Server...?

[NintendoTogepi]

What is a "Computer Server" and why do people set them up?

I had someone on another forum reccomend me to turn an old computer into a server...why would I want to do this?

[aeiah]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_(computing)


most people dont need or want a home server. if you're in a household with several computers, you may find a use for one though.

[bobbocanfly]

Why would you want to use one?

Serving files around your home network
Hosting your own website (if you have a vaguely ok broadband connection, serving a personal blog should be fine)
Folding @ Home (or anything else like that)
Cache server (would make browsing the Internet faster, especially if you have multiple people on the network that visit the same kind of websites)

I run one that I test my Ubuntu package uploads on, making sure they all build etc, so that you guys dont download broken packages ;)