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Server or NAS

Cakeman_12
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Hi this is my first time using a forum so hopefully i'm doing this right sorry if I have messed something up. Here is my situation I have hard drives that I want to have in a Server or NAS (if either of these are even the solution to my problem) so my parents and all my brothers/ their GF's can access the data as well as save stuff to it. I would also like to be able to stream the films and TV shows I have ripped from owned DVD's/Blu-rays as well to multiple devices from anywhere. The problem is everyone of us lives in different locations and have different networks (obviously) I am currently at university and will be for one more year and the Server or NAS or what ever will be with me. Is either of the options actually right for this. If this doesn't make much sense to you let me know and I will try and explain it a bit better if I can. Again sorry for anything I have messed up or if this doesn't make sense first time again on a forum. (P.S I know how to build computers and install OS's I have never dabbled into Servers/NAS's before, I would like to build either option as I want expand ability but I want do it at a reasonable price for now and don't know what sort of parts to get for something like this. My budget will be around £300 to £400 without HDD's.)

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A NAS can be considered a type of server. A suitable OS would be FreeNAS which takes care of the storage aspect as well as being able to install Plex which takes care of the media part. FreeNAS recommends using at least 8GB of ECC RAM considering RAM is heavily utilized in its operation. 

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Ok so you would recommend a NAS which will work fine even with all of us being on different networks and at different locations? Also if you wouldn't mind is there a recommended build for the parts you would suggest I live in the UK. Thanks for a quick reply as well :)

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You're likely to have issues hosting until you move out of your university. They tend to have firewall policies to block such things..

 
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35 minutes ago, Cakeman_12 said:

A friend of mine has mentioned FTP server what is this and is this a better option? They aren't super knowledgeable when it comes to servers and NAS.

If everyone wanting to use it doesn't mind the small cost to buy a plex client then this sounds like your best and easiest option. You can run something like FreeNAS or XPenology which both support running a plex server also.

 

XPenology is just the Synology OS that you can install yourself on your own hardware so if there is a Synology NAS that is cheap enough that could also be an option and definitely the easiest, basically no setup required.

 

FTP is just a file transfer method and for streaming videos etc it is not that user friendly. You would have to download the filer completely to the local device before being able to play it. Enabling FTP is still a good idea as you may also want to store general files also and be able to upload/download them.

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The media thing might be fine, but having all your parents, brothers,  and their girlfriends  (???) saving data to your NAS is a really bad idea. Are you taking on liability in case of data loss? Are you implementing a backup solution? Are you implementing security protocols so that nobody can access another person's data? What is your plan if the server or connection goes down and somebody needs access to their files? What happens if one of your brothers goes through a vengeful breakup and data is lost/accessed/stolen? Is everybody chipping in a little money to pay for electricity/hardware/Internet?

 

FTP is not secure. Do not use it to transfer personal data or sensitive information. 

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