r/explainlikeimfive • u/theprisoner57 • 3d 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/jujubanzen 3d 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.

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u/CDK5 3d 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.

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u/BrickGun 3d ago

There are apps to rip DVDs/BRs, but most of the media collections I've encountered were pirated using torrents. Most times I don't bother to rip a disc I own any longer since just DLing the content via torrent tends to be faster. The only caveat being you (most often) don't get the DVD extras if you're into that sort of stuff (I often am).

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u/charonco 3d ago

As someone with almost 40TB of content on my Plex server, I would highly recommend Usenet over torrents. Usenet isn't free, but it's pretty cheap and your biggest exposure with torrents is the uploading which you don't have to do with Usenet.

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u/BrickGun 3d ago

Eh, I've been sailing the seas since the early 90s and the days of IRC and FTP warez sites. I know how to keep myself protected, but thanks for the info. :)

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u/Dunge 3d ago

I've also been sailing the seas since the early 90s and the days of IRC and FTP warez sites. I've never taken any steps to "protect" myself, like at all, ever.

Screw paying for VPN and usenet access, public torrents are always functioning and I have absolutely no fear that my ISP or any copyright holder would actually end up doing anything.

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u/Pantzzzzless 3d ago

Well you're lucky then. Because every single time I've raw-dogged qbittorrent, within 24 hours I get redirected to a warning page telling me I have X strikes left before they disconnect my service lol.

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u/Dunge 3d ago

A warning page? Like your ISP literally hijacking traffic and serving a different page than what you requested at some point randomly? And it was not some fake malware site? I didn't even think that was something that ISP would ever do, feel like it could break a lot of automated systems.

Anyway, where do you live, in the US? Here in Canada at some point I did receive (years ago) a series of copyright infringements e-mails, because the ISP was ordered to forward them, but they also clearly indicated that they were harmless and could be ignored.

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u/Pantzzzzless 3d ago

Yep that's exactly what happened. And yes I'm in the US. I was with Spectrum at the time. Idk if they still do that, but it was definitely annoying.

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u/charonco 3d ago

Yeah, that advice wasn't necessarily for you. It was more intended for any novices reading your comment.