Nas

[mgibbs]

I use a Synology NAS at home and have installed mutli-office setups for customers using them.

They are very easy to use and very flexible.

You can access your files from anywhere you have internet (or mobile phone access if using their app) from pcs or macs.

I'd put these in wherever a customer just wants straightforward access to their files over a network or internet.
Much siimpler and cheaper than a server - no software license.

Mark

[dazzul]

Which perticular model?

[Justin]

rather than start this thread again I'd like to resurrect Anyone else take a plunge into NAS?

Just looking at it again. Dropbox works great for customers to upload files, job sheets etc. but I would like to centralise all the families data, at the moment it's on Just Cloud and I'm not really happy with this, poor interface, single file download etc. So, rather than pay for that I was thinking get 2x4Gb SATA possibly in a raid but we did discuss a raid 5 earlier. I guess Raid 10 is the ultimate answer for speed and redundancy.

Anyone want to update?

[Johnny]

I've still not got a NAS drive yet, as much as I want one I'm still really only working from one PC, so I'm using internal or external RAIDs. I use Team Viewer to access my PC at a distance.
What about NAS for internal and FTP for external? I think there are some NAS devices out the that do it. I suppose you would need a static IP though.
Would a raid linux server do the job? With a VPN?
John.

[Frostee]

i use a nas drive, got 2 3tb drives setup
have just started upgrading my internal network to wired gigabit. makes one heck of a difference!

you dont even need anything special really. even without a static ip you can use systems like no-ip.com or dyndns.com. just make sure ports are forwarded right and setup a ftpd or httpd

if you've got a spare pc kicking around you can install freenas on a hdd then plug all the bigger hdd's into it

[spongerobinson]

Freenas is great...I've used it for a number of years now. Windows Home Server is probably better though, especially if running Windows computers.

A number of years ago HP had some great cashback deals on their Proliant servers...absolutely fantastic pieces of kit, and think mine worked out about 100 quid at the time. Be worth looking to see if they are still offering those cashback deals.

[Justin]

Freenas does look very good Undecided whether to go down the pre built route or just buy the chassis and add drives, probably prebuilt.

Looking at these......

http://www.ebuyer.com/507129-synology-d ... 3j-6tb-red (Not much more than the 4Gb model)

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing- ... 31151454:s (Seems very good value for 4Gb and software looks good)

https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/produ ... JEBEPMCMAU

All seem to be 2 bay...would like a 4 bay in Raid 10 though

[NikGrey]

I have a WD MyBook 3TB.

When I first got it I set it up as a Personal Cloud and it worked great BUT I started having problems - it would go offline for no reason at odd times of the day ! WD sent a replacement which has been fine but I am only using it for Time Machine backups, and for storing business stuff - all of it.

I have mine attached via ethernet, They say these particular machines are supposed to be fast but it takes me about 4 hours to transfer the 278GB i currently have stored on there onto my Mac ! I have had to do this a few times when testing for WD.

Also I had it set up for remote access, which was great until my IP address changed and I couldnt find someone who would provide free DNS these days so gave up on that too.

This machine has saved my Bacon a few times though, for that reason it is well worth the £120 I spent on it around Christmas time.

I recommend getting your own external storage rather than paying someone else for space - at least its in your hands if things go wrong, and you get to learn about a new tool

Also I have been down the RAID route, too much heat and things to go wrong - BUT that was Ten years ago and things must have improved.

This WD runs cold, with passive cooling - and I can only hear it running when its reading/writing (but it is next to me).

[Justin]

I'm having a slight change of direction and scaling back down to a 2 bay rather than a 4 bay, I think a RAID 10 is over complicating things tbh for what I need and could end up causing more issues in the long run. I'm favouring 2 x 3GB drives in a RAID 1 for mirroring and a 3GB External for additional backup.

The WD MyBook is my front runner right now as well, does look like it will do everything I need. I wonder how easy it would be to set up backups from other PC's?

[spongerobinson]

I had one of the very early incarnations of a WD Nas, and to be honest it was terrible. Speeds were so so slow, but this was years ago now so I'd imagine they've improved. That one had software to install on each PC that backups needed to be done from, so it's probably still the same.

Personally, I've heard better things about Synology then the WD stuff.

Oh and just one thing - remember if it's alot of data your going to be backing up, you'll probably need a wired network connection to each machine to be backed up. Wireless data transfer is incredibly slow, unless you've got the latest wireless networking standards set up.

I'm having a slight change of direction and scaling back down to a 2 bay rather than a 4 bay, I think a RAID 10 is over complicating things tbh for what I need and could end up causing more issues in the long run. I'm favouring 2 x 3GB drives in a RAID 1 for mirroring and a 3GB External for additional backup.

The WD MyBook is my front runner right now as well, does look like it will do everything I need. I wonder how easy it would be to set up backups from other PC's?

Also, if you do decide to populate one with your own drives, I can highly recommend the WD Red drives...built specifically for NAS.