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NAS Advice.

  • 27-06-2010 10:22am
    #1
    techguy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,234 ✭✭✭


    So the time has finally come where I need more storage. I already have three 3.5" drives in my case so it's time to go external.

    I'm thinking of going down the NAS route as opposed DAS. Just a quick question before I get into products. How exactly does NAS work? In windows does it appear just like another shared folder on another computer and I just map it to a drive letter if I want constant access?

    Here are a two products which caught my eye:
    Aspire easyStore H340-H
    Buffalo LinkStation Quad NAS server

    I'm caught between the two because Buffalo seems to be pretty reliable in the storage field and the Aspire is a proper server with Windows Home Server. I'm currently running and old Dell Dimension 700mhz, 380mb, 40gb box for downloading file serving etc. I guess the Windows box could do all this and probably more.

    Also, how do you go about installing Windows onto the Apire if it has no video out?

    Any thoughts guys?

    Thanks.


Comments

  • #2
    Svetti Arss
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 383 ✭✭Svetti Arss


    techguy wrote: »
    How exactly does NAS work? In windows does it appear just like another shared folder on another computer and I just map it to a drive letter if I want constant access?

    Normally a NAS box appears as a server on the network. This could be a windows server, a apple server or a linux server, or all 3 at once + some other variations. So connecting to it is a simple as mapping a drive or viewing it in Network Neighborhood.

    I am not familiar with the hardware you mention but suggest you have a look at http://freenas.org/ I played around with it and was impressed.


  • #3
    Mac daddy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,942 ✭✭✭Mac daddy


    It depends on what you want to do with it?

    You can either buy a off the shelf nas or build your own.
    see the below for a list of NAS devices from various vendors.
    http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190/

    Next is price and how much you want to spend on it?

    For example I have two devices at home
    One is a Netgear Stora|2x 1Tb Disk| 1Gigabit connection
    I bought the stora as a dumping ground for my films and watch them on either the PS3 or the kids use there own laptops to watch the films of it.

    The stora is picked up by the PS3 via Upnp, on the laptops I have a simple batch file setup to mount the films folder as a regular drive on the laptops and a shortcut on the desktops.

    I also have a Qnap Ts239 Pro II this is used for my home virtual lab and testing bits.

    Stora over regular Cat5e utp cabling going into a switch or router copy from client to stora is around 25MB/s on a 10/100/1000 switch.
    Could go faster but the disks are the bottleneck, as my Qnap does 3 times the speeds above from the desktop using nic teaming, lacp, procurve 1810 24port.

    Or else get a copy of Openfiler/freenas P4 or better old system pop in a couple of disks and set it up, software raid via freenas works fine.


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