NAS newbie

• 

  PLA74 on 22/01/2015 - 09:40

  Check out FreeNAS.
  http://www.freenas.org/

• 

  cypher67 on 22/01/2015 - 10:18

  1) I find the synology OS mine came with does everything I need
  2) Wireless is sufficient to stream media from provided you have a strong enough signal, I however connected mine to my router via ethernet purely so when I want to transfer to the NAS like large file, it doesnt take so long. Router is also wireless so I can access it from my tablets etc. I personally wouldnt pay extra for wireless built in unless you dont already run a home network.
  3) If you have never done anything like this before, I can imagine it could be very difficult. I have a strong IT background and it wasn't hard, just a little fiddly to work everything out to get it to do exactly what I wanted it to do. Like most things, if you have patience and time you should be fine.

  • 

    devpress on 22/01/2015 - 11:37

    Thanks - question about the OS/manufacturer though — is there a major difference in functionality between the different manufacturers (e.g. HP, Synology) or are the differences more down to build quality and interface?

    • 

      cypher67 on 22/01/2015 - 14:58

      Well the OS is all about the interface, some brands come with crap interfaces that make everything hard to use. If you are a rookie, id go with stripped raids, that way you have some redundancy of your data. I use a hybrid raid (offers dedundency/capacity/performance) and works great as long as the NAS doesnt die, when the day comes that he does die I will be faced with a challenge to rebuild the raid on a new device.

• 

  OzBestDeal on 22/01/2015 - 10:43

  Try to avoid RAID5 if you can. If your NAS box faulty, data on RAID5 are slightly harder to recover.

• 

  trex on 22/01/2015 - 11:41

  1) Like cypher67, I am using Synology (DS214) which has its own OS and GUI. Synology has numerous apps for both Android and iOS that allows smartphones & tablets to connect to the NAS. Apps includes a file browser, video streaming, audio streaming, BT download and even remote access from the internet.

  2) My NAS is located very close to my router so it's connected with an ethernet cable. At times I can have 2 media players and an ipad watching videos from the NAS through wifi with no issues. (it depends on your router too).

  3) Setting up BT on Synology is a breeze. You simply need to download the BT Download app for the NAS (Synology apps are free). Executing is easy too, as you can either do it from a computer or directly from your smartphone or tablet.

• 

  sane on 22/01/2015 - 12:50

  1) UNRAID, though for a newbie I might suggest the synology rips that people are now working with. UNRAID has the advantage of running virtualised sessions of apps/desktops.

  2) I would definitely go wired. Firstly because it's easy to do (sitting the box next to the router etc.) and secondly because wifi streaming of media means bandwidth used to the router, then bandwidth used from the router to the HTPC - doesn't work well for HD content.

  3) yes, something of a core functionality case, provided you don't go for something where they are trying to appear 'corporate'.

• 

  nobby on 22/01/2015 - 13:42

  I use nas4free, which is a fork of freenas. Runs on pretty low spec machine (I have HP54l) unless you're looking at a raid setup.
  Server is near the router so ethernet connection. I did have a bridged router setup at one stage which didn't have any issues with streaming media - but I usually only have one client accessing at any one time. I don't bother with torrents, but I have mine set up with sickbeard and sabnzbd for scheduling various downloads.

• 

  Davo1111 on 22/01/2015 - 13:48

  1) What OS do people typically run (if there's such a thing) on a NAS? Win, Linux, other?

  Freenas or NAS4Free are the main ones. They're both forks of one another, based on linux. AFAIK they seperated and freenas went closed source. The freenas GUI is nicer, but each to their own.

  HOWEVER, currently i use a windows machine as my NAS box. I run the filezilla server for FTP and it does everything i want. Also, it means i can run programs im already familiar with.

  2) In general, do people connect the NAS to the network via ethernet, or would wifi be sufficient in terms of accommodating media & file streaming?

  Generally you want the NAS to be connected to an ethernet network, however you can connect to the network via wifi. both connections being wifi is slow, but is possible. Currently i use both wifi and hardwired connections to the network

  3) Is it possible / difficult to setup a NAS to execute downloads from torrents and IRC?

  I'm not sure about automated, but i just log into my nas and schedule downloads. Have a look at freenas plugins.. i THINK there are options for you. I use a seedbox which makes it more difficult.

• 

  netsurfer on 22/01/2015 - 22:24

  1) For SOHO NAS, it is proprietary firmware based on linux
  2) People generally connect the NAS to a switch/router using gigabit Ethernet. Other devices may access the files on the NAS via wireless. With gigabit Ethernet, you can get ~100MB/sec sequential read speed for large files. For smaller files (but reading a lot of them), the performance is currently varies a fair bit.
  3 Normally, the branded NAS either comes with it, or allows you to install an add-on app to the NAS to enable torrent support.

  Before you purchase, read up on the review for the NAS you are interested in. Sequential read should be 90MB/sec or above for large files. For small files, you want 25MB/sec or above for read and write.

• 

  teardrops21 on 25/01/2015 - 12:07

  For ease of use, and little time and effort for setup and maintenance, synology is very good. Pretty much plug and play