# freeNAS



## stressfreesoul

How good is freeNAS and are there alternatives? With it being PC based can it act as a print server as well as an FTP server?
Does freeNAS serve to Windows based systems too?
I am considering utilising an AMD Athlon 64 3000+/Biostar/500GB & 30GB(for OS) as a fast server for my home (its sat doing nothing after building a Q6600/MSI P31Neo/320GB/6600GT replacement).
Thanks for any help folks.


----------



## wmorri

From looking at the FreeNAS website it looks like all this is, is a simple file sharing server. Something like Apache, but with fewer options and mods. As to whether this will act as an FTP here is the answer:


> About
> Wednesday, 29 November 2006
> FreeNAS is a free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) server, supporting: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, AFP, RSYNC, iSCSI protocols, S.M.A.R.T., local user authentication, Software RAID (0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 32MB once installed on Compact Flash, hard drive or USB key.
> The minimal FreeBSD distribution, Web interface, PHP scripts and documentation are based on M0n0wall.


Also, something to thing about is that this isn't even in the RC stages yet so you are going to run into problems, some that might crash the server. 

If you are looking to run an FTP server you might want to look into GProftpd, or Proftpd. These are really easy to set up and they both work with FreeBSD, and Linux. 

Cheers!


----------



## shuuhen

FreeNAS is basically just a distribution of FreeBSD with programs like Samba set up nicely and a web interface for people who avoid the command line. I'd bet you could use FreeNAS as a print server if you wanted, but you might have to use the command line instead of the web interface to configure that. I haven't used FreeNAS specifically, but I have a FreeBSD server as my home server and it's worked great for me.

Definitely looks like you should be able to use this with Windows clients. CIFS (Samba) is what you want to look at. FTP should work on any platform (that has an FTP client).

I've never used a Biostar motherboard (ASUS in my current workstation), but Athlon 64 processors have worked great for me. Looks like a good home server though.


----------



## stressfreesoul

Thanks folks. Appreciated.


----------

