Make a NAS Home Server

Network-attached storage—a server for your home or small business network, used for storing files that you share with all the PCs on the network—are a big deal. We review lots of them (here are the 10 best) with prices from a pittance to the hundreds. If you've got an old PC with lots of storage drive space, you don't need to buy a NAS: make one.

FreeNAS is software for doing exactly that. It's accessible by any OS on your network—Windows, macOS, Linux, you name it. It's a perfect way to make a shared backup of your many devices. FreeNAS will also stream media to mobile OSes like iOS and Android; you control which users get access. You need at least 8GB RAM and a 64-bit chip in the PC to run it properly.

Tonido is a different kind of storage—it turns your PC into a NAS that's more about remote access. In other words, it helps you build your own private cloud, where the PC becomes a website for accessing files from anywhere, on any device. Do it at home over DLNA to stream media, or remotely from a smartphone—there are Tonido apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, even Windows Phone and BlackBerry. Tonido also offers file syncing across computers (up to 2GB of data).

Tonido suggests you put it on your primary use computer, but if you install it on an old secondary computer, it's instantly part of your backup routine. Note that it's not an operating system in and of itself—you'll still need Windows, macOS, or a version of Linux running on the PC to use Tonido.

Other software you can try: Rockstor and NAS4Free.