Personal Cloud?

Hello:

I was wondering if it is possible to build a personal cloud for - say - two people. If yes, how would I go about setting it up?

And, is it feasible to do so? Given that I am not really very savvy with this kind of stuff a bit of explanation would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance.

 

definitely possible. however there's a lot to consider.

1. will you be hosting it or 3rd party, if you'll be hosting it on a machine 24/7 the cost for electricity and possible downtime will have to be considered.
2. if it's going to be hosted by a 3rd party, cost of bandwidth or storage space.
3. devices that will access the cloud like android phones, iOS devices etc...
4. bandwidth at home if you'll be hosting it. gonna be a pain if you have a 3mbs download and 512kb upload and someone is uploading or downloading a 3gig movie file of some sort.

if it's within in the same network it's easier, but if it's over the internet then that's where the complications comes in

 

Thanks.

Well, the idea was to host it myself. Cost of electricity is not really a problem, but downtime is. So how to beat that or at least address it.

I'd prefer to avoid a 3rd party because of the costs and probably security.

The devices that would access this cloud would be Win 7 machines, Android tablets and phones.

And, it has to be over the internet. What are some of the complications?

Cheers!

 

Is your intention media streaming? Or strictly file retrieval and transfer like an FTP?

 

Ok now we're getting somewhere

1. you could have a desktop PC/Laptop on 24/7

a. setup an ftp server to for large file uploads/downloads - this can be accessed by pretty much anything given the right FTP/SFTP client.
b. setup a streaming server like Plex Media Server for Windows

which can be accessible over the web depending on your device, plex supports windows/iOS and android.

2. Router with port forwarding
3. UPS to make sure your machine won't shutdown in funky power failures.
4. Internet connection with good upload speeds (at least 1mbps).

If this really requires constant 24/7 operation then an internet failover router may be needed.

how it works is you have 2 internet connections attached to your router, if 1 of them loses connection the other 1 picks it up.
these kinds of routers usually also carries load balancing where if you're uploading a lot of data and both your internet connections has 2mbps upload, it'll share the upload on both connections.


here's a good article on what I'm talking about above http://www.zeroshell.net/eng/load-balancing-failover/

 

Optimally both. But I envisage the primary use to be file retrieval (which should involve making changes in documents and having it in place to be retrieved from wherever using the device on hand.

Thanks

 

Thanks for the link. I'll look it up. Btw, how much would a set up like this cost - on an average - and how difficult would it be to maintain it?

 

If you are looking to get multiple connections at home I'd look into a device like a Peplink. It will allow you to combine 2+ connections depending on the model. That way you could do DSL + cable or something like that.

 

Cost would really depend on a lot of factors.

most important would be the quality of the internet connection, initially you could start with a single dsl/cable connection, then check for dsl for small business connections if it's too intermittent.

then the hardware, failover routers like cisco/peplink/tp-link ranges from 150$ and up.

for basic stuff something like the tp link TL-R488T would be more than enough for around 150$.

UPS would be around a 100-150$ (APC)
you'd need 2 of those 1 for the PC, the other for the router/modem (unless you could find 1 that can power those for at least 15 mins).

if it's just a media server/file server, then a 400-500$ desktop with 4 gig ram, i3-i5 proc, 2x 1TB hdd, aftermarket cooler, mATX form factor board built in vidcard/sound card should be more than enough (and can be used as an HTPC as well )

cost for O.S.

roughly total around 800-1000usd to get all the hardware.
cheaper if you already have an extra pc at home with minimum specs (even a core2duo would be more than enough for something like this since your bottleneck would be the internet connections.


alternatively, you check out opera unite. files are hosted on your servers/desktop and accessible to whoemever you want them to access to, no video streaming though but music streaming is available already.