Network Attached Storage ?

[Gentle Ben]

looking at a NAS set up via cat 5 . thinking of something like http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products...tion/network-hard-drive-ix2/#overviewItem_tab Iomega with sata hard drives & raid with file share capabilities over network & internet.
any thoughts or suggestions ?

 

[thewheelman]

I think that only 2 bays is very limited at any price.
Unless you plan to store only documents, and then, for data security, RAID would be required, which means you effectively have just one drive.
A 6 bay unit, with 2 drives setup for RAID, for your most important documents, family photos etc., and a couple more drives for video, music, software backups, makes more sense
And you still have room for expansion.
Usually a buliding a simple Linux server is much more cost effective, and easier to replace parts and upgrade.
If serving multiple clients, upgrading to a 1Gbs network is a good idea also.

 

[danibbler]

I've looked into this recently and my first question is what the OP is going to be using it for. Like what sort of files are to be shared out? How big of a network are we talking about here?

A single person can easily get by with just a 2-bay NAS. 6-bay is way overkill.

 

[Gentle Ben]

Thanks so far for the input.
To answer a few questions....but my understanding is that 2x1tb hard drives running raid gives me 1 tb storage?
1tb is ample storage for what I'm doing, and if the need arises for more storage down the road, I'll deal with that then.
What sort of files do I want to share? across the home network I want to be able to share some programs like cheque writing , invoicing etc. sharing word documents and pdf files etc. nothing real huge , I just want the convenience of easy sharing rather than having to jump from computer to computer. I want easy back up of files on all of my computers and to be able to access files easily from either computer. there would be 2 desktops & 1 laptop in the home netwrok along with several printers

I want to be able to share primarily some (relatively small) photo files , pdf and word documents with another person over internet.
I want to be able to (very occasionally) access some of my data files, word & PDF from another computer and / or my laptop while I'm not at home
At this time I don't see the need for a 6 bay drive. I also don't have any knowledge of linux . something out of the box that is easily installed and set up is what I need, because that's pretty much my skill level...

Thanks again

 

[danibbler]

Thanks so far for the input.
To answer a few questions....but my understanding is that 2x1tb hard drives running raid gives me 1 tb storage?

There are a few versions of RAID and, yes, that is one version...think it's RAID 0.

What sort of files do I want to share? across the home network I want to be able to share some programs like cheque writing , invoicing etc. sharing word documents and pdf files etc. nothing real huge , I just want the convenience of easy sharing rather than having to jump from computer to computer. I want easy back up of files on all of my computers and to be able to access files easily from either computer. there would be 2 desktops & 1 laptop in the home netwrok along with several printers

I'm not sure that a NAS will let you share programs. That sounds more like a server level function.

It will easily allow you to backup files and allow access to them from other computers.

I want to be able to share primarily some (relatively small) photo files , pdf and word documents with another person over internet.
I want to be able to (very occasionally) access some of my data files, word & PDF from another computer and / or my laptop while I'm not at home
At this time I don't see the need for a 6 bay drive. I also don't have any knowledge of linux . something out of the box that is easily installed and set up is what I need, because that's pretty much my skill level...

Thanks again

Yep, a NAS should easily be able to do those.

I'd strongly look at stuff from Synology and QNAP. They've got very good reviews and their sites are very informative. And 3-terabyte hard drives are where the sweet spot is in terms of pricing and size.

 

[TheDr]

There are a few versions of RAID and, yes, that is one version...think it's RAID 0.

Actually its RAID1 also known as disk mirroring 2 1TB drives will give you 1TB of space it can stand the failure of a drive without data loss.
RAID0 is block level striping, and there is no redundancy, if you have 2 1TB drives you will get 2TB of space but if a drive fails you have lost all your data.
in a larger NAS you can also have RAID5 which is block level striping with distributed parity. For this you need a minimum of 3 drives and you lose the equivalent of 1 drive in avaliable space - 3 1TB drives will give you 2 TB of useable space and the ability to withstand failure of 1 disk.
There are other RAID levels, and nested RAID but they are well beyond the scope of your requirements.


A NAS can do most of what you are looking for but as for sharing programs, well that depends on the program. If the program requires you to install it, makes entries in the registry and installs DLL's the answer is a resounding no, you almost definately cannot run from a NAS. If it is a self contained program that doesnt install you may be able to run it from a NAS. The other alternative is if it is a program that you have to install and that programstores its data files somewhere, Quicken is a good example, then you can install the program (subject to licensng) on all the computers you want to and have them all look to the same location on your NAS for the data files then you have access to the same data within the application from all your computers.