10 fun things you can use a home server for

Table of Content

• The Best Operating Systems for Business and Personal Use
• fun things you can use a home server for
• Best Linux Server For Beginners
• Available Technologies
• Home file server / NAS

If you need more technical info or have a real issue on your hands, it’s usually better to save yourself the trouble and go directly to email ticketing. This gives you better odds of reaching a hosting engineer who can resolve your problem quicker. TMDHosting gets lots of positive reviews, as illustrated by its 4.9/5 score on TrustPilot. It’s a good sign the provider cares about doing right by its customers. The plans include a free SSL certificate, emailing with SpamExperts, and more. You can take advantage of a free domain name, even if you prepay for the shortest period.

For instance, the Economy and Ultimate plans renewals are twice more expensive. This is fine, as long as the rest of the service justifies the higher price. Still, paying for three years in advance is a bit too much for many users. The plans support a range of technologies, like numerous versions of ASP.NET, .NET Core, MVC 1 through 6, CGI, Python, Perl, Curl, SSI, MySQL 5.6, AJAX, and a bunch more.

The Best Operating Systems for Business and Personal Use

The host also offers a 60-day free Windows hosting trial with 1GB storage and 10GB bandwidth. Now, seeing that SmarterASP.NET doesn’t require a credit card to get started made me a bit suspicious. TMDHosting has a reliable service with few real issues to speak of.

You can use it for your home or even for your start-up team. Besides that, home servers are a cost saver and also prevent unnecessary energy wastage. Choosing home servers often becomes tedious as people often get confused between a free version or an expensive version of a home server. Moreover, there are different requirements for a home server, and while choosing, one should consider all these factors.

fun things you can use a home server for

Emby Media Server allows you to upload multiple video formats such as AVI, MPG, MP3, WMV and others. If you have a mobile device, then Emby Media Server allows you to stream the content through your mobile device or through your PC.

They would much rather tinker with ESXi, for example, on their home server. In case you’re wondering where the name Pi-hole came from, it’s because the software was originally designed to run on a standalone Raspberry Pi computer. I run it as a virtual machine on my home server though as it’s a fairly simple piece of software that runs on Debian Linux. Back in the day, I used to run all of my email accounts from my home server.

Best Linux Server For Beginners

In addition, you can stream through your DVR or local library of files. You can stream music and files from your phone or any connected device through apps. If you have Windows Media Connect and love Windows server add-ins, you can definitely try using this Microsoft version.

Multiple factors go into determining the end price of hosting. The main factor here is that Windows Server is licensed, while many Linux distributions are open source. An additional benefit of Windows is that most users are already familiar with the interface through personal computers.

Available Technologies

Some policies in Terms and Conditions aren’t really explained clearly on the product page, which is a transparency problem. The plans run Windows Server 2016, MS IIS 10 web server, and MS SQL Enterprise Edition 2016 with 2012 reporting services. You can prepay for two or three years and get a small additional discount. The prices are fixed, so SmarterASP.NET has very cheap Windows hosting in the long-term. The provider is somewhat secretive about the exact server specs.

You can also opt for the standard Plesk setup if you need a web hosting control panel. Essentially, you can pick and choose the resources you want going into your virtual servers. Burstable CPUs, faster bandwidth, etc. are all on the table.

Games are usually optimized for Windows and their hardware. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution is intended for use in the commercial sector, and it is based on Red Hat’s proprietary Linux distribution. SUSE Linux Enterprise is an open-source platform for mission-critical computing. Other noteworthy Linux server vendors include Distros ClearOS, Scientific Linux, Turnkey Linux, and Univention.

Another popular home server allows you to store and share videos, music, and different media files among different devices inside your house. So much of what Microsoft introduced in Windows 95 is still key to our PCs today. We still use a start menu, taskbar, and system tray in mostly the same way; those features have proven resilient even to Microsoft itself trying to replace them. Many people don’t realise how useful running a file server or NAS is until they’ve done it. Rather than have all your files scattered over various desktop PCs, laptops, external drives, etc. you can consolidate them all onto a fast file server. Most of what you probably need a server for in a home network setting can probably be handled with existing products.

Kodi Open Source Home Theatre Software

One thing to note is that AccuWeb gives out free WordPress hosting, but seems to request reviews in return. It’s also reassuring to see company representatives actively respond to user reviews and trying to make amends with dissatisfied users. It indicates the provider is invested in treating its clients with respect. The price includes a Windows license and Plesk control panel. You can ask for any level of management you’d like—Liquid Web doesn’t charge extra.

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Table of Content

• Windows hosting FAQs
• Ubuntu home server software
• Features
• What OS Is Best for a Home Server and Personal Use?
• Top 7 Home Server Software

You can use the Cloud or desktop-based server as per your preference. Moreover, you can also purchase the Pro version at $25 to get all the advanced features. In addition, its Pro version comes with a special Serviio Media server. It offers IPv6 support with link aggregation for a seamless network.

