? Could he do it himself? He has seen Microsoft books on how to do it about 3 feet thick! Is it really that hard? Just a simple place to get & give stuff? Could it be setup "By Invitation Only", keeping "Undesirables" out?
Can it be done by the "average" (or below) computer user?
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05:01 PM
PFF
System Bot
Jax184 Member
Posts: 3524 From: Vancouver, Canada Registered: Jun 2005
I run several servers on this machine. FTP, HTTP, mail, etc. It's not too terribly difficult. An FTP server would probably be the easiest way to give people a username and password that gives them and only them access.
Probably the easiest way is to set it up as an FTP server. I like Bulletproof FTP software. Pretty easy to set up for a basic configuration, but has a lot of nice features as you get more comfortable with it.
[This message has been edited by Taijiguy (edited 09-07-2006).]
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05:17 PM
Blacktree Member
Posts: 20770 From: Central Florida Registered: Dec 2001
It can probably be done by your average computer user. If the computer has Win2K or WinXP, it should have FTP Server capability built in. You just need to activate and configure it*. Then your buddies need to install an FTP Client on their computers so they can connect. There are also many FTP programs available, some of which are free. Try a Google search.
* To use the built-in Windows FTP Server, a plug-in called "Internet Information Services" (aka IIS) needs to be installed. You can do this using the "Add/Remove Windows Components" section in the Control Panel. You'll need your Windows CD, too.
[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 09-07-2006).]
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05:21 PM
Boondawg Member
Posts: 38235 From: Displaced Alaskan Registered: Jun 2003
There are a bunch of different ways to do it, it really depends on what ya wanna do.
I think he wants just basically a password protected harddrive (or part of a harddrive) where people could give & take. No fancy screens, chat, etc. The bare basics.
First thing you nee to think about is how much reliability do you want built into it.
Anytime you share data you have to think about backups. Data gets corrupted and hard drives go bad. Where are you storing the server, you don’t need a lot of space but it has to stay cool. OS is probably the next biggest thing. If you don’t plan on using it for anything more than file storage any of the latest varieties of Linux will do what you want. Make sure you setup the fire wall and only allow the ports you need. In fact it’s a good idea to change the ports to something other than default then only give out the information to those you want to share with.
Network is the next thing, you said its connected to a modem. I would suggest your friend use a router and block all of the ports you don’t need.
Security is a big deal, not only can you loose your data but you could become a zombie and be responsible for sending out tons of spam and not know it.
Any server with a P3 1 Ghz with 512 megs of ram should work for web services. The biggest thing will be connectivity and hard drive space. You don’t want to trust the data to a single drive. You need a raid controller that will do raid 5, that way you can loose a drive and it wont effect the server at all. Just pull the dead one and put in at new one of the same size and it will rebuild the data.
First thing you nee to think about is how much reliability do you want built into it.
Anytime you share data you have to think about backups. Data gets corrupted and hard drives go bad. Where are you storing the server, you don’t need a lot of space but it has to stay cool. OS is probably the next biggest thing. If you don’t plan on using it for anything more than file storage any of the latest varieties of Linux will do what you want. Make sure you setup the fire wall and only allow the ports you need. In fact it’s a good idea to change the ports to something other than default then only give out the information to those you want to share with.
Network is the next thing, you said its connected to a modem. I would suggest your friend use a router and block all of the ports you don’t need.
Security is a big deal, not only can you loose your data but you could become a zombie and be responsible for sending out tons of spam and not know it.
Any server with a P3 1 Ghz with 512 megs of ram should work for web services. The biggest thing will be connectivity and hard drive space. You don’t want to trust the data to a single drive. You need a raid controller that will do raid 5, that way you can loose a drive and it wont effect the server at all. Just pull the dead one and put in at new one of the same size and it will rebuild the data.
Well you asked so I gave it my best shot. Now if you want to go cheap then heck you can set xp pro or 2000 IIS and configure an ftp site. Put in a large drive and load it up. Its all in how long can you afford to be down should something bad happen. Just buy 2 drives and ghost one to the other so you have a backup and plug it in
yes WinGate is something you may to look for, if you dont wanna use MS stuff. theres also many other simaler packages. another one, which is FREE for under 10 users is LAN602 I used lan602 for awhile - worked well wingate is more powerful, has better interface & monitoring - but, only 1 month free - then gotta buy. but, setting the clock back does work - tho, for a server having unreal file dates - not good......
