Realistic Home Network

[huskypenguin79]

Greetings! I apologize for the following long post.

I seek advice. I’d like to set up a home network, but the ideal home server needs to wear many hats. Before I go any further, I’d like to know the feasibility of the following, and honest feedback is appreciated. I realize that what I’d like to do and what I’m going to be able to do are two different things, but I’d like to be able to get an idea of what it would take to do what I’d like to do.

A bit about me: After severe disillusionment with M$'s XP os, I gave Linux a try, but was entirely self-taught. I cut my egg tooth on SuSE 7.3 Home edition, so coming here is kinda like coming home. By the way, I still miss 7.3 and would love to get a full copy of SuSE 7.3, with source.

I would rate my competence when I left the Linux scene to be about at the low end of an intermediate user. I’ve managed to run two or three different versions of SuSE, Slackware, Debian, early Ubuntu, and others. I even managed to get a computer to dual-boot! I’ve used Knoppix to retrieve valuable data for M$ users who, for one reason or another, couldn’t access their data. I’ve wardriven with BackTrack, though I never could get the GPS to work. I’ve even owned and loved a Sharp Zaurus SL5500. I miss that PDA. I actually enjoy using the command line, I’ve monkeyed around with config files of various sorts, I’ve even played around with custom compiling programs. I’ve managed to get a desktop environment with internet and printing with pleasing results. I’ve flashed an iPod with Rockbox (I still love that one). Long story short, I left the Linux scene for a while, but I’m back and ready to learn. I’m not quite savvy on current technology, but I believe I’m capable of knocking the rust off and getting better than before. Anyway, on to the list of things I’d like to do:

I’d like to be able offer the following to my family and friends:
*Secure internet access.
*Network backups for all home digital devices.
*Legally acquired music and movies backed up to the network drive and streamed to any device on the network in the highest quality the device(s) can support.
**I would like to have high quality music, as well as cover/album art and lyrics, where applicable and possible.
**DVDs with the option to access the DVD menu, and skip the previews, if possible.
*Network printing/scanning/fax (I have an all-in-one).
*Personal, internet accessible cloud storage and/or computing.
*In-house Virtual TableTop, HeroLab, Discord gaming communication program for D&D/Pathfinder/Palladium/Shadowrun gaming both in person and online.
*Classic 8- and 16-bit Sega and Nintendo video games copied from legally owned ROMs and playable via emulator
*The ability to copy 8- and 16-bit game ROMs to the network for hosting
*Cross-platform with M$, MacOS, iOS, Android, and of course, Linux.

Current potential clients:
*AppleTV
*iPhones
*iPad
*Mac Powerbook
*Multiple gaming consoles
*Various guest Android devices

Once again, thank you for your time and advice.
P.S.: I’m sorry, but I cannot give you potatoes over the Internet. ;^)

[knurpht]

@huskypenguin79

Greetings! I apologize for the following long post.

I seek advice. I’d like to set up a home network, but the ideal home server needs to wear many hats. Before I go any further, I’d like to know the feasibility of the following, and honest feedback is appreciated. I realize that what I’d like to do and what I’m going to be able to do are two different things, but I’d like to be able to get an idea of what it would take to do what I’d like to do.

A bit about me: After severe disillusionment with M$'s XP os, I gave Linux a try, but was entirely self-taught. I cut my egg tooth on SuSE 7.3 Home edition, so coming here is kinda like coming home. By the way, I still miss 7.3 and would love to get a full copy of SuSE 7.3, with source.

I would rate my competence when I left the Linux scene to be about at the low end of an intermediate user. I’ve managed to run two or three different versions of SuSE, Slackware, Debian, early Ubuntu, and others. I even managed to get a computer to dual-boot! I’ve used Knoppix to retrieve valuable data for M$ users who, for one reason or another, couldn’t access their data. I’ve wardriven with BackTrack, though I never could get the GPS to work. I’ve even owned and loved a Sharp Zaurus SL5500. I miss that PDA. I actually enjoy using the command line, I’ve monkeyed around with config files of various sorts, I’ve even played around with custom compiling programs. I’ve managed to get a desktop environment with internet and printing with pleasing results. I’ve flashed an iPod with Rockbox (I still love that one). Long story short, I left the Linux scene for a while, but I’m back and ready to learn. I’m not quite savvy on current technology, but I believe I’m capable of knocking the rust off and getting better than before. Anyway, on to the list of things I’d like to do:

I’d like to be able offer the following to my family and friends:
*Secure internet access.
*Network backups for all home digital devices.
*Legally acquired music and movies backed up to the network drive and streamed to any device on the network in the highest quality the device(s) can support.
**I would like to have high quality music, as well as cover/album art and lyrics, where applicable and possible.
**DVDs with the option to access the DVD menu, and skip the previews, if possible.
*Network printing/scanning/fax (I have an all-in-one).
*Personal, internet accessible cloud storage and/or computing.
*In-house Virtual TableTop, HeroLab, Discord gaming communication program for D&D/Pathfinder/Palladium/Shadowrun gaming both in person and online.
*Classic 8- and 16-bit Sega and Nintendo video games copied from legally owned ROMs and playable via emulator
*The ability to copy 8- and 16-bit game ROMs to the network for hosting
*Cross-platform with M$, MacOS, iOS, Android, and of course, Linux.

Current potential clients:
*AppleTV
*iPhones
*iPad
*Mac Powerbook
*Multiple gaming consoles
*Various guest Android devices

Once again, thank you for your time and advice.
P.S.: I’m sorry, but I cannot give you potatoes over the Internet. ;^)

Hi, welcome !!!

That’s quite a lot. And quite a lot that doesn’t mean anything to me.
I’d investigate my options running a Nextcloud instance. It offers all kinds of apps ( Music, Video, Mail, Calendar, Filesharing etc ) to run inside the instance, and has apps to sync for Windows, iOS, OSX and Linux. You’d have to forward some port on your router to the server’s IP to make it reachable from the internet.
Sharing a printer is easy, using YaST.

[tsu2]

A long list of things to configure, but looks like most if not all completely possible.

Highly recommend posting a new thread for each individual feature you want to set up.
When you break a long request into individual topics, not only will you get individualized, advice specific to that feature, it will make your post easily searchable by future people looking with the same question. In fact, you might test this by doing your own search for each individual topic to see if it has already been asked, discussed and answered by people before you.

TSU