Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with nas

Tell me about current NAS manufacturers and technology?

loquacious — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:53:34 -0800

Tell me about Network Attached Storage ( NAS )? In particular what current manufactuers should I avoid for a typical 1 terabyte (or greater) RAID array? I'm also interested in general information and pitfalls for NAS devices and implementations. Deployment is for a mixed platform small office - about 8 seats. Platforms are XP, Vista and OS X.

I'm assuming SAMBA protocol for shares. Usage is low to medium - the office needs a data/file server for storing and reliably sharing typical office documents.

They emphatically do not need an actual server. There's no forseeable upgrade path to an in-office Exchange server or domain controller or the like - this is handled by a remote office through VPN. I could build them a PC-based solution using something like FreeNAS but that would be overkill, and I don't want to introduce a possibly flaky desktop/server into their office.

What NAS models or manufacturers are considered the most reliable? Best support? Best value?

Much thanks in advance!

Back me up, Scotty!

sprocket87 — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:02:02 -0800

Recommend a good tool to remotely backup/synchronize large folders to my home NAS. Here's what I have:

- Laptop with 100+ GB music library; misc documents, photos, and other data that needs backed up
- Netgear ReadyNAS Duo 750GB at home (supports pretty much everything - rsync, (S)FTP, WebDAV, etc)

Here's what I want to do:

For my MP3 library (100GB, 20k files, 4k folders) - mirror or synchronize any changes from my laptop (remote at work) to my home NAS. I've tried a TON of apps already with varying degrees of success. The major problem seems to be that to do a mirror, the apps have to perform a full "audit" scan of the destination (NAS) share to see what needs updated/copied. Problem is, with 20k files, that takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r, at least using FTP or WebDAV.

Ideally, I'd like a real-time backup app that monitors some selected folders (like My Music) and kicks off an automated upload for any changed files. This (a) makes it fully automatic and (b) [in theory] faster - doesn't have to synch each time, just upload based off a good known synch. Problem is, I've yet to find the right tool to accomplish all these things correctly.

Note: I'd be happy as a clam to use rsync, which the ReadyNAS supports, but I'm sending from a Windows client and my options are limited. I've been racking my brain trying to get DeltaCopy to work, but it keeps timing out when attempting to connect to the NAS. I have port forwarding, etc, working fine on my router, so I can't really figure out why rsync is failing.

Note 2: The ReadyNAS does have optional support for SSH and Telnet, I believe, but it involves some trickery to get working and I think it might void my warranty...

Sharing (via WiFi) a NAS connected via ethernet to a MacMini

franconi — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:31:55 -0800

Hi, I have a WiFi network to which a MacMini (with Leopard) is connected. An ethernet NAS disk (ReadyNAS NV+) is connected directly to the MacMini via ethernet. The shares of the NAS disk are correctly mounted on the MacMini. My goal would be to be able to see the NAS shares also from other Macs connected to the WiFi.
This is roughly the architecture:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MacMini ------ethernet------ NAS-disk
DSL---WiFiRouter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OtherMac

The NAS-disk is configured to advertise itself via bonjour and appletalk: in fact, when I connect the NAS-disk directly to the WiFiRouter via ethernet, both the MacMini and the OtherMac see the shares of the NAS-disk.

However, when the NAS-disk is connected vie ethernet as above to the MacMini, then only the MacMini sees its shares. I tried to put the shares of the NAS-disk as shared folders in the File Sharing part of the Sharing panel, but apparently they are not accepted (I can not drag them there, nor are they selectable from a file browser window). I also tried to do an Internet Sharing from Airport to Ethernet, but to no avail.

Any suggestion?

Xbox 360 + NAS

notchristopher — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:26:01 -0800

Are there any network attached storage devices that work well with Xbox 360? I only own a laptop and stream lots of music and movies to my Xbox 360 set up to my TV. I really don't like having to have my laptop on whenever I do this. I was wondering if there are any NAS devices that work well with the Xbox. Or should I just build another system, throw XP on it and just put it in a corner somewhere?

