What Nas?

[Liszt]

Looking for a NAS for storing documents but also as a media server to serve up films,music and photos via PS3, to hold iTune library (have 2 userids which will want to authorise for each other) and be able to perform regular backups.

What is to be recommended and what to avoid?

Cheers,

[aberdeeneuan]

I bought a Netgear Readynas for that exact purpose. Free drive turned up today so off to build the thing tonight while watching Arsenal getting thumped.

What's your budget?

[Liszt]

Probably around the £500- 600 mark.

Was thinking probably about 2TB so I can rip my DVDs to it then stream them to other rooms as well.

[Liszt]

Anyone else?

[coach]

ICY Box Ready NAS IB-4220-B

Simple, easy to use interface, print server, takes larger drives (2), Bit torrent client, Twonky Server (Media - ROCK Steady always) and fully configurable for access, takes SATA drives mirrored etc

Was about £110 Bought here

Seems to get reasonable reviews

Just whack in your drives of choice

[tegwin]

I bought an ICY box.... sent it back within 3 days... for the price I thought it was utter cack...


Instead, I bought a micro ATX motherboard, CPU, Memory, Case for much less than the ICYbox.... Popped in 3x 2Tb disks for raid5... and installed a server OS.... Runs perfectly...

[Nimbus]

I'd be looking at one of the QNAP products, you'll get an excellent setup with your budget.

http://www.qnap.com/

I've been running a 209 24/7 for I think about 18 months with no problems whatsover, very satisfied.

latest version is this http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=11...

Has my disks in a mirror config, so next to no chance of losing my data, serves all my media to my tv, itunes, twonkymedia etc faultlessly.

Also has plenty of free addon software so it can download bittorrents, nzbs etc in the back ground.

building your own with freenas etc is great, but if you just want something 'plug n play' then I think the qnap is the way to go.

Oh, I think synology do something similiar.

Edited by Nimbus on Wednesday 7th April 11:45

[Man-At-Arms]

got a spare computer ?
build your own with freenas or openfiler

or if you can't be arsed to build - get a drobo

[option click]

Nimbus said:

I'd be looking at one of the QNAP products, you'll get an excellent setup with your budget.

I have the QNAP TS-109 and it's brilliant, although if I had to buy again I'd get one of the ones with two disk enclosures and mirror the data. I just use mine to store and stream my MP3s to my Squeezebox, but it's capable of so much more.

[andy6581]

I got a netgear stora from amazon for £120. Can;t fault it. Streams to my xbox. Access via the web (dead easy) Full pc backups.

[marctwo]

+1 for Qnap. I have a 210 and it's been excellent. Lots of threads on this subject if you have a search.

[coach]

tegwin said:

I bought an ICY box.... sent it back within 3 days... for the price I thought it was utter cack...


Instead, I bought a micro ATX motherboard, CPU, Memory, Case for much less than the ICYbox.... Popped in 3x 2Tb disks for raid5... and installed a server OS.... Runs perfectly...

Furry Muff - just goes to show one mans nerdy Gadget is another's poo!

[NiceCupOfTea]

I've got a Buffalo Linkstation - single disk 1TB version for just over £100, but you can get 2 disk ones or RAID ones (TeraStations). Worked really well for me so far.

[Roop]

Netgear ReadyNAS every time. You get what you pay for.

Try a ReadyNAS NV+

Seen too many so-called "SoHo" and "Workgroup spec" NAS offerings that I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them with their gash firmware including Buffalo, LaCie and Intel boxes. ReadyNAS is properly developed and works reliably and quickly...

[NiceCupOfTea]

I hope Netgear's NAS are better developed than their routers!

[Roop]

NiceCupOfTea said:

I hope Netgear's NAS are better developed than their routers!

Equally, I wouldn't trust a Netgear router. Draytek all the way.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Used to have a Draytek Vigor 2600We and it was (expensive) junk! (well, the wireless bit of it was!)

[ukwill]

NiceCupOfTea said:

I hope Netgear's NAS are better developed than their routers!

Yep, mostly because they bought the tech. Originally it was Infrant.

As far as home routers go, the dg834 was a massive success for them. Mine ran without issue for about 5yrs before I went gig.

[NiceCupOfTea]

I have a dg834n which was fine for a while (apart from the usual red power light when it's only been powered down briefly - have to let it cool). But I recently had hellish problems with the wifi, I am back running b/g rather than n - it just will not work properly!

[Roop]

NiceCupOfTea said:

Used to have a Draytek Vigor 2600We and it was (expensive) junk! (well, the wireless bit of it was!)

I had one of those and it was ace. If the issue is what I think you are referring to then it was fixed in later firmware updates. 3Com used the same wireless chipset IIRC and both had similar issues when working with certain Intel based client chipsets (loss of Client IP, seemingly very flaky signal even though you are 2m from the AP etc)...