Need some suggestions on setting up a server and VPN

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by jnick, Jul 13, 2005.

  1. jnick

    jnick Private E-2

    Hey all.

    I'm going to explain what I'm looking to do, and then if you don't mind, you guys tell me what route I should take.

    Right now I have to computers at home networked. However I have a couple of relatives who are computer geeks as well. We game together, and at one point, I was running a CS server (listen and dedicated) on the same machine I was gaming on. Yes, it made my machine crawl :p.

    So I had all intentions of setting up an old Dell computer, and make that act as a server for games (which ever). However, it's also annoying when patches come out and I have them, but some relatives don't, or they're download, but their connection to the host is slow. Another scenario is if I have to fix their PC, I'll go to their house with discs that have 1-5 files on it, with 500mb left . . .

    So I thought about setting up a machine as a server for games when needed, but also as a file server, using VPN for relatives to get patches, or spyware checks, or to get that 500mb home video I made, without me haveing to upload it to yousendit and waiting for a good hour and a half.

    So I was thinking about maybe purchasing a cheap dell server, and setting that up. However a couple of things to keep in mind. This server will only run game server, and store all my downloaded fles/patches. I want only certain people to be able to access the server. Most importantly, I want it secure.

    Is there a way to accomplish this? I know XP has some VPN software (IPsec?) however I have XP home. Would this server need a server OS, or would Win XP suffice? Would I have to change the OS on all the client machines (I don't think I would . . .). Finally would any of the software needed slow down my main beefed up PC from running normally (basically, would running VPN and extra programs act as bloatware or be a resource hog).

    One other thing, is there a way to only allow, say, 3-4 computers access the VPN ONLY. How prone am I to viruses/hackers/spyware if I would set up a VPN/Server, than if I didn't?

    Any help is greatly appreciated.

    Jnick
     
  2. theefool

    theefool Geekified

    You may want to buy a VPN router to accomplish all of this. Just a suggestion.
     
  3. cat5e

    cat5e MajorGeek

  4. jnick

    jnick Private E-2

    Thanks guys. I do have a VPN router all read, so I'll give this a good read and get to it :p.

    However, for my purposes, do you think a Dimension 8200 with a good HDD will suffice, or do I need to get a small server from dell?
     
  5. jnick

    jnick Private E-2

    Nevermind, I should be fine with my Dimensions if I beef it up a bit :p.

    Thanks guys
     

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