Downloading torrents while I'm away?

raygan — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:56:04 -0800

What's the best device I can buy or build for under $300 that will download (over bittorrent), serve, and maybe even play my video files? I've moved to a new home with a new wireless network, where my primary computer is a MacBook. This doesn't work out well with the large volume of bittorrent downloading I'm accustomed to doing, as I can't leave the laptop at home downloading, and don't like to leave it running all night either. Also, I'm out of storage.
I'd like to get either a NAS with built in torrent downloading, or buy or build a little server to sit on my network to do this. Extra life points if I can hook it up to my HDTV's VGA port and play videos, but this isn't super important. What IS important is:

-Price is a big factor
-Reliable and easy to use bittorrent downloading
-large, cheap, preferably expandable storage
-Plays nice with Macs.

I can't find much of anything in the way of reviews online of the bittorrent-capable NASes, and as a Mac fanboy I'm clueless with building computers or configuring Linuxes, though I'd be willing to tinker.

Any recommendations? I'm particularly looking for first hand experiences with solutions that have worked.

Standalone NAS recommendations?

geoff. — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 16:13:53 -0800

Does anyone have any recommendations for an off-the-shelf NAS that can handle at least 1TB and may be expanded as needed? Drobo, Buffalo TeraStation, etc.? I want at least 1TB to start out, and ideally be able to add either more devices, or add hard drives to the enclosure. Any advice on the devices listed? This is strictly for media, but I'd like at least mirroring capability, and it needs to be able to handle HD data streams.

The setup I am envisioning runs data to my desktop which sees it as an attached network drive, and then the desktop pushes the media out as needed (I run both Vista Media Center and a SlimServer at the moment). Gigabit ethernet is running throughout, so no wireless.

Would any device do? Which is the most configurable, least maintenance? Any experience with the devices? Aessthetics don't matter, so the design of the box is irrelevant in this case (it is going into an unfinished basement).

Looking for a cheap NAS solution <$50 (enclosure only)

lrodman — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:47:17 -0800

Looking for a cheap NAS enclosure (~$50) - interested in ximeta netdisk, but I'd rather go with something that doesn't require a software install. For $100ish I could build a cheap VIA C3/C7 server, but a simple HD enclosure would be better. I'm planning to run it off a WRT54g, and have heard that ximeta's get slow wifi performance - could I watch videos over the connection (300mb/hr divx), or would I be restricted to backup and music? If so, what's the cheapest NAS enclosure that isn't a POS that can manage mp3's over wifi? Something that could do bittorrent would be great, but they seem much more costly. Most important, I want a NAS that will spin down when not in use so it doesn't kill my non-enterprise HD.

Looking for a VERY specific HDD enclosure...

TrueVox — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:08:05 -0800

Calling to the hive mind! Is anyone aware of a (reasonably priced (sub $150)) external hard drive (or, better, HDD enclosure) that meets the following specifications? It needs have a connection to my home network so that I can access it somehow (I would prefer FTP capability). It also needs to be accessible via USB at the same time. And finally, it needs to be compatible with drives formated FAT32.

Tall order, I know. But it seems like my best solution to move on from my original Xbox Media Center to my 360 Media Center (Thank you, MS, for your Fall Xvid/DivX update!).

Alternatively, is this something that can be accomplished with the NSLU32? Or, can the NSLU32 share things out independently (no computer involved) in such a way that the 360 can access it? And if so, is this fairly simple? I don't have the same amount of time to hack around with stuff that I did when I soldered my original Xbox a few years back.

Thanks in advance!!!

How to get a Simpleshare NAS to recognize an USB drive?

COD — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:19:33 -0800

I need help with a Simpleshare NAS. Details are below if you have experience with the device. I've had a Simpleshare 250 for a year with no problems. I just bought an external USB to plug into it to use the built in RAID to mirror my data as I've been living dangerously without a backup.

It's not working. The Simpleshare does not see the USB drive at all. I know the USB drive is working fine, I can read and write to it from XP. The Simpleshare is running with NFS support as I access it from both XP and Ubuntu. I've tried formatting it as both NTFS and Fat32 to no effect. I'm running the 1.07 firmware on the NAS. The Simpleshare website and user manual offer no help, and I didn't find anything via Google either.

Any ideas?

Best way to backup a backup NAS

toocan — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:16:25 -0800

I have a small network of 3 computers at home which connect wireless to a router. Plugged into this router is a Netgear sc101 NAS type device. What I’m looking for is another device that will back up the contents of the sc101 so it can be taken off site. I don’t want to have to do a full backup each time just backup files that have changed or are new is this possible? if so could someone recommend a solution ?

