Recommendations for Novice NAS?

[davej99]

It's time to say goodbye to my external USB2 hard drive and upgrade to NAS. I would appreciate advice and recommendations on how best to do this from more expert users. The problem is the range of NAS devices is very broad and many of the features such as choice of transport and serving protocols, UPnP, DLNA, Bittorrent and internet radio are beyond my experience.

I have a couple of networked laptop computers here at home and use a basic Netgear modem router to connect by 10/100 wire, b/g wireless and Homeplug AV. My primary need is PC backup. File sharing and a print server or two would be very handy. I do not at present stream media round the house, but wish too. I do not access remotely, but may like to. I do not use Bittorent or similar but I might find the need. I am unlikely to run interactive websites or need PHP and MySQL. The choice for me is about having some future proofing whilst avoiding bell & whistles beyond my needs or ability

We have no gigabit ethernet at all, so using 10/100 NAS versus present USB2 connection would be useless. Both Gigabit and USB2 connectivity would be handy in the short term. A cheap gigabit switch and a PC card or two might be best. Then we get into the need for NAS backup and RAID versus a piggyback drive, noise and power.

So you see I am pretty low on the learning curve and would appreciate advice and recommendations from more expert users on how novices should choose and operate NAS.

Thanks,
Dave

[Rik]

I think that you're approaching the problem he right way, Dave, by opting for an all-gigiabit network. However, depending on how much money you want to spend, it might be worth considering going for a machine running Windows Home Server, which will add facilities above and beyond straightforward NAS.

There's a thread on the subject at:

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=9530.msg211923#msg211923

[davej99]

Thanks, Rik. I read the WHS thread earlier with great interest. For a novice I can see the advantages. However a regular WHS machine seems very expensive and I do not think the OEM release is supported. Either way, my inclination is not to give MS any more money than I have to and find a NAS that fits my needs. My problem is choosing the brand and the best mix of features. It's like buying a car when you can't drive.

[Rik]

I know just how you feel. The experts should be along shortly.

[Steve]

Obviously I am a WHS fan and have an expensive FSC homeserver,but any old rig will do if you've got one spare, it is not demanding of hardware but needs a gigabit card I think.Can I suggest you have a look at the www.wegotserved.co.uk. MS do a 120 day trial or WHS and the selling point for me is the automated backup of all 5 house  PC's it will also stream AV via WMP or DLNA.

I have experience of the buffalo linkstation live it will stream to xbox,PS3 etc and is a NAS for data,backup.It depends which OS is on the NAS as some will run third party software such as firefly,slimserver and twonky easier than others.

If you want to transcode say with Tversity you will need something with processing power that you wont find in an off the shelf NAS

[Sebby]

I've also used the Buffalo LinkStation Live and it seems like a pretty good bit of kit, if you don't want to go down the WHS route. To me, WHS is the ultimate solution. 8)

[Steve]

A bit more about Buffalo Linkstation here One of the reasons for the hacks is to introduce or replace the mediaserver software. The live version will accept twonkymedia easily however its the hardest Buffalo NAS to get slimserver on. I note www.ripcaster.co.uk are using WHS for slimserver and they also have a QNAP with slimserver installed.

With regard to backup/restore, I used to use Acronis with the NAS

[davej99]

Buffalo linkstation range looks good but I saw reports to the effect some/all run on Linux which limits the maximum path and filename length to 128 characters compared with windows 256. That could be a nuisance in a complex directory structure with, for example, long link or media names. Seems also problems with MAC files. Any users noticed these issues?

Thx, Dave.

[Steve]

Sorry ,not issues I came across