"Want to watch movies, control your stereo's music, and back up your computer files from any PC in the house? A cheap server computer, a scaled-down version of the pricey machines locked away in corporate data centers, might be the best way to manage your family's files while keeping them safe. Don't laugh, those of you accustomed to the old-fashioned, $5,000 office servers that usually require constant care and feeding from tech managers. In an age where mom and dad have laptops for work and the kids use another computer to share music and video files, families now have tons of data to manage at home. A special kind of server has a new role outside of the office. Techies call them network-attached storage (NAS) devices."If you do not know what NAS devices are or do not know who the major players in the NAS market are then this article is for you. It gives a nice introduction to the field and gives specs and prices for a number of devices.