Re: Home Server Storage

["vargster" <vargster+mailgroups@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've been thinking about this for a while, following on from a late
night pub based conversation...

Basically (doing it on the cheap) clean up an old machine,fit a 500GB
harddrive, install Linux (it's free), using something like TruCrypt
(like MS bitlocker) to encrypt all the data on the drive.=20

The first backup you do at home over the lan.

The box is installed at a friends house, forward one non-standard port
to the box, which is on a timeswitch, it comes on for an hour a day, 1
am til 2am say. You host his backup box, also on a timeswitch from 3am
til 4am.

As the contents of the drive are encrypted there can't be much mucking
around with your machine (by your mates teenage kids - though once I'd
checked it had an internal USB header, I may be tempted to fill the
keyboard/mouse/serial/usb sockets with epoxy). At the appointed time,
your backup box powers up ready for action. Your server at home now
SSH's securely into the box and proves the TruCrypt keys to unlock the
encrypted drive. Then it RSYNC updates all the changed content over. A
cron job kills Rsync if it's still going an hour later (just in case -
it'll carry on from where it left off the next night), the box is then
shutdown before the power is cut.

Cost? =A360 for a new drive + =A35 elec a year, bandwidth at that time of
the morning is usually unmetered...

Cheap, Safe and secure with realist amounts of storage...



=20
> The only other thing I can think of is a reciprocal arrangement
where=20
> YOU have some space in MY server and I have space in YOURS - Does=20
> anyone currently do this?  You would need to encrypt the offsite
data=20
> and backup would need to be automatic, but it shouldn't be too=20
> difficult to achieve with a bit of thought - May be a potential WHS=20
> application.
>=20
> Cheers,
>=20
> Tim.
>