Hmmm, a buggy M$ product that doesn't work as advertised. Imagine that.

i'm a newbie, thanks.

i advise u ubuntu.
http://www.ubuntu.com/

desktop and server editions are all free of charge 4ever.
ubuntu desktop 7.10 which named 'gusty gibbon' is now so easy to use that almost any newbies can grasp it at once.
of course, it also can serve as a 'home server'

Well - I tired several distros using virtual box...on a side note - Ubuntu did not like my Intel dual core chip??

Anyway - think I am going to settle on Openfiler....at least for now. I like the web admin - especially since it will run on my super old P2 box - I can set it up in a closet and just administer via the web page OpenFiler broadcasts.

This looks like an AMAZING product for those that have not seen it before....I recommend you check it out.

http://www.openfiler.com/

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions!

First post here so here goes.

I found this thread searching. Fireside is looking to do the exact same thing as I am.

I've been pondering over WHS for a bit for the same reasons. What hasn't been addressed so far in this thread is a print server. I would like a basic file/print server for home use. I'm downloading Ubuntu server as I type to try out but I really want my printer to work on it too.

What distro will operate best as a file server and print server? I'm pretty new to linux and have no IT experience so it has to be pretty user friendly for me but I do catch on pretty quickly with new things.

I was all set to pull the trigger on WHS until I read the articles about the file corruption and MS "ho hum" response about the situation. Seriously, they are promoting this to the end user as a easy to use backup source but it corrupts files???? Kind of defeats the purpose of it.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Hi Jailer, welcome to LQ The Ubuntu server distro will be able to act as almost any server - FAP is something that Linux servers have been doing for many years and Ubuntu is likely to have everything set up and ready to go.

Well I've spent all day trying to get connected to the samba server running on Linux Mint to no evail. I followed a tutorial to the letter and no matter what I do I can't access the server from my XP machine.

I even tried to open the smb.conf file and I kept getting a permission denied prompt even when logged in as root.

I'm stumped.

I really would reccomend trying OpenFiler - so far I am loving it. The best part is once you have completed the install - it is a headless client. All administration is done via a web page provided by OpenFiler via HTTPS. In addition any system maintenance/configuration can be done via a web based ssh session to the server once again provided by the OpenFiler web page.

Software RAID has been easy to configure and maintain - volumes can be resized (only larger - can not be made smaller). Check it out - I tested it on my Vista (YUCK!!) machine with Virtual Box vmware. Getting the network working was a pain - but once that hurdle was passed - OpenFiler was a breeze.

Oh - one side note - you must go to the OpenFiler home page and read to FAQs to get the main admin account and password info.

Well an update.

I finally got things going. Ended up going with Ubuntu server 7.10 and Webmin. I have to say Webmin made things real easy since it uses a web interface also. I was also able to connect from Vista without doing a thing so it's working great. Now comes the real fun this coming weekend when my 500GB hard drive and GBit ethernet adapter get here and I add them in.

I'm going to try out BackupPC too and see how that works as an automated unattended backup unless anyone suggests something better. I don't need to back up my PC's, just some specific individual folders on each machine so I don't lose 6 years worth of pictures.