Having a home based server???

Here's a question for all you uber techies out there.....

Eearlier today while I was chatting with my fiance he said he wants to get a server for our new house (and no I don't mean servent lol...tho he would kind of like one, but we wont go in to that here lol)
Anyway...what's the deal with having your own server? He's a big gamer and generally loves to just do stuff on the computer...download music.....gaming..surfing...whatever.. we're both into it. So...we plan to each have our own den in the new house and he is all wound up about getting a server.

Just curious what this ultimately means....what advantages or disadvantages that will have. High speed cable has been great for us so far..... though when he is home we do tend to both want to use the desktop because it's a direct connect.....as opposed to his laptop whuch uses the wireless. I'm sure in the new house we'll both be set up with primo systems cause he doesn't settle LOL.

Advantage: no tier
Disadvantge: no inventory, no friends, no nothing

oh...no no.....I don't mean for SL.....

He doesn't even do SL. He's talking about having a server for his own personal use to connect to the web. So...I was just unclear as to what advantage this is going to have.....as it is my understanding that you still need to be connected to the broader web servers to have access to the same internet.

I may be answering my own question here.....but a server is just storage correct? We still need an internet provider...and we still need a good fast connection to do the types of gaming we both like. Him with his shoot em up games...and me with SL. A server is only going to allow us what.....lots of extra space for info to bounce around??

He wants a new toy.

Things like that can be practical if you want to want to share files between your computers but the machines are portable and not always in the house, or if he wants to download whatever while his computer is away with him doing something else. Some people hook them up to the stereo or TV for streaming around the house. Others use them for backups.

But really, he wants a new toy.

It won't change anything. You do still need an ISP and your web/email/dns/etc will all still be hosted externally most likely. If your fiance wants to set up a server so he can play around with it and learn how to administer Windows Server or Linux, then good for him. Many of the more successful developers and IT workers I know are self-motivated learners. But don't confuse "server" with "internet service provider".

By the way, these days it's hard to really draw the line between what's a server and what isn't. Windows Vista, Mac OSX, and Linux are all based on operating systems designed to operate as servers and they all have some level of file sharing, web serving, and even e-mail hosting.

Some links he might want to check out:

www.logmein.com
These guys make a program called Hamachi which is a VPN solution so that even if your ISP doesn't give you a static IP, you can establish a private network that you can access from anywhere that has an internet connection.

http://www.microsoft.com/express/sql/default.aspx
Here you can get a free copy of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (a database server) if he's interested in setting up any databases and such.

A server is just hardware that manages shared resources over a network.

Generally, it's just a fast computer that no one uses directly, but is shared by other computers. That's a generalization and simplification, but an easy way to think of it.

One primary use can be shared storage. The server can direct traffic regarding to use of other shared resources, such as a printer or internet connection. Programs can be run off the server and shared (with licences for multiple users).

It shouldn't affect your use of SL at all.

Having a dedicated server to network just two computers seems like overkill to me. But for a computer enthusiast, it's more of a hobby expense than a necessity, I suppose.

Yeah hobby would be the word. This is about the same line of thinking that caused him to buy a projector and 8' roll down screen a few years ago. LOL The ONLY time we ever use that projector is to watch movies out on the deck.....we hook it up to the DVD player and my speakers, and point it at the side of the garage and have an outdoor movie night. It's also pretty dam cool for playing video games, hehe. The screen, has never been used. lol

But....yeah.... his wanting a server is definitely just his need to have toys and 'stuff'.

If he's a multiplayer gamer, he probably wants the server to host games, so he can play with his friends without having to run the game server on the same machine he is playing on.

- Jon

Why don't you ask him?.

Don't you trust him?. Are you worried he may want to sleep with the server?.

He just wants a taller more voluptuous tower.