Setting up a home network / central storage with Apple kit

[Cactussed]

Hi All

First up, I am a complete gumby with computer equipment, so lets start from that point.
At home, we have an imac, ipad, 2 macbooks and various iphones. And a Synology 2 bay NAS.

I have managed to get to the point where all my music is on the NAS (with auto backup) but everything else is on my imac (with the associated ilife software). I have managed to get my Sonos system to see my NAS so have access to all the itunes music from there as well as Spotify.

What I'd like to be able to achieve is having all my photos on there so they are automatically backed up also and also accessible from either the ipad or other devices. Also, ideally at more than a snails pace. Is this possible using any apple or third party software?

Some guidance would be much appreciated as I've done various searches and reading but found myself getting more confused.

[onlynik]

You can set up the Synology as a Time Machine, so it backs up your data.

http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/Backup_Ma...

I'd also recommend backup up to some cloud service, I use CrashPlan and it's nice and cheap.

[Cactussed]

Backup is OK, but what I want is a central place to store all my photos and documents then be able to access them from every device (a bit like a server I guess?)

[Du1point8]

Cactussed said:

Backup is OK, but what I want is a central place to store all my photos and documents then be able to access them from every device (a bit like a server I guess?)

Cloud every time.

Having them on a NAS is not backing it up, you would need to do it at least 2 or 3 times:

1 = NAS
2 = usb memory stick (they go up to 256GB now)
3 = Finally on cloud somewhere.

That way you have a back up for the back up.

[onlynik]

You have a NAS, your NAS can do this.

Set up shared folders on the NAS.

Create a user to access the folder (you can use guest access if you wish)

Copy music, photos, documents to these shared folders.

[scottri]

Why not just put them on your NAS then, that is your server for data (music) already?

edit* beaten to it

[whoami]

onlynik said:

You have a NAS, your NAS can do this.

Set up shared folders on the NAS.

Create a user to access the folder (you can use guest access if you wish)

Copy music, photos, documents to these shared folders.

The Synology NAS already has good software for photo sharing.

No need to set up folders. It's all there for you.

[Cactussed]

Can I make iphoto use it or will that make a mess of things?
I've also looked in the directory and its all stored in an iphoto file, not as I would normally see on a PC?

Sorry if I am asking numpty questions

[Du1point8]

Cactussed said:

Can I make iphoto use it or will that make a mess of things?
I've also looked in the directory and its all stored in an iphoto file, not as I would normally see on a PC?

Sorry if I am asking numpty questions

Go into IPhoto and copy all that you want and then go to a folder and paste them, they all become images you can see on any device.

[whoami]

Cactussed said:

Can I make iphoto use it or will that make a mess of things?
I've also looked in the directory and its all stored in an iphoto file, not as I would normally see on a PC?

Sorry if I am asking numpty questions

I made a copy of all my photos (from Mac/iPhone/Android/Windows) into the "photo" folder on the Synology device. You can obviously make as many sub-folders as you like.

To share and view them, us the Photo Station application on the Synology NAS.

It works pretty well.

[mojitomax]

There is an easy method or a techy faffy method.

The easiest way to do this is to download photoscopeapp.com

Leave your Mac to 'always on' but set the display to sleep after 10 mins or so.

Then download the relevant app onto your iOS devices.

They will be able to browse your iPhoto library without you having to do any extra work in exporting the images to your nas which will get messy.

Turn on homesharing from iTunes and you will also be able to stream your music to your iOS devices too.

You can still use your nas for timemachine backups of your iMac. However, I would also buy a USB hdd and keep that plugged in for two backup locations, in case your nas fails.

The only disadvantage of this method is that you have to leave your iMac switched on.

The techy method is to make a separate folder on your NAS for every event in your iPhoto library. Export the images from iPhoto into the relevant folder on your NAS (and for every future event). Download the relevant browsing app on your iOS devices so that they can 'see the files and folders' on the NAS. Set the relevant permissions on the NAS so that the iOS devices can access the photos. Switch iMac off and let the NAS broadcast the images to your iOS devices.

Do the same for music files.

If I was in your situation, I'd just leave my Mac on.

Hope that helps

Edited by mojitomax on Tuesday 30th September 14:33

[Bikerjon]

You could simply copy your iphoto library "file" to a shared NAS folder but I'd be a little wary of doing this on a Synology as it uses the EXT4 disk format and iPhoto expects HFS+. That said I've been running a small iPhoto library off a Synology for quite a while and it seems to work OK - but not sure I'd trust it with my main library! I think the best chance of full compatibility for this would be a time capsule.

[whoami]

Bikerjon said:

You could simply copy your iphoto library "file" to a shared NAS folder but I'd be a little wary of doing this on a Synology as it uses the EXT4 disk format and iPhoto expects HFS+. That said I've been running a small iPhoto library off a Synology for quite a while and it seems to work OK - but not sure I'd trust it with my main library! I think the best chance of full compatibility for this would be a time capsule.

It works fine.

[mojitomax]

Yes you can run an iPhoto or iTunes library off a NAS.

However unless the nas is gigabit hard wired into the Mac the performance will be limited. I've run a large aperture library and iTunes library from a qnap nas (albeit 5+ years ago on a by now standards underpowered NAS) and the libraries took a long time to load and were laggy. This may have improved with newer more powerful NASs

But whilst this will serve as a COPY, not backup of the libraries it will not allow them to be broadcast to iOS devices unless the host iMac is switched on.

So I would stick with keeping the libraries on the host iMac, using timemachine on the NAS but ALSO on a USB hdd (mountain lion, Mavericks and Yosemite support multiple timemachine disks) and keeping the host machine always on in order to stream the images to iOS devices.

[FlossyThePig]

I have a couple of questions regarding cloud based backup.

1. For those who recommend it, what upload speed do you have?
2. Are there any providers whose servers are secure and private, i.e. free from US (or other) security snoopers?

Edited by FlossyThePig on Wednesday 1st October 00:11

[mojitomax]

FlossyThePig said:

I have a couple of questions regarding cloud based backup.

1. For those who recommend it, what upload speed do you have?
2. Are there any providers whose servers are secure and private, i.e. free from US (or other) security snoopers?

Edited by FlossyThePig on Wednesday 1st October 00:11

I don't know about upload speed, but I do know that apple do not and will not give data to third parties. So Thier icloud service should be secure.

A lot of people rave about the cloud. I'm not convinced on its efficacy in the home environment. One has got to ask the question about bandwidth for uploads. The initial upload will take days. Subsequent incremental backups will be quicker but most likely require overnight or hours of uploading depending in speed and volume of data. But also consider the time taken to download and recover the data after a hdd loss. It would be hours.

I'm Sure it will be quicker, cheaper and more efficient to buy a couple of USB hdd and rotate them offsite for backups. Just my 2p worth