A home server is a computing server located in a private residence providing services to other devices inside or outside the household through a home network or the Internet. Such services may include file and printer serving, media center serving, home automation control, web serving (on the network or Internet), web caching, file sharing and synchronization, video surveillance and digital video recorder, calendar and contact sharing and synchronization, account authentication, and backup services. Because of the relatively low number of computers on a typical home network, a home server commonly does not require significant computing power. Home servers can be implemented do-it-yourself style with a re-purposed, older computer, or a plug computer; pre-configured commercial home server appliances are also available. An uninterruptible power supply is sometimes used in case of power outages that can possibly corrupt data.
Services provided by home servers
Administration and configuration Home servers often run headless, and can be administered remotely through a command shell, or graphically through a remote desktop system such as RDP, VNC, Webmin, Apple Remote Desktop, or many others. Some home server operating systems (such as Windows Home Server) include a consumer-focused graphical user interface (GUI) for setup and configuration that is available on home computers on the home network (and remotely over the Internet via remote access). Others simply enable users to use native operating system tools for configuration.
Centralized storage Home servers often act as network-attached storage (NAS) providing the major benefit that all users' files can be centrally and securely stored, with flexible permissions applied to them. Such files can be easily accessed from any other system on the network, provided the correct credentials are supplied. This also applies to shared printers. Such files can also be shared over the Internet to be accessible from anywhere in the world using remote access. Servers running Unix or Linux with the free Samba suite (or certain Windows Server products - Windows Home Server excluded) can provide domain control, custom logon scripts, and roaming profiles to users of certain versions of Windows. This allows a user to log on from any machine in the domain and have access to their "Documents" folder and personalized Windows and application preferences - multiple accounts on each computer in the home are not needed.
Media serving
Home servers are often used to serve multi-media content, including photos, music, and video to other devices in the household (and even to the Internet; see Space shifting, Tonido and Orb). Using standard protocols such as DLNA or proprietary systems such as iTunes, users can access their media stored on the home server from any room in the house. Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 can act as a home server, supporting a particular type of media serving that streams the interactive user experience to Media Center Extenders including the Xbox 360. Windows Home Server supports media streaming to Xbox 360 and other DLNA-based media receivers via the built-in Windows Media Connect technology. Some Windows Home Server device manufacturers, such as HP, extend this functionality with a full DLNA implementation such as PacketVideo TwonkyMedia server. There are many open-source and fully functional programs for media serving available for Linux. LinuxMCE is one example, which allows other devices to boot off a hard drive image on the server, allowing them to become appliances such as set-top boxes. Asterisk, Xine, MythTV (another media serving solution), VideoLAN, SlimServer, DLNA, and many other open-source projects are fully integrated for a seamless home theater/automation/telephony experience. On an Apple Macintosh server, options include iTunes, PS3 Media Server, and Elgato. Additionally, for Macs directly connected to TVs, Boxee can act as a full-featured media center interface. Servers are typically always on so the addition of a TV or radio tuner allows recording to be scheduled at any time. Services such as Windows Home Server are less used, likely due to modern services such as Plex and Jellyfin. These services allow users to store their media on a NAS and stream and sometimes download it to devices within the network and optionally to devices outside the network. These services automatically sort users media and find metadata and sometimes subtitles. They also track and remember users progress within a movie or series so they can continue from where they left off. These services have been criticised for catering to pirates by allowing them to easily manage and view their illegally obtained media.
Remote access
A home server can be used to provide remote access into the home from devices on the Internet, using remote desktop software and other remote administration software. For example, Windows Home Server provides remote access to files stored on the home server via a web interface as well as remote access to Remote Desktop sessions on PCs in the house. Similarly, Tonido provides direct access via a web browser from the Internet without requiring any port forwarding or other setup. Some enthusiasts often use VPN technologies as well. Two services common on Linux home servers are VNC and Webmin. VNC allows clients to remotely view a server GUI desktop as if the user was physically sitting in front of the server. A GUI need not be running on the server console for this to occur; there can be multiple 'virtual' desktop environments open at the same time. Webmin allows users to control many aspects of server configuration and maintenance all from a simple web interface. Both can be configured to be accessed from anywhere on the Internet. Servers can also be accessed remotely using the command line-based Telnet and SSH protocols.
Web serving
Some users choose to run a web server in order to share files easily and publicly (or privately, on the home network). Others set up web pages and serve them straight from their home, although this may be in violation of some ISPs terms of service. Sometimes these web servers are run on a nonstandard port in order to avoid the ISP's port blocking. Example web servers used on home servers include Apache and IIS.
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