Can anyone suggest an inexpensive NAS solution for a Mac that could plug into my linksys wifi router?

jeffreyclong — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:57:27 -0800

Can anyone suggest an inexpensive NAS solution for a Mac that could plug into my linksys wifi router? I already own a USB 300gig hard drive that I would like to use. I won't get an airport express as I already have a wifi router. The solutions I've seen used the linux file system. I'd like something that I can use to backup my MacBook over the wifi at night using Time Machine, the new backup solution in Leopard. Thanks.

Who's hacked the Linksys NAS200?

TrueVox — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:56:43 -0800

Anyone have any experience with the Hackability of the Linksys NAS200? I realize that there's a lot out there on the Linksys NSLU2, but I'm looking into the NAS200 (it just looks beefier, for only a little more). It runs Linux just like the NSLU2, but a quick googling turned up nada. Are any of you Linksys Hackers? And if so, have any of you updated your NAS200? Or is the stock firmware SO SUPER GOOD that you don't need/want/arn't able to (I find the last one hard to buy, but who knows)?

Thanks!

Smart disk management

mphuie — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:59:42 -0800

Disk cleanup/management tool, with flagging, a la Tivo/MCE. I have about 1TB of space on my NAS.

When I'm getting low on space, I hate having to dig through the drive to figure out what I want to keep and don't want to.

I'd like some kind of tool that would check when drive space was low, and delete the oldest files/folders on it (up to a threshold than you can set).

However I'd like Tivo/MCE functionality where i can flag files I dont want to delete. Bonus would be able to flag for time restraints (ie. keep for 3 months). Or even to prioritize file extensions.

Sounds pretty simple and probably can be done with a basic script but I wanted to see if anyone knew of a program out there like this?

Low power homebrew NAS and ftp server

twine42 — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 07:59:21 -0800

How do I build a super low powered PC, and just how low can I go without costing a fortune? I've got lots of experience building PCs, but it's always been using the highest spec parts we can afford. Now I have a new challenge...

I want to build a machine that can stay on 24/7 without using huge amounts power. Ideally, I'd love this to average less than 60W, but I know that may be asking a lot.

This is what I'd like it to be able to do...
* work as a backup machine running 1 or more hard drives, and pulling files across from our other machines when they are awake (suggestions for software to do this would be cool too).
* run as an ftp server.

It would also be cool if it could double as a dvd player for our new home gym area, so I can add an old lcd monitor to make an entertainment centre. For this I'm just talking about a basic dvd playback with 2 or 2.1 sound. Nothing exciting.

What sorts of routes should I go down...?

Looking for an affordable Wifi NAS solution

davidstith — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:09:51 -0800

Help me find an affordable NAS that is between 500g-1TB, does Wifi, has iTunes Library support, BitTorrent, and FTP support please.

Firewire-capable Network Storage Link?

cahlers — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 07:24:46 -0800

Does a Network Storage Link for a firewire HDD and OS X exist? I have a Lacie 250 GB external HDD that is firewire. I was looking at the Linksys NSLU2 network storage link, but it only allows USB devices to be plugged in. Does a similar device exist that allows me to plug in a firewire drive? A quick google search does not turn one up for me.

If such a device exists, I'm trying to decide between purchasing that device vs. purchasing a full-blown NAS. Currently I'm looking at the Buffalo Terastation II and the Infrant ReadyNas NV. I realize these devices are much different than a network storage link, but would still appreciate any comments re: pros and cons of each solution (besides price, which is why I'm looking into the NSL to begin with).

My current drive has ~ 60GB free, so space will also quickly become an issue, another reason to go with a 1TB NAS.

I'm running Mac OS X.

Network hard drive makes external internet connection impossible!

stopgap — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:12:32 -0800

I have a NAS network hard drive plugged into my router that I use to host my iTunes library. Whenever I'm accessing the drive (especially when syncing the iPod or ripping CDs, but also sometimes when playing songs) all the computers on the network including mine lose most of their external internet connectivity. Is there any way to fix this? The router is a Netgear WGR614v6. The NAS enclosure is a Coolmax CN-550, which is admittedly low-end. Is there another IDE network enclosure with a fan that would solve my problem?

