Turn an Old Computer into a Networked Backup, Streaming, or Torrenting Machine with FreeNAS

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Turn an Old Computer into a Networked Backup, Streaming, or Torrenting Machine with FreeNAS

What Is Network Attached Storage?

First, we'll take a closer look at what exactly a NAS is and does, then jump into how to set it up. If you want to skip the first part, you can skip straight to the setup section.

What You'll Need

A PC with a minimum of 192MB RAM to act as your NAS. It will also need a bootable CD drive in it from which we can install FreeNAS onto one of its hard drives.

The FreeNAS live CD, available here (more details on that below).

A network with DHCP reservations or static IP addresses. This isn't required, but it's definitely preferred. If you don't have this, managing your NAS can get pretty annoying, since its IP address will change whenever you reboot it (as will your other computers').

Installing FreeNAS

Sharing Your FreeNAS Drive with a Desktop Computer

Three Cool Ways You Can Use Your NAS

Backing Up Data to Your NAS

Backing Up With SyncToy

Backing Up With Time Machine

Streaming Media to Other Computers From Your NAS

Downloading Torrents Using Your NAS Read more at lifehacker.com

 

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