NAS / Home Server

[longdog]

I have the Synology DS212 myself, I only installed it last weekend with 2 x 2TB hard drives in it running on raid 1. I back up my Mac and pc to it over the home network all done through the BT home hub.

I think its a great bit of kit, it comes with its own operating system you install on it and can be accessed from anywhere in the world be simply logging in over the internet. As i sit here now in a hotel in Paris I can access it and see all my files, watch my video files or listen to music. Ive only scratch the surface with what it can do, for example, you can set up wireless i.p cctv cameras around your house and watch them through the NAS when your away and your pc can be switched off. You can also download an app for it for iPhone and android and watch it on your phone as well as your music and video files.

Like i said great bit of kit maybe you should look at it again

Good luck with whatever you go for

Thanks for this, the Synology DS212 is the NAS system that I have been looking at for all of the reasons that you have given. If I get one and need advice, then I'll come knocking

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

Before you do anything check the price of the drives to fill it. Hard drive prices are through the roof right now and they aren't expected to drop until around March. Taiwan got flooded and that shut down about 90% of the worlds hard drive manufacturing. You might be quids in with your rebait depending on the drives you want but you might also be better off waiting a few months like I am. That said I have 6 drives to buy. It was going to be £350 but now its nearer £1000
I wouldn't be that keen on WHS to be honest and definitely not if you want to use software raid. MS raid is notoriously unreliable unfortunately. Open filer or free nas would work well though. Openfiler isnt updated very often these days but freenas is still very active.

 

[essjay]

Yeah the floods in Thailand knocked out a lot of the factories. There is a great photo going around of a Western Digital factory under 8 feet of water.

I already have 3 x 2TB drives so that's not an issue.

I won't be using MS raid but FlexRAID or Drive Bender. Something like that anyway.

 

[mr_magicfingers]

I run 2 variations. I have an Apple mac mini as my media server which is connected to my home cinema and has a raid box attached on which are all the various media files, itunes libraries etc. The box has 2x2Tb drives on it and can stream to ipads/iphones etc if needed. This is always on, but can sleep when not needed and just wakes up on network calls from any other device.

I also have an airport extreme router which also has a raid box attached to the usb port, which contains 2x1Tb drives and which I use for file storage and for automatic time machine backups of the various laptops around the house. They do this between 2-4am when we're not using them.

I do an occasional backup of important files to a small external usb-powered hard drive and this lives in our fireproof media safe when not actually doing backups.

The raid boxes give me drive redundancy in the house and I'm looking at cloud backup for additional off-site security, though the fireproof safe and external drive is pretty good security/redundancy and is also cheap and easy.

 

[essjay]

I run 2 variations. I have an Apple mac mini as my media server which is connected to my home cinema and has a raid box attached on which are all the various media files, itunes libraries etc. The box has 2x2Tb drives on it and can stream to ipads/iphones etc if needed. This is always on, but can sleep when not needed and just wakes up on network calls from any other device.

I also have an airport extreme router which also has a raid box attached to the usb port, which contains 2x1Tb drives and which I use for file storage and for automatic time machine backups of the various laptops around the house. They do this between 2-4am when we're not using them.

I do an occasional backup of important files to a small external usb-powered hard drive and this lives in our fireproof media safe when not actually doing backups.

The raid boxes give me drive redundancy in the house and I'm looking at cloud backup for additional off-site security, though the fireproof safe and external drive is pretty good security/redundancy and is also cheap and easy.

Take a look at CrashPlan for your Cloud backup. $139.99 (£90) for 4 years unlimited Cloud storage for your backups - not bad for £22.50 a year or £1.88 a month. You download the software and tell it what folders to watch.

I use Acronis True Image to take an image of my hard drive once a fortnight and then CrashPlan uploads it to the cloud.