Reply to topic  [ 10 posts ] 
NAS for Dummies 
Author Message
Doesn't have much of a life
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:35 pm
Posts: 1657
Location: Ipswich
Reply with quote
Hi Everybody

Hope you are all well.

Long long time since I have spoken to you all so a big hello, I was looking for some info and though about my old friends here....

I am looking for a simple NAS unit to have at home to use for file back up (manual drop in files), music storage so my Sonos can pick up and play (given up on streaming from Deezer etc as only end up play music I have already), photos library etc.

I'm happy with a single drive, as most of the info will come from another source so no need to back up the back.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Many thanks and happy Christmas to all of you.

Cheers
Rich

_________________
www.youtube.com/hyperviper34


Mon Dec 12, 2016 9:12 am
Profile
What's a life?
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:26 pm
Posts: 17040
Reply with quote
I"m not sure you can get a one drive NAS but I'd be unsurprised if I was wrong. Plenty do two drive NAS boxes you can put one drive in and leave the other slot empty if you want to keep your costs minimal. Synology or QNAP are generally considered to be good options - they both have web based admin interfaces and can be set up by a novice fairly quickly to do the stuff required.

FreeNAs is free (obviously) and can be run on an old 'spare' PC if one is available, but I wouldn't recommend that to someone who is't a bit techy.


Mon Dec 12, 2016 9:44 am
Profile
I haven't seen my friends in so long
User avatar

Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 1:03 pm
Posts: 5041
Location: London
Reply with quote
I have the synology 214play (superseded now by the 216play)

given my general ignorance of setting up NAS's it has gone surprisingly well

might be a bit more expensive than some but worth it

_________________
John_Vella wrote:
OK, so all we need to do is find a half African, half Chinese, half Asian, gay, one eyed, wheelchair bound dwarf with tourettes and a lisp, and a st st stutter and we could make the best panel show ever.


Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:44 am
Profile
I haven't seen my friends in so long
User avatar

Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:37 am
Posts: 6954
Location: Peebo
Reply with quote
Synology list the DS115j and DS116 as single drive NAS boxes
QNAP have the TAS-168, TS128 and TS-131 single drive NAS solutions.
Western Digital also have a number of network enabled drive solutions

Alternatively, a fair number of broadband routers will let you plug a hard drive into a USB port and share it over the network if all you want to do is have shared access to a single drive. An external hard drive will almost certainly work out cheaper than a NAS box plus a drive to go in it although I suspect a dedicated NAS box will probably give slightly better performance.

_________________
When they put teeth in your mouth, they spoiled a perfectly good bum.
-Billy Connolly (to a heckler)


Mon Dec 12, 2016 11:38 am
Profile
What's a life?
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:26 pm
Posts: 17040
Reply with quote
Drives plugged into routers are unlikely to be configurable as DLNA servers for audio/video streaming. Possibly if you have all your music on a Mac/PC already you could look at DLNA streaming software from that.


Mon Dec 12, 2016 6:24 pm
Profile
I haven't seen my friends in so long
User avatar

Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:37 am
Posts: 6954
Location: Peebo
Reply with quote
jonbwfc wrote:
Drives plugged into routers are unlikely to be configurable as DLNA servers for audio/video streaming. Possibly if you have all your music on a Mac/PC already you could look at DLNA streaming software from that.

Really? My router (Netgear WNDR4500) has a media server option for attached USB storage (ReadyDLNA).
I can't say I've used it but I assumed that was what that was for.

_________________
When they put teeth in your mouth, they spoiled a perfectly good bum.
-Billy Connolly (to a heckler)


Tue Dec 13, 2016 12:24 am
Profile
What's a life?
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:26 pm
Posts: 17040
Reply with quote
Fair enough. I've had various routers that came with various forms of broadband over the years and while some of them have done printers and shared storage, I've not seen one that does DLNA, I've never felt the need to buy a '3rd party' one, it may be more common there then.


Tue Dec 13, 2016 8:50 am
Profile
I haven't seen my friends in so long
User avatar

Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:37 am
Posts: 6954
Location: Peebo
Reply with quote
jonbwfc wrote:
Fair enough. I've had various routers that came with various forms of broadband over the years and while some of them have done printers and shared storage, I've not seen one that does DLNA, I've never felt the need to buy a '3rd party' one, it may be more common there then.

Meh, the routers supplied by my ISP tended to be crappy Technicolor ones (no gigabit ethernet and single band wireless) so I swapped it for one that did what I wanted.

_________________
When they put teeth in your mouth, they spoiled a perfectly good bum.
-Billy Connolly (to a heckler)


Tue Dec 13, 2016 2:02 pm
Profile
Doesn't have much of a life
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:35 pm
Posts: 1657
Location: Ipswich
Reply with quote
Cheers for the feedback chaps.

i did plug a ext hard drive into my router and could see it for storage but not for streaming to my Sonos (as default) so i might look into this a bit more and see if I can get my BT5 hub doing more!!

Rich

_________________
www.youtube.com/hyperviper34


Thu Dec 15, 2016 10:50 am
Profile
What's a life?
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:25 pm
Posts: 10691
Location: Bramsche
Reply with quote
I would go with QNAP or Synology. Both are good brands.

_________________
"Do you know what this is? Hmm? No, I can see you do not. You have that vacant look in your eyes, which says hold my head to your ear, you will hear the sea!" - Londo Molari

Executive Producer No Agenda Show 246


Thu Dec 15, 2016 4:52 pm
Profile ICQ
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic   [ 10 posts ] 

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
Designed by ST Software.