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Emanuele78 · Nov 1, 2007, 05:51 PM

HI all!

New here but not to the apple world!
I have an old computer sitting around that I am trying to play with so I can use it as a server but it is not cooperating at all: I have been thinking of switching completely to an all apple setup. I already have a Macbook and thinking of getting a 24" iMac as my main computer and a Mini that I will use as a file server.
Just wondering if thinking as a Mini as a file server is a good thing? Should I just use the iMac as a server as well?
What I would like to do is be able to access my Mini or iMac from work from my Macbook to access any file I would need. Also, I have a couple Squeezeboxes around the house so I would need to have SlimServer installed on the server as well to be able to stream music at any time of day or night....

Any suggestions and advices are most welcome

Thank you.
Emanuele

mduell · Nov 1, 2007, 06:15 PM

The mini is fine as a server, of course it will need an external drive or three.

You can use FolderShare for remote file access/syncing if you don't want to pay for a .Mac account to use Back to my Mac in Leopard.

Emanuele78 · Nov 1, 2007, 06:39 PM

oh wow.....I had no idea that .Mac could do that with Back to my Mac! That is pretty sleek. Although I really do not need a new e-mail address....still it is very tempting only for that tool!

Thank you for the link to FolderShare....

stukdog · Nov 7, 2007, 11:03 AM

Mac minis are great as file servers. We have a lot of customers send them in just so they can have a central file server.

You'd be able to have 10 clients connect to your Mac mini at any time. (In your setup you described, that would be more than enough.)

Waragainstsleep · Nov 7, 2007, 04:30 PM

To access the server from outside (on the net), you will need a static IP or a dynamic DNS account. I use dynDNS.org since the client is built into my netgear router.

besson3c · Nov 7, 2007, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by Emanuele78

HI all!

New here but not to the apple world!
I have an old computer sitting around that I am trying to play with so I can use it as a server but it is not cooperating at all: I have been thinking of switching completely to an all apple setup. I already have a Macbook and thinking of getting a 24" iMac as my main computer and a Mini that I will use as a file server.
Just wondering if thinking as a Mini as a file server is a good thing? Should I just use the iMac as a server as well?
What I would like to do is be able to access my Mini or iMac from work from my Macbook to access any file I would need. Also, I have a couple Squeezeboxes around the house so I would need to have SlimServer installed on the server as well to be able to stream music at any time of day or night....

Any suggestions and advices are most welcome

Thank you.
Emanuele

If it were me I wouldn't get a Mac Mini to use as a file server. Not only are Minis overpriced (you pay for the form factor) but you would have to pay more to get an external disk with an enclosure rather than an internal disk. You could pick up a Shuttle and load it up with disks and it would be silent, and much cheaper. Plus, you'd be able to get SATA2 drives for the Shuttle which are faster than the Serial ATA drive in a Mac Mini.

You could use any OS as a file server, this is not a CPU intensive operation.

besson3c · Nov 7, 2007, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep

To access the server from outside (on the net), you will need a static IP or a dynamic DNS account. I use dynDNS.org since the client is built into my netgear router.

Yeah, you don't need Back to my Mac to do this... Unless I've misread or misunderstood something, BtmB is simply dynamic DNS.

besson3c · Nov 7, 2007, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by stukdog

Mac minis are great as file servers. We have a lot of customers send them in just so they can have a central file server.

You'd be able to have 10 clients connect to your Mac mini at any time. (In your setup you described, that would be more than enough.)

If you are thinking of AFP limitations, you can do more with sshfs, which is faster than AFP anyway.

analogika · Nov 8, 2007, 03:47 AM

I have a Mac mini and three external drives sitting in the hallway closet as a file server - it works very well.

I run the free no-ip client software and have a dyndns account from no-ip.com (free also), so that I have a human-compatible address to access ("myregisteredno-ipusername.dyndns.org").

For screen sharing from outside, in the Finder, I just connect to vnc://myregisteredno-ipusername.dyndns.org and that's it.

For file sharing from outside, in the Finder it's just myregisteredno-ipusername.dyndns.org, without the "vnc://" bit.

The only advantage to Back to my Mac, as far as I can see (though I'm a .Mac customer, I haven't implemented it yet, as I haven't taken the Mac mini up to Leopard yet), is that your home machine shows up directly in the "Shared" section of the Finder, meaning you don't have to go through the "Go to" --> "Connect to Server..." bit, and you don't need to sign up for a no-ip account.

If that's the primary reason for buying a .mac account, consider that this is very little effort for setting up once (you also need to switch on Screen Sharing in the server's Sharing system preference).