Backing up over network?

[mig.gentry]

Hey guys and gals, bit of a vague question but i'm just thinking about options at the moment.

I want to back up my ibooks data and figure i have 2 options, external hard drive or to another pc on my network.

I think i can get hold of an old pc for free so i'm leaning that way. But i need to know how complex it os to set up an old PC as a file server (right term??) on my network.

Does it have to be fairly up to date, speed or OS wise, or will anything with a decent sized hard drive do.

Any links to websites would be appreciated, i'm all googled out

M

 

[pstauff]

Probably would be easier just to get an external Firewire or USB hard drive. That said, I have a home network and a desktop with XP that has 260 GB of drive space. I back up to that. I back up over my wireless G network. It's fast enough for me.

 

[mig.gentry]

Probably would be easier but if i can get an old pc desktop for free then i'll save myself a bunch of cash.

 

[Desolate One]

Probably would be easier just to get an external Firewire or USB hard drive. That said, I have a home network and a desktop with XP that has 260 GB of drive space. I back up to that. I back up over my wireless G network. It's fast enough for me.

I do something very similar. Every so often I just copy everything over to the back up system. If you have the space for an additional computer go for it, otherwise an external FireWire drive should do ya just fine. They're basically doing the same thing.