Basic Home Cloud. Tried Lacie Fuel. Falls short. Need Advice.

[Smokie]

Have tried twice to setup a simple home cloud for files and streaming by connecting an external drive; first to an additional router; and later on to my local wifi. Each time with PCs, androids, and streaming sticks logged into the same local wifi network.

With no complete success yet, I need the advice of the experienced. Can this be done, or am I spinning my wheels? I'll be brief but clear ( I hope). Thanks in advance.

First Try (Old Gear): FAIL
Hooked up a non-wifi WD MyBook via USB to a Netgear Router; Always dropping the HDD connection; streaming not possible; automated file management from PC not feasible with lack of constancy.

Second Try (New Gear): FAIL
Got a Wifi Lacie Fuel, joined local Wifi. Many gripes, but main one is no PC access except via browser, making automated file management a no-go.

What I Have Now:

1. Two Windows 10 Laptops
2. Two Android Phones
3. Roku & Chromecast
4. Lots of files (mp3/mp4/docs/etc) 1TB worth


What I Want To Achieve:

1. Wifi access from the Laptops, using the file explorer just like a local HDD.
- This is so I can use the PC's to manage files for backup or encryption (while on local home Wifi)

2. Wifi access from the Androids. No objection to using Apps for this.
- This is so I can stream media (music/movies) to the Androids (while on local home Wifi)

3. Ability to Cast media selected from android to the Roku or Chromecast hooked up to my TV.

4. EXTRA: Remote (out of the house) access is not needed, but I'll take it if I can achieve the rest.

 

[sfx2000]

NextCloud and OwnCloud (they're related, NextCloud is a fork/reboot of OwnCloud) can meet your needs...

For a turnkey solution on NextCloud... the NextCloudBox -

Check WDLabs for the HW, and NextCloud for the SW, along with a Pi2... It's tightly coupled to Ubuntu, which is why it's Pi2 only at the moment (Pi3 support is coming soon, promised this month, April 2017 actually)

https://nextcloud.com/box/

It's $80USD... not counting the Pi2 (which is 35-40 USD, depending on where you buy it - microcenter is $35)

What does the kit include?

• The Nextcloud box consists of the following parts:
  • 1 TB USB3 hard drive from WDLabs
  • Nextcloud case with room for the drive and a compute board
  • microUSB charger, cables and adapters, a screw driver and screws
  • microSD card with Snappy Ubuntu Core as OS, including Apache, MySQL and the latest Nextcloud 10 pre-installed and ready to go

The Box is hardware-compatible with the Raspberry Pi 2 and 3, and the oDroid C2.

-- That's a turn-key solution from NextCloud - and yes, there's some margin, which goes towards the continued development of NextCloud...

If you're rather adept a linux and configs - can build it on one's own for a bit less...

gubbins here -- https://www.wdc.com/products/wdlabs.html

Those gubbins should work fine with Odroid C2 and if one wants x86, the Up board from Aeon - or a Pi3 even.

 

[thiggins]

You need to use a real NAS.

Any NAS will provide #1.

QNAP, Synology have apps for #2

I don't think you will be happy with #3. Casting locally streamed content requires rebroadcast, which uses 2X bandwidth. One transmission from storage to device. Second from casting device to display device.

QNAP, Synology, NETGEAR, WD all support remote access. Some require opening router ports. WD uses a relay server.

 

[Smokie]

You need to use a real NAS.

Any NAS will provide #1.

QNAP, Synology have apps for #2

I don't think you will be happy with #3. Casting locally streamed content requires rebroadcast, which uses 2X bandwidth. One transmission from storage to device. Second from casting device to display device.

QNAP, Synology, NETGEAR, WD all support remote access. Some require opening router ports. WD uses a relay server.

Thanks for the breakdown. I thought the local casting might be tough.

In regards to Wifi access for Win 1o laptops;

I've seen plenty of "plugged into Wifi router" NAS devices, but not any Standalone Wifi NAS boxes.

Do you know what search terms I need to be using to find a good NAS that lives on my home wifi (like all the other tech) and can be browsed natively in windows file explorer.

 

[thiggins]

NASes connect via Ethernet to your router or network switch. They are accessible to any device on your wired or wireless network.

 

[System Error Message]

i dont get why its called home cloud, to have your own cloud for files implies a single folder/drive across multiple machines. Examples include dropbox, aerofs (not anymore), and similar solutions. Windows and linux have their own variants built in as well.

Just attaching a hard drive to a router is called a NAS not any sort of cloud.

Using a NAS over wifi will be unreliable, if using the router as NAS, if the CPU gets fully used it will drop packets over wifi as it would have insufficient CPU to handle everything.

I built my own NAS by scavenging pc parts and putting it into a 2U, attaching a bunch of hard drives, using linux and setting up software RAID, adding a 2nd hand SFP+ NIC gives me 10Gb/s, all on the cheap.