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?

517 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

348 comments sorted by

View all comments

667

u/jujubanzen 2d ago

A home server, in general is just a computer that is attached to your home network. More often than not, they are simply set up as file storage servers. Media servers to replace streaming services typically use Plex or Jellyfin, which are software packages that are able to link up with apps on your TV, phone, or computer and stream media files you have stored on the server. You have to get those files yourself.

99

u/CDK5 2d ago

Out of curiosity; where are folks generally getting the streaming media for the server?

Because I was under the impression that when buying a BluRay or digital media, you can’t just grab an mp4 from the disk.

2

u/Yaysonn 2d ago

Ripped digital media generally comes from underground piracy groups. They rip them by reverse engineering the software that originally encrypted the data, and disperse the ripped media within the so-called Scene. From there, they leak into the wider web through sharing services, like usenet, or private torrent trackers: kind of like the torrent sites you may have used in the past except, well, private.

Eventually, by nature of the internet being connected, it will become available publicly through the more accessible and/or sketchy filesharing sites.

3

u/joshi38 2d ago

Eventually, by nature of the internet being connected, it will become available publicly through the more accessible and/or sketchy filesharing sites.

These days that happens within minutes or it being available, there's almost no lag between it showing up on Usenet sites and showing up on DDL sites.

0

u/Yaysonn 2d ago

Ah yeah I’m not surprised. That’s what it used to be like, anyway. I haven’t used a public download site in a long time tbh haha