Sharing files among users when you have a network of computers in the same place can take a lot of time. It might seem more lucrative to go with the cheaper option. Still, being a licensed solution, Windows brings various benefits to the table, like tech support and more consistent updates. Plus, it can open up a whole new world of possibilities for businesses.

Windows hosting FAQs

But when it comes to a home server—Windows and a Linux are probably the options you will need to decide between. In simple terms, a home server is a setup of two or more computers that make-up a local area network within a home. One personal computer can serve as a home server if it has enough storage and memory.

It is a combined server suite that is perfect for companies that have fewer than 75 users. This system is tightly integrated to allow small businesses easy and better connectivity. Microsoft Small Business Server includes tools like e-mail, internal websites, remote access, support for mobile devices, file and printer sharing, backup, restore, and more. Linux distribution Ubuntu is the best choice for servers. This is a Linux distribution that uses a hybrid of Debian and Linux, and it is available for desktops, servers, and Internet of Things devices.

Ubuntu home server software

Pinning items to the taskbar gave you nice, easily clickable icons; stacking browser and file explorer windows into a single icon helped keep things organized. Jumplists provided quick access to features within those programs. Thumbnail previews let you mouse over to see a window without even clicking. Libraries made it easier to group files together in Windows Explorer so you weren't as beholden to the old "My Documents" folder setup. Maybe the best productivity change Microsoft's made in the last 20 years.

500MB of additional disk space or 1GB bandwidth would cost you an extra $5/month. Getting MSSQL with 1GB database storage costs $10/month, and MySQL would add 2GB for $5/month. Another thing to point out is that you get the lowest price if you choose the Denver data center for Windows web hosting. AccuWeb offers 14 other locations, but these bump up the price.

Features

The peppermint has an Intel quad-core processor and at least one gig of RAM. It is surprisingly quick to boot up on a new operating system. When I was just customizing my desktop’s appearance for a more minimal look, I miss those nights. It is true that Puppy Linux is the fastest operating system available. One of the fastest operating systems I believe is Chrome OS. The process of launching the OS is surprisingly quick and painless for a new OS.

The provider did ask me to confirm my email and phone number, but that’s about it. The 60-day trial gives you ample time to test out the platform before spending any money. The smallest plan only has HDD storage, so it’s best avoided unless speed really isn’t a priority.

The host sponsors many posts that praise it, and company representatives work hard to maintain a positive score on user review sites. That said, all the negative attention is tough to conceal. For starters, you need to prepay for three years to get the best deal. The renewal costs are higher than the initial costs as well. So, let’s dig right in and see what there is to say about GoDaddy Windows hosting.

Keep in mind that InterServer only runs data centers in the US. It’s one of the best Windows web hosting choices for targeting North America, but can cause some problems otherwise. You can get some robust solutions if you go for 10+ slices. However, most providers offer better deals the more resources you get, so InterServer is relatively expensive here. DiscountASP.NET is in the vanguard of Microsoft web hosting. A top-notch environment combined with the freshest features and well-trained support makes it a worthy choice.

Linux distributions such as CentOS are a popular choice for server use because they are one of the most popular. This system has been designed with enterprise-level requirements in mind, and is extremely versatile, making it ideal for large-scale deployments. In addition to that, Ubuntu is a fantastic choice for those looking for a full-featured Linux distribution that is popular both on servers and desktop computers. It comes pre-packaged with a variety of applications and tools. According to recent industry research, Ubuntu is the most popular Linux server operating system.

Still, the provider has 13 years of going strong and several awards to show for it. As it is the case with all EIG-owned brands, HostGator outsources its support. The search tool doesn’t always work, and the page sometimes redirects you to the wrong place. Bisend is a Hong Kong-based provider established in 2011. In the last nine years, the provider racked up 200,000 customers and is now partnered with big names like Alibaba Cloud and Plesk. Terms of service state that you can cancel a product, but it will only be deemed canceled once you receive a written confirmation.

Fedora would be good to use for a beginner or intermediate level of knowledge in a Linux system. Because it is always trying to be on the cutting edge, one of the downfalls of Fedora is it could be volatile and unreliable because not all packages are stable. Understanding the difference between a server OS and an everyday OS is crucial. There are very specific differences between a server OS and an everyday OS.

This is very rare since few international hosting companies provide Windows-based servers in Hong Kong. You get full root access so you have full flexibility, but you have to build everything from the ground up. The shared plans run Plesk and support all the standard technologies—ASP.NET, .NET Core, Classic ASP, and modules like ASP.NET MVC, Silverlight, and ODBC. You can also request installation of additional modules if necessary. InterServer offers ASP.NET shared plans, as well as VPS and dedicated Windows servers. The support team does a solid job handling everything about Windows web hosting.