Networks NAS

Hi all,

I'm moving house in a couple of months and want to put all my music, videos and piccies on a NAS so that it's backed up and available to my pc, my Desire HD, my dearest darlings Galaxy Tab, and her Galaxy S, all without my power hungry PC having to be on all the time.

I'm after 2 x 2TB of storage, with the second hard disk an exact copy of the first. I don't want to raid them - the second needs to be updated by me, just incase one of us accidentally deletes everything or gets a virus.

The matter is complicated by the variety of prices for network hard disks and enclosures, and the variety in their transfer speeds.

Can anyone recommend a network hard disk (I could buy two of these), or an enclosure, or some stats, to point me towards the best product for my needs?

 

Synology does all this and more mate. I own a DS211j and absolutely recommend it. It can be configured in so many ways.

 

Clicky

Cheap & cheerful. Put 2 of them in separate parts of the house for a bit more redundancy.

 

I vote for Synology as well. They're a bit pricey, but total worth it in my opinion.

 

+1 to Synology NAS

backup is done on the NAS itself, by scheduling or manually.

media sharing for mobile devices can be done by DLNA or UPnP on the NAS, PC can just access shared folder to view the shared contents.

buying a NAS is more about choosing the right web-interface than buying any odd piece of hardware. nothing beats the Synology DSM interface at the moment.


if this media is TV shows, here's how to get a wonderful piece of additional functionality to the NAS: automatic TV show download. http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=27170
i've done it and it works wonderfully, just check the TV show folder for new episodes next morning.

 

The Synology DS211j is on Scan's Today Only page right now for £158.39, along with most of their other products as well.

In addition, at the top of the today Only page is a "Super Saver" deal on 2 x 2Tb Samsung HD204UI/Z4, SpinPoint EcoGreen F4EG drives for £107.99. Absolute bargain.

 

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/

Always a good website to use when selecting a NAS.

 

+1 for Synology. Got a 210j about a year ago, best purchase I have made in a long time, very slick interface and worth spending the extra on.

 

Wow, looks like Synology is the one to go for I was looking at the ReadyNas boxes to start with, but their insistence on raid0 or raid1 despite my being a grown educated adult human being. There seem to be some boxes a lot cheaper than the Synology ones, but the throughput is apparently poop.

Think I'll have to let that scan offer go, but I'm sure another will pop up sometime, and if its worth the money, I don't mind paying full price.

How would a synology compare to Saspro's 2 x Iomega solution?

 

Whoah, the Synology has a proper interface!

 

I take it you have just tried out the online demo of DSM 3 then? Nice isn't it?

 

it's a true multi-tasking interface. F11 on your browser and you'd never knew it's a NAS box.



here's how my stuff usually gets around:
select download links -> Flashgot -> SynoGet to send to download manager -> download overnight -> open DSM -> select extract (on the NAS unit!) and close browser -> come back from work and have whatever i want ready for me.

extract isn't slow, similar speed as PC extract by reading and writing to the NAS, just frees up the PC.


and here's how my TV shows work:
open Sickbeard -> History -> "woo there's a new episode" -> and go watch it.
Sickbeard automatically downloads everything TV show for me


also, i've got weekly backup scheduled. my configuration is RAID5 volume + single drive volume on my Ds410j. important data is automatically backed up every week to the single drive volume in-case the RAID controller decides to give up.