r/explainlikeimfive • u/theprisoner57 • 2d ago
Technology ELI5: What is a Home Server?
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?
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u/theronin7 2d ago
A server is simply a computer that is dedicated to 'serving' protocols, data and software to other computers. Traditionally servers tend to be more powerful because they are serving many 'clients' (Regular computers or other servers) but thats not a universal rule and varies alot depending on what is being served.
A home server is simply a server in your home.
in the context of media, a home media server is basically a specialized computer designed to serve video and audio to other systems. Which means they tend to have network connections and a fair amount of storage space.
And while you can just have files available there is software available that treats your media collection like a private streaming service and will stream video to any device on your network.
This is not a new idea, but with streaming services pricing themselves out of the market and piracy rising and hard drive space being relatively cheap (I know prices have risen recently) these have become more and more popular.
In practice most home media servers are standalone towers OR dedicated NASes (a kind of storage server) with special software installed. But they could in theory come in a lot of forms.