What should I do with my old hard drives?

creeront — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:12:50 -0800

I've got a bunch of extra hard drives, and I want to setup a backup NAS type solution so I can backup my data and store movies, tv shows, media, etc. Ideas? I've got 2x 250GB drives, 2x 120gb drives, and 2x 40GB drives and an extra pc. I'm trying to turn all those hard drives into a big file server that can be accessed over the network. I was thinking about getting some sort of eSata solution to hold my drives, and then hooking them up to my existing computer. I don't really want to use the old pc because it's so loud, and uses so much power (480W). Anyone have any better ideas?

All the pc's in the house are windows based, and I'm a bit leery of going the unix route for fear of network configuration woes. I have some linux / unix / solaris experience, so it is an option.

Cheap NAS: Linksys or ASUS or?

gentle — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:50:25 -0800

Linksys NSLU2 or ASUS WL-500G? I am looking for a wireless, cheap (around $100), Unix-based NAS solution that will let me plug in a couple of USB or SATA drives and do things like serve SSH and run BitTorrent. Both the NSLU2 and the ASUS seem to allow uploading custom firmware to run customized Linux distros like OpenWRT and OpenSlug. I am perfectly comfortable with firmware-fiddling and CPU overclocking, but I'm concerned that such hacks are not mature, and that a lot of my time would be spent on getting the thing to run smoothly. Based on your actual experience with these products, how do they fare in terms of performance and stability? The WRT stuff seems all the rage these days; is NSLU2 (which seems to have been launched in 2004) getting old?

(I was also looking at the Linksys WRTSL54GS, but it is not available here in Norway yet. The other WRT* products aren't appropriate to me since they don't have the USB storage support. The Buffalo LinkStation, mentioned in an earlier thread, does not seem to be sold in my country.)

NAS for dummies 2

Dave 9 — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 11:27:35 -0800

Network Attached Storage for dummies 2 [a follow-up to this post]: If you backup your home computers to a device that's also sitting in your home, do you then take additional backups off site? And what about encryption? (Thinking of fire, or if the babysitter walks out of the house with the NAS drive in her backpack.) (1) Do folks backup the backup? I'd welcome any thoughts, methods, recommendations.
(2) Can any of the NAS devices do encryption on the fly? Would be nice if stolen data remained inaccessible.

NAS for dummies.

oddman — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:35:22 -0800

Can you recommend an easy NAS solution? This discussion (and this one) made my head hurt. This discussion I could understand but the idea of buying two pieces of hardware (the NAS adapter, the USB external drive) is really unappealing (and frankly seems clunky). Various other discussion were ultimately off-topic.

I would like something that sits on my network, so that my laptop and wired PC can both access it. (FTP or http access would be awesome but not required.)

I would like it to do incremental back-ups off both machines. However, I only plan to backup a fairly limited amount of data (ODF and PDF files) so an appliance that only does whole folder back-ups isn't a deal breaker. (File-synching would be awesome, but is not a requirement.)

I would like it to serve media files in the sense that iTunes or WinAmp on either machine could access the drive and play the files.

I would like it to be a single box and no harder to set up than a Lynksis router.

I am, generally speaking, technically inclined but I've got a lot going on and I want this to be relatively hassle free. (So, while builting my own appliance with an old computer and some Linux voodoo is appealing, it's just too damn time consuming.)

Also, I have no problem with answers that offer corrections to any misconceptions that I might have, but telling me that a linux box isn't that hard to set-up isn't really the kind of help I'm looking for. I really want a nice, out-of-the-box solution.

I've seen things like the Maxtor One-Touch at my local big-box retailer, but I have no frame of reference for evaluating how well that kind of set-up will serve my needs.

Thanks a lot for reading through all of my demands, I appreciate it. I hope you can help, but I thank you even if you can't.

The page is an inkaholic

milarepa — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 14:25:26 -0800

Does anybody know where I can get a full version of the Nas song The Curse? Or better versions of Just Another Day In Projects and Nas Will Prevail? As far as I know, none of these were officially released, but they are great songs.

Unfortunately, my version of The Curse fades out at about 1:20, along with every other copy I've ever come across.

My versions of Just Another Day in the Projects and Nas Will Prevail are very poor.

Does anybody know where I can get better copies of these tracks? On old mixtapes, etc?

Email in profile

Out of sight, out of mind

adamrice — Mon, 08 May 2006 08:59:35 -0800

Recommendations for networking equipment in a Mac household? NAT, NAS, print server, and wifi I have 3 macs and one laser printer in the house. I'd like to put the printer in a closet (which is wired), along with a networked hard drive (to be used chiefly for backups and storing media files) and the rest of my networking hardware.

