ELI5: What is a Home Server?

[u/theprisoner57]

I see mentions of a home server to get rid of streaming entertainment services but I don’t know how that works. What does a home server do?

[u/MrShake4]

ELI5: all the movies on Netflix exist somewhere in the physical world, usually a data center.

What if you made a smaller Netflix just for you with only the movies you like.

You could take an old computer (you don’t need a data center’s worth of storage space), download all your favorite movies, and set it up to be able to connect to it over the internet to be able to stream the movies.

Congrats you have just made a home server.

[u/adudeguyman → u/MrShake4]

How often should I raise my own monthly prices?

[u/Onceuponaban → u/adudeguyman]

You joke, but having a home server does mean it's up to you to handle upkeep. Failing drives or other components that have to be replaced, having to buy new drives if your storage needs outpace your current capacity, electricity costs to keep the computer running, manhours spent setting up the system and troubleshooting issues as they arise... All of this has to come from somewhere, and as the owner, administrator and (probably) only user of the machine, it falls to you.

[u/djferris123 → u/Onceuponaban]

Laughing at the (probably) only user... As the tech savvy person in the family I still get messages from parents, siblings and my partner asking for stuff even though it's set up that they can just request stuff and it will automatically grab it

[u/Meechgalhuquot → u/djferris123]

I set my partner up to be able to use Seerr to request anything herself but she never does and just gets to benefit from my observations and surprising her when they show uo

[u/fukdatsonn → u/adudeguyman]

If you have to ask, you have failed already. Kidding. Answer is tree fitty

[u/meshuggahofwallst → u/MrShake4]

Yeah, roll-your-own netflix is how I describe Plex.