Old laptop as network storage

[Roosterfosho]

Has anyone ever done this? I have a few old laptops that I was thinking of turning into media servers, but don't really know where to start... All the tutorials I find are really...uninformative and I was hoping someone could clarify a little better for me. Would I be better off installing Ubuntu or something along the lines or Linux?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Paulywauly]

its usually quite easy actually and pretty satisfying when it works
What are the specs of your old laptop? What sort of media are you wanting to share out? how much storage do you need? and what other devices do you want the server to be available to?

 

[Roosterfosho]

The old laptop isn't that bad. 4 gigs of ram 2.2 ghz processor 500 gb hard drive. I'll probably just be putting music, movies, etc. stuff that i don't want to clog my MacBook with. I'll probably want it hooked up to my MacBook and my PC. I also like the idea of being able to access it when I'm out via an FTP connection or some other way.

 

[Paulywauly]

If its just for a Macbook and a PC you could just set up an SMB fileshare and keep all of your media in it. Then set up alias's (on the Macbook) and mapped network drives (on the PC) If your music is in iTunes you could just enable shared libraries in the iTunes preferences, iTunes on the Macbook and PC should pick it up and be able to stream over your home network.
If youre wanting to take your Macbook out and about with you you have a few different options including:

- cloud storage - (dropbox etc)
- setting up a VPN (allowing you to access your home network when not at home) although you'd need a very good upload speed for this.
- Some form of streaming system. There are numerous options but i use Zumocast as it has an IOS client and can be accesed via web browser