I've already got a basic wired/wireless router (netgear wgr614) that works fine, but I'd be willing to replace it in the interest of spending money in one place to save it somewhere else, or just cut down on my total box count (not a lot of room in the closet). At some point I will probably need a switch downstream from the router , which only has 4 ports—eventually I'd like some kind of box in the living room to play back media files (possibly another Mac, but if I can get away with a UPnP player, that's OK too). It seems that various boxes offer some combination of the features I want, but it's not clear what the most efficient, effective, and inexpensive combination would be.

The house is wired with Cat 5e. Not sure if that will let me take any advantage of gigabit Ethernet.

I'm not too intimidated by the prospect of hacking on something to add features if it's really worth it (I know that a lot of these gadgets have hacking communities), but I'd really rather just plug it in and go.

I'd appreciate recommendations for hardware combinations, and warnings about any serious pitfalls to avoid (I already know to avoid the Netgear SAN box).

Windows Media Center + iTunes Library + OCD = suck.

robbie01 — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 21:51:50 -0800

Windows Media Center + iTunes Library + OCD = suck. I have a highly organized MP3 library with thorough ID3 tags (thanks OCD) managed via iTunes on a Mac. The library itself is stored on a NAS device (LinkStation), but that doesn't really matter.

I keep iTunes open on my Mac and set to Share so my Windows PC can access the library via Windows iTunes. No problem.

My PC is running Media Center Edition 2005 (with all updates) and I want it to be able to use the MP3 library in both iTunes AND the Media Center app.

If I point MCE's "My Music" to the NAS device containing my library, it seems to find/add the music okay -- but it does a piss-poor job of reading all my carefully defined tags in the music files -- namely things like Album art, the artist, and sometimes other basic info on a few random (but thoroughly tagged) tracks.

Out of about 350 albums, MCE automatically imported art for maybe 8 albums, and every single solitary MP3 under iTunes/Mac has album art embedded in it--guaranteed.

I know that the Media Center app pulls all of its actual media data from Windows Media Player's Library, and I've figured out that you can "automanually" add things like album art by having WMP attempt to look up your album.

But this process would be tedious to do by hand for every track on every album, and what's worse is that I created some custom album art for non-commercial tracks, AND when WMP DOES find your album/art, the art it inserts is really crappy low-quality JPGs, which look terrible when viewed in large size in the Media Center interface.

So, long set up, but: why won't Media Center just use the ID3 tags in my MP3s, including album art? I don't want Windows going in and overwriting my tag data with what IT thinks the genre/artist/album name is just so it can add its own version of low-quality album art to the file.

And it's not just album art, either. On a few CDs, it will take half the tracks and put them under the correct album name, and then the other half it will create a new album name that has maybe the last 7 characters cut off. And there are about 10 tracks that it just completely blows, not reading even the most basic ID3 info, even though it's definitely there.

One of the reasons I want this work via MCE2005 is that I want to have access to my MP3 library on my Xbox 360 as a Media Center Extender, with full art, etc. So forgetting about the Windows platform altogether is not an option.

So, any way to achieve this ideal set up:

* Single MP3 library on NAS device, thorough ID3 tags and album art associated with every track

* iTunes on Mac plays and shares Library to Windows iTunes (so far no problem)

* Windows Media Center Edition PC(s) look to NAS device for same library, but imports it cleanly with all album art/tags, etc. intact.

* WMC PC shares this clean/thorough library to Xbox 360 as WMC Extender

Home NAS recommendations

octothorpe — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:21:04 -0800

NAS Filter: I'm looking to buy a network storage device to replace the ancient IBM Aptiva running Fedora with Samba/NFS that I've been using for the last six years. I want something that I can attach to my home network and put a 120 - 200 G harddrive into and mount remotely from both Linux and Windows boxen. I'm looking at the Argosy HD363N as a candidate. The price is good but it only seems to support SAMBA and ftp. I was hoping for NFS and SFTP access too. Also, this unit formats the drive as FAT32 which is a pretty crappy filesystem, I'd rather it used EXT3 or Reiser which are alot more robust. Can anyone recomend a good solution in the <$100 (without the drive itself) price range?