Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

I’d read months ago that Microsoft wanted to make it possible for every home to have their very own home-based server. (I’d also once read about every home having their very own electricity generator– how cool is that?). Having a home server is actually very appealing, since I am a do-it-yourself kind of gal. It’s not terribly difficult, either. Popular Mechanics online has a brief (yes, brief!) article on how to do just that.

Essentially, any computer that “serves” data to other machines on a network is a server. And as American households become populated with multiple PCs, the idea of a central hub that can be used for backup, storage and even remote access becomes reasonable, even essential. Anticipating a household server market, HP recently launched its HP MediaSmart Home Server ($599), using Windows Home Server software as the operating system. The HP server comes with a single 500 GB hard drive (plus three empty drive bays for expansion), and can automatically back up computers on the network, as well as store and stream media.

$600 is still a lot of money in my book. But such a thing could very well be affordable. And the beauty of it all is, you could even use an old, unused PC as s server. The PC needs to be able to connect to your home network, of course (my old Windows ME does not have a Network card so we’d need to install one if we wanted to use that).

A home server is a great idea, because we have so many little flash drives around the house that it’s crazy! Tucking all the information on one big hard drive for the whole family to share would condense all our files and get rid of the immense computer clutter that I hash through on a regular basis.

The thing I would love to work up to is hosting my own websites on my own server. I have absolutely no idea how to even start thinking about doing that, lol. But it’s a nice thought. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about my websites going down because of an ice storm in Texas, or worry about my domain name being scarfed up by a drug rehab website or a splog about Brazilian flooring. :S And yes, that has happened.

I do wonder what the future holds. I’m looking forward to self-generation of electricity!