** I just heard about this new technology called a "server".

[Frldyz]

title from the post:
Just kidding.

I have never really looked into what a home server is, what it is used for and why until I watched a video not to long ago.

Honestly I barely still know what a server is.

Can someone point me in the direction of a forum I should post server ?'s. Such as why? How? How much ? etc....


Thanks

[xenopeek]

If you need help with some specific program, how to install or use it on Linux Mint, you can post in Software & Applications.
For your general "what are servers and what can they do for me" question, that's a good topic for Open Chat.

At its simplest a server is a computer configured to serve something to other computers.

You could set up a file server so all computers on your local network can retrieve and store files from a shared location. That way they take up disk space only once (if multiple people in your home need access to them) and you can make the backup from a central location. It doesn't need to be a separate computer; you can configure your computer to do this. More specifically you could also set up a media server so you can view photos and videos you took from any device in your home.

You could also use a cheap simple computer, like a RaspberryPi, to serve simple websites in your home or even to outside your home. You can do things like https://nextcloud.com/athome/ with that so you could for example have access to your calendar anywhere, without handing over all your personal information to Google or worse. Or for a few bucks per month rent a virtual server like https://www.vultr.com/ and for a few bucks per year get a domain name and provide your entire family which their own "accessible anywhere" email, calendar, notes and such without them having to hand over any personal data to Google.

There's a lot of other things you can run on a home server. Like things for home automation, security or even game servers (like run your own minecraft server).

[Flemur]

We call them "waitrons".

[lsemmens]

Simply, some people also call them "the wife", but only if you want a rapid divorce..... Seriously, xenopeek has explained it well enough. You'll also hear of things called peer to peer networks or client - server networks. Both achieve similar ends. In a client - server situation think of it like going to the shop for your groceries, the person behind the counter "serves" you, the "client". With a peer to peer network, you effectively become both the client and the server. Instead of one central computer holding all your data, it could reside on several computers accessible from the network.

I have computer set up as a "server' (although it is really just another computer) and it's main task is to "serve" my collection of videos and music to the rest of the house. Sure beats having multiple copies of the same movie, or CD. It also beats having to find said copy when you want it.

[vladtepes]

FYI

Another term you may hear is NAS - which is Network Attached Storage.

Basically allows someone to put all their stuff on hard drives, with redundancy in case of drive failure as well as share that data (eg movies, music etc) to other devices on the network. (sharing the data is simply 'serving' it to another device). So a NAS is a server.

Well known brands are Synology or QNAS.

A good free option (well, the software is free, the hardware isn't of course) is FreeNAS which is based on the FreeBSD O//S. (which is similar to Linux but isn't Linux).

The complexity (or otherwise) of your system will be dictated by your needs, desires and budget.

This link explains what FreeNAS is https://www.freenas.org/