Previously:

  • Hardwares:
    • HP Proliant N54L + Windows Home Server 2011 + 3 x 1T hard drives
  • Softwares:
    • DrivePool(For software RAID) + PS3 media server + Thunder(Download software)
  • Usages:
    • Server runs 24x7, Windows remote desktop into server everyday to download
    • PS3 media server and Windows Share stream the videos to other devices
    • Store all videos and pictures in RAID drive, about 200 GB
    • PhotoSync uploads images to Flickr for 1. a second backup and 2. easy viewing from everywhere
    • Google Drive 80GB $20 Per year plan with about 65% used.

Recently:

Made some moves
  • Bought Amazon Unlimited Cloud Storage
  • Bought Netflix Australia
  • Bought PrivateInternetAccess(PIA)
  • Tuned off Windows home server

Data and Thinking

Problems with existing setup for backup
  • Upload of photos needs to be done manually every time for PhotoSync
  • Flickr's iPhone app doesn't do auto-upload very well, this is quite important since it's much harder to organise photos taken by phones compare to by cameras(it's more time-frame/event related)
  • Flickr's space is 1T, will run out one day
  • The cost for running the server per year is some where between AUD$70 to AUD$170
Problems with existing setup for watching movies and TVs
  • With Netflix Australia, there's too limited content, really want to keep it but can't find many shows to watch
  • With home server I can watch latest shows but it needs manual operation every time something new is available
New
  • Amazon Cloud's iPhone App does auto-upload pretty well and easy to navigate all old photos without taking too much space on the phones, the cost is only $59.99
  • PIA with a deal atm is $59.95 for 2 years,

Future Plans

Will do the following
  • Keep Amazon Cloud Storage
  • Keep Windows Home Server off
  • Keep PrivateInternetAccess
  • Cancel Netflix