wanting to make a NAS . . . maybe?

[modulus]

Well let me start by saying this is definitely not my expertise at all so all help is appreciated.

What I want:
1. I want to set up some storage attached to my network that I can access from any computers at my house with read/write access to be used mostly as backup. I want to be able to use this fully 'headless' - no attached monitor/keyboard/mouse.

2. I'm not really sure what the possibilities of being able to access this data from the internet are, but if possible and secure it is something I would like to pursue but this is not the main objective.

3. It would also be nice if I could use it as a print server, but again this is not the main goal.

What I have:
4. I have a small atom 330 based mini-itx build I was hoping to use for this. It has 2gb ram. There are 3 hard drives in it. One hard drive is 40gb and the other two hard drives are 1tb each.

5. Right now I have an old copy of windows installed on it and just kind of use it as networked storage but this has kind of been a pain trying to run it headless.

Other Thoughts:
6. I guess the first thing I'm trying to figure out is whether to get rid of windows on that box and what to put on instead. At first I was considering putting on some distribution of linux because I've read a bit on some nas software that's available for free. Last night I was reading a bit on freenas and that seems very enticing.

Questions:
7. Is NAS even what would be best for me? What about SAN or other possibilities?

8. Is freenas a good way to go? If not what would you recommend?

9. How easy is it to install and maintain freenas or whatever you recommend? I don't want to have to spend a lot of time figuring all kinds of stuff out and keeping it going. I want something very simple.

10. So I was reading up about the zfs file system and it seems like a good way to go for nas storage, but this is definitely not my expertise so I'm open to suggestions.

11. Anything else I should be aware of, or consider?


Thank you all very much for your help.

 

[modulus]

also let me note that my preferred budget is 0 - i don't really want to spend anything extra if i don't have to

 

[aphasia]

what problems are you running into while using your existing equipment?

depending on the version on windows (XP or greater) you should be able to use RDP to access the machine to keep it 'headless' and just 'map network drive' to the disks you want to access over your network.

if access is required outside your home network, you could install 'filezilla sever' for your FTP needs.

does your printer have a ethernet port? if it does you don't really need a print server. if your printer can only be attached to a local machine (USB) setting up a print share isn't that difficult via windows.

really not sure of the value of installing one of the free distros of NAS software for 2 1TB disks.
if you were looking at RAIDing 3 or more disks then sure it might be worth it. otherwise windows with RDP and a couple of mapped drives should serve you well.