Advice on NAS setup

[loremd]

I have been thinking about how to set up a home NAS and backup solution for months and can't seem to come to any conclusion so figured I'd ask for help.

My wife and I have 2 desktops, 1 laptop, and an ipad at home. Right now I backup each computer to a spare 1tb drive on one of the computers. I also backup important data to a portable HD but it's inconvenient and not automatic so I don't do it very often.

We also have a PS3 we use to stream media from 1 of the computers using windows media player.

What I have been looking for is something I could use to store all our music, home videos (mostly *.avi and *.mts), and movies so that they would be accessible from any computer, the ipad, and remotely on our phone/laptop. I would also like to use it to backup all the separate computers. Lastly, and this is what hangs me up most, I would like to be able to back up everything to a remote location. My wife has an office nearby and I could buy something to put there to "receive" backed up data. The problem is I'm not sure what to buy or how the actual process would work (short of just using a portable drive and lugging it back and forth, but i'd prefer something more automatic). We have a relatively slow upload speed also (768 kbs).

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[claykin]

All of your desires can be served by a NAS. Look at the Readynas series from Netgear. The Ultra, NVX or Pro depending on your needs.

www.readynas.com

All Readynas products have a DLNA and Firefly iTunes server so that should handle your media needs.

I use a NAS to store image backups as well as file backups for PC's on my LAN. Works beautifully as long as you have a gigabit connection. When using 10/100, backups can be slow and when using Wifi its only as reliable as your wifi. Some backup apps are good about waiting and trying to reconnect a dropped network connection others will immediately error out the backup job. Keep that in mind if you don't have robust wifi.

For offsite backup you can use a NAS built in feature called RSYNC. This will allow you to create a secure connection (SSL) and keep files backed up between two NAS boxes. RSYNC uses delta file technology so it doesn't need to send the entire file (for changed files) only the bits that were changed.

I can go on and on about this and other options.

BTW, the Readynas Ultra does not out of the box support RSYNC over SSL but this can be added using an "unsupported" community addon. The NVX Business and Pro Business include all features.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

 

[loremd]

I've looked at ReadyNAS and it looks impressive, albeit slightly more expensive than similar products I've looked at from Synology and QNAP. If I had a ReadyNAS and wanted to backup over rsync, what would I need on the other side? Another ReadyNAS or a windows PC or ?

 

[claykin]

I've looked at ReadyNAS and it looks impressive, albeit slightly more expensive than similar products I've looked at from Synology and QNAP. If I had a ReadyNAS and wanted to backup over rsync, what would I need on the other side? Another ReadyNAS or a windows PC or ?

You could use a second NAS which will be the easiest from a setup standpoint, or Delta copy on a PC. http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp

Synology and QNAP make good products as well. Be sure to compare the media offerings between brands. You may find Netgears included ORB and SKIFTA addons to be useful. http://www.readynas.com/?cat=36

Plus I prefer Netgears support. While their phone support can sometimes lack, the forum is awesome and the developers of the Readynas lineup participate and help to resolve issues. Peruse the Synology and QNAP forums and you'll find more people reaching out for help and never receiving the help they're looking for. Synology does have US based support with a phone # in Washington you can call. Qnap has no US based support.