Network attached storage
Discussion
I'm looking to set up a server for music and movies that I can stream through the house via Wi-Fi.
I like to look of the Netgear SC-101 Clicky so I can bung 2 IDE drives in it, map the drives and have them set up as music and video drives. Has anybody got an experience of these or a better suggestion?
Also does anybody know of a device that will steam music from a device like this and play it through a normal stereo amp?
I like to look of the Netgear SC-101 Clicky so I can bung 2 IDE drives in it, map the drives and have them set up as music and video drives. Has anybody got an experience of these or a better suggestion?
Also does anybody know of a device that will steam music from a device like this and play it through a normal stereo amp?
Yes actually - I've just got one of these:
www.span.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=19_1302_1328&products_id=8006
Single drive (is that a problem with 750Gb disks these days?) but silent and presents regular windows shares, rather than needing software loaded like the SC101. It uses standard FAT32 formatting so at least if something happened to the case, you can easily get the data back (unlike the SC101). It can switch the drive off after a period of inactivity too, which saves even more power.
A colleage had an SC101 and called it the worst piece of network equipment he'd ever bought. Unreliable transferring more than a couple of Gb at once, overheating problems, drive mirroring breaking forcing a wipe/rebuild a couple of times (isn't that what it's supposed to prevent) and of course the issue of it only working with Windows PCs that have the software installed. He got so fed up after a couple of months he stuck the disks in an old PC. Nice idea, just hideously poor implementation.
As for playback, I use a modified xbox, but there are plenty of other devices that will do what you want - none I have much experience of though.
www.span.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=19_1302_1328&products_id=8006
Single drive (is that a problem with 750Gb disks these days?) but silent and presents regular windows shares, rather than needing software loaded like the SC101. It uses standard FAT32 formatting so at least if something happened to the case, you can easily get the data back (unlike the SC101). It can switch the drive off after a period of inactivity too, which saves even more power.
A colleage had an SC101 and called it the worst piece of network equipment he'd ever bought. Unreliable transferring more than a couple of Gb at once, overheating problems, drive mirroring breaking forcing a wipe/rebuild a couple of times (isn't that what it's supposed to prevent) and of course the issue of it only working with Windows PCs that have the software installed. He got so fed up after a couple of months he stuck the disks in an old PC. Nice idea, just hideously poor implementation.
As for playback, I use a modified xbox, but there are plenty of other devices that will do what you want - none I have much experience of though.
I use one of these.....
www.freecom.com/ecproduct_detail.asp?ID=1934&CatID=8020&sCatID=1146266&ssCatID=1146267
they do them upto 500gb
got mine plugged into my router....
www.freecom.com/ecproduct_detail.asp?ID=1934&CatID=8020&sCatID=1146266&ssCatID=1146267
they do them upto 500gb
got mine plugged into my router....
Depends how much money you want to spend - lots of network atached drivers at www.ebuyer.com - I am seriously thinking about the buffalo terastation. Gigabit ethernet with varying storage amounts from 600GB up to 1.2TB (or thereabouts). It uses multiple drives in a raid array so fully redundant. Just plug and play. Of course the 1TB version is about £600 but for the reliability and speed I think for me its got to be worth the investment.
Cheers for the advice so far, I'm not looking to spend too much. About £250 - £300 for the time being. I'm also thinking of using the old chasis I have kicking around to put a large hard drive in and just hook that upto the router. Seems a touch OTT though, and the heat, noise and power consumption might be a bit too much as well.
This one looks quite handy, it might perform the job as an access point for the Xbox 360... ftp://ftp10.dlink.com/pdfs/products/DSM-G600/DSM-G600_ds.pdf
This one looks quite handy, it might perform the job as an access point for the Xbox 360... ftp://ftp10.dlink.com/pdfs/products/DSM-G600/DSM-G600_ds.pdf
Edited by theboyfold on Monday 17th July 22:51
sjg said:
Yes actually - I've just got one of these:
www.span.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=19_1302_1328&products_id=8006
www.span.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=19_1302_1328&products_id=8006
No drivers required at all for network setup - can be seen from any windows pc?
Correct, no software at all.
Can be a slight faff as you need to change a couple of network settings on a PC to connect to it first time, then you can change the settings to suit your network and that's it. All web-based setup, it'd work fine on linux or a mac.
It appears in the workgroup and presents bog-standard Windows shares. By default they're open to all, but separate shares can be individually passworded. There's an FTP server built in too.
Can be a slight faff as you need to change a couple of network settings on a PC to connect to it first time, then you can change the settings to suit your network and that's it. All web-based setup, it'd work fine on linux or a mac.
It appears in the workgroup and presents bog-standard Windows shares. By default they're open to all, but separate shares can be individually passworded. There's an FTP server built in too.
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