Introduction

If you’ve been using computers for a number of years, you know that your house will eventually have more than one machine. If you only use computers at work, you know that your office has more than one machine, likely to be connected to a central machine -- a server.

A server is simply a computer that takes the responsibility of being the central point for many computers for a specific reason or specific reasons. A server-client setup has many advantages over client-client setups. For example, if your LAN has five computers and you wanted to give all of them access to one printer, you’ll have to connect the printer to the machine you want to print from. If one of the other computers needed to print, you’ll either have to transfer the document over to the machine with the printer, or disconnect and reconnect the printer. If you had been using a centralized server, any one of those machines could have printed, at any given time.

Setting up a print server is just one of the many reasons to have a server. If you’re really serious about your home LAN, you can also set privileges for each user or each computer. That way, certain computers can gain access to certain resources, while other computers cannot. A server can control file-sharing access, net access, logging access, drive access and even application access.

Not Just for Files

Okay, so maybe you’re not the office type, you want to play games and you love it when people crash your place for a day gaming. In a situation like this, where you want to play games, a server is a must. Whether you’re using a real server to host your games or connecting to your friend’s machine, some type of a server is crucial in multiplayer gaming. There always must be a host, and a client.

In a gaming situation, having a dedicated server can seriously improve the overall experience of your game. This is because no one has to sacrifice performance from their computer in order to host a game, while they are playing in the game at the same time.

If You’re an Enthusiast

Now you feel like you want to setup a server, and you’re wondering how you ever lived without one. Well, here come some more reasons to build a good server. Considering how well the Internet economy is doing *heavy sarcasm*, you may want to consider hosting a website. It of course, won’t be a corporate site, but you can build a decent homepage and host it right in your own room. All you would need is xDSL or cable connection with a static IP and a domain name to point to that IP.

Besides hosting a website, having a dedicated server means you can setup a decent FTP server. You’ll be able to access your files anywhere you go, and give access to your friends. There are a lot of server applications out there on the net and one of the use-to-be popular ones is called Hotline, but we’ll be covering software aspects later. It’s all about the hardware for now.

Getting the Right Parts

Your server setup is determined by your intentions. What do you want your server to do? If you’re going to be doing heavy file and application sharing to multiple computers, a speedy storage system is a must as well as a speedy network. If you want your server to be a host for the latest multiplayer games, a speedy processor is the only way to go. Maybe you’re developing the next generation database technology and you want to setup a database server. Sounds good, but sounds expensive. You’ll need ample amounts of memory, and maybe even a second processor.

Up Time is Crucial

Before you run out and plunk down money to purchase top of the line equipment, you should stop to think about one thing -- you'll rarely be sitting at your server using it like you use your main computer. That means, some of the more exotic components that you have in your main computer, aren’t likely needed in your server. A quick example of a component in that category is a sound card. You likely won’t need that GeForce2 Ultra in your server either.

It now becomes evident that you can dig up some old graphics card and some old sound card to use. In fact, you can build a decent server out of old computer parts if you use the right OS. More on this later.

Whether you decide to build a server from new or existing parts, you’ll want to choose the best components possible. Make sure they are in the best condition possible. Faulty components can really do bad things on a server and wreak havoc to other components. A server needs to be on for as long as need be, and sometimes that means being on all day, all week, all month, all the time. If you want to setup a website, having 99.999% uptime is crucial to having a successful site. You don’t need to go and get yourself a backup generator, but it helps to start at the roots of most computer problems -- inside the computer.

Configurations

I generally split a server into a few categories to make buying decisions easier. Here are a few configurations for you to consider:

File/FTP/Web Server:

600MHz Pentium 3 or faster,
384MB RAM or more recommended, 256MB minimum,
8MB AGP video card,
10GB to 15GB hard drive space minimum, RAID 0 or 0+1 configuration,
100Mbps network card,
And a 4X minimum CD-R writer.

Domain Controller/File/Application/Printer Server:

600MHz Pentium 3 or faster,
256MB RAM minimum,
8MB AGP video card,
10GB to 15GB hard drive space minimum,
One or two 100Mbps network card,
And a 4X minimum CD-R writer.

Game Server:

800MHz Athlon or faster/900MHz Pentium 3 or faster, 1GHz Athlon or higher preferred,
384MB RAM,
GeForce2 GTS based video card,
10GB to 15GB hard drive space,
100Mbps network card,
Sound Blaster Live! or equivalent,
4X minimum CD-R writer,
And a 10X DVD drive.

You can feel free to put whatever components you want into your server. The above configurations just outline some basic components you should consider.