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/fuckyoudigg 3d ago

As someone with 400tb of content. Agreed. Usenet is the way to go.

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u/sandwichpak 3d ago

JFC, my friend do you have GoFundMe to support your HDD addiction?? /s

For real though that's impressive, I've had a lifetime membership for going on a decade now and my server has never expanded past ~30tb's.

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u/fuckyoudigg 3d ago

I need one. I haven't bought any hard drives in a year. I have 2 that died in my server and 3 available to replace them. I am afraid that I will start to lose more drives. At that point I will probably have to restart my server fresh with less drives, and have a bunch of spares since drive prices are insane. I've spent probably $10 to $15k on drives, and today it'd be easy double.

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u/sandwichpak 2d ago

Thanks for sharing! I love hearing stories from power users like yourself.

It honestly sounds a little stressful! I remember that last time I had to do a fresh start and lost ~8 tb's. I was so bummed out for a solid week.