how to set up my own cloud?

I have a desktop PC, running on intel i5, 8GB RAM on windows 10 Home premium. I don't turn off my PC and I want to run a personal cloud so that I can download files directly from my PC elsewhere. It's for my personal use only.

I'd like to know, 1. How to setup? Is it difficult? I have no knowledge on anything about this
2. What would be the speed of download? What factor determines the download speed?

Hi there @Tsw88. You'll need to get a DNS service to do this. Here are some articles to learn what DNS or DDNS is.

How To Easily Access Your Home Network From Anywhere With Dynamic DNS

Domain Name System - Wikipedia

Dynamic DNS - Wikipedia

Here is an older thread that has a link to a free DNS service or you may search for others. Your data service provider may have it as well.

Everything seems Going Pro (i.e PAY) - any Free equiv for DynDNS Solved - Windows 10 Forums

All in all using OneDrive or other cloud storage is simpler IMO, but of course your choice.

HippsieGypsie said:

Hi there @Tsw88. You'll need to get a DNS service to do this. Here are some articles to learn what DNS or DDNS is.

How To Easily Access Your Home Network From Anywhere With Dynamic DNS

Domain Name System - Wikipedia

Dynamic DNS - Wikipedia

Here is an older thread that has a link to a free DNS service or you may search for others. Your data service provider may have it as well.

Everything seems Going Pro (i.e PAY) - any Free equiv for DynDNS Solved - Windows 10 Forums

All in all using OneDrive or other cloud storage is simpler IMO, but of course your choice.

Hi there

@Tsw88

That old last link was initiated by me AGES ago so might not be valid any more. I've solved it differently now.

actually a FREE and better way to do this is simply to run a batch job from your computer every 30 mins or so which gives you your current IP address and then auto email to your phone -- chances are in any case if computer is left on the IP address won't change. It probably will after any re-boots of course.

Not sure how to do it on Windows but it's easy enough on Linux with a cronjob set to run once every 2 hrs -- I've found that my IP address on my NAS server actually doesn't change unless I do a re-boot but that depends on the ISP of course.

I HATE having to pay for easy things which should be FREE -- that's all services like Dyndns do is simply essentially the same thing --collects your IP address and stores it on their server so alll you have to do is point your browser at that address and you get connected to your home machine.

Ensure on your Router PORT 3389 is forwarded to the machine you want to access if using RDP.

Then on the REMOTE computer simply use Remote Desktop and enter the IP address of your Home computer.

Set the HOME computer to allow access to shared resource and enable remote access.

Unfortunately though you can't use this method if the HOME COMPUTER is WINDOWS 10 HOME -- you'll need Windows 10 Pro.

Another option is to use ULTRAVNC or TIGHTVNC which allow access using a web browser --which could be "More user friendly".

I use Tightvnc on a Linux box for access -- works fine.

TightVNC: VNC-Compatible Free Remote Control / Remote Desktop Software

for Ultravnc

UltraVNC VNC OFFICIAL SITE, Remote Access, Support Software, Remote Desktop Control Free Opensource

Cheers
jimbo

bro67 said:

Pretty much all of the NAS (Network Attached Storage) offer you a way to get to the files stored on them and add files. Synology has their own app's and a cloud address that is only for your username. The NAS takes care of all of the hard work by telling Synology's system, which is spread throughout every country.

I have the DS216+2 with two 1TB hard drives and a external Fantom 3TB for backup storage. When you want to access the NAS, you use a unique name and then also you need your username and password that you assigned to yourself when you set the NAS up.

Even when I am at my in-laws and the wife has me pull something up. Our upload speed is about 6.5mbps and I have yet to have issues when pulling up a document.

Hi there

That maybe but the OP is running Windows - and unless you have the facility built in (I don't like most NAS systems with proprietary OS'es in them anyway) you still need a decent way to get remote access without paying subscriptions etc.

For Tight VNC you'll also need to port forward --it DOES work with Windows HOME.

TightVNC Frequently Asked Questions

Cheers
jimbo.

Kari said:

One easy and free method is to use OneDrive:

Thanks, Kari. Forgot about that one.

To let the OP know, one drawback of that option is that devices need to be on. Is there a way to ping a device to wake a device with that option?

I just sync files with OneDrive on my tower, laptop, and Windows phone, so don't use that feature. I've collected 1TB of free lifetime OneDrive space over time simply by being a Windows user and MS online store purchases.

Windows 10 comes with 5GBs. More storage space is linked there, which is reasonably priced. OneDrive storage plan and billing questions -

More reading about OneDrive: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17184

Hi there.
'
the key is "Reasonably Priced" - which seems silly if you have your own storage with several TB you could use. Why pay anything !! especially if you don´t need to.

I have around 15 to 20 TB of storage space on a server so it seems silly to me to pay for CLOUD usage when I can use my own server from anywhere and you aren´t dependent on someone else´s server being hacked or shut down beacuse the FBI think someone has uploaded copyright materia from the pirate bay or else where on it.

Cloud servers are fine for reasonably small amounts of data but would you use them to back up say 1 TB of music files .

Remember also that while download speeds are fine these days in most areas upload speeds can be maybe 10X slower.

I don´t know where the saying came from but it´sas true today as it ever was öö Æ The price of education might be expensive --b ut the price of ignorance is Astronomical" !!!.

A bit of learning here will pay huge dividends . Remember you can get fast USB3 HDD´s of 4 TB for a smallish amount of moneythese days ööideal for backups þ multiömedia etc etc.

Desktop 4 to 8 TB spinners are also getting very cheap too.

Cheers
jimbo

Tsw88 said:

2. What would be the speed of download? What factor determines the download speed?

The slower of the download speed wherever you are and your upload speed at home.

Sometimes (especially if you have ADSL not fiber) your upload speed is much slower (10x or more) than your download speed. That can be limiting if you want to stream things or download big files.

You can check it with speedtest.net