There are other ways to get a home server if you don't want to go threw everything that I talked about in the last part. There are easier ways to get a server you can just buy one from HP. Now I 'am Only talking about HP because there the only one that I know of that makes home servers. Now also if you still want to do it yourself but a home server is a little bit too much you just really want a back up then I have a something for you too.
HP few years ago came out with their home server line up witch really there is only three there's the HP Mediasmart Server EX495, the HP MediaSmart Server EX490, and HP MediaSmart Server LX195. So lets start with the and HP MediaSmart Server LX195 since it is the cheapest. The LX195 has 640 GB drive and 4 USB ports so the only expiation if you need it will be by getting a external HDD. But it also comes with the all of HP's Mediasmart software that all the other home servers come with. Oh and the price for this $399.99.
The next two are vary similar the Mediasmart Server EX495, and the HP MediaSmart Server EX490 there only deferent's being the Mediasmart Server EX495 has a Intel Pentium Processor Dual Core 2.5 GHZ 64-bit CPU and the HP MediaSmart Server EX490 has a Intel Celeron Processor 2.2 GHZ 64-bit. Other than that they both have 2 GB of RAM have 4 expiation slots and both have 4 USB ports and 1 eSTATA port on them. They also have Windows Home Server on them. There is how ever a differents in price the Mediasmart Server EX495 is going to run you $699.99 while the HP MediaSmart Server EX490 is going to run you $549.99.
Now that you have seen what these HP Mediasmart Servers can do and you are thinking that's really more then what I need. Well if you have a computer laying around or you have the money to get a cheap PC then you could try free NAS. NAS stands for Network Attached Storage, witch pretty much means it's a big HDD sitting on your network. It doesn't do anything fancy it just sits there and lets you but stuff on it. There is a great video on how to set one up on a show Revision 3 use to do called System.
Home networking is becoming easier and easier with each passing day, at this point there is few reasons not to have a home network like what I have talked about in this series. Most people now have more then one computer and all this just helps keep your life a little less hectic.