Expert advice needed on new LAN / NAS set up

[Barry Bird]

Hi all,

I’m new to this forum, but have been lurking the site for a while now trying to find the information I need.
I’m looking to set up a work related and fun related network in my home and you guys seem like the experts to ask.
The location:
House with 3 floors and lots of concrete and metal between floors. Each floor has 1 RJ45 wall socket available. ADSL comes into the house in the basement (which is one of the floors). No way of moving it without getting professionals in.

The situation:
I work from home, my office is in the basement. I mainly use a fast wired PC for my work. My son is starting to walk though and this means I need to keep an eye on him more and more. I’m getting a new laptop so I can work in the living room where he plays. The wifi is very very unstable in the living room due to it needing to come from the basement through the steel/concrete floor. Garden wise there is hardly a signal to speak of.
In the living room is a home theatre set up and upstairs is another TV set up.

My aim:
To set up a network in the home which will allow me to work in my office (PC) or work in the living room or outside in the garden (laptop) while using the same files as I use on the PC.
I'd also like to be able to use the network to watch videos or photos on our living room TV or on the bedroom TV.
I’m thinking a NAS set up in the basement with a modem/router to which I connect the NAS and the RJ45 cables which come together in the basement. Upstairs in the living room I connect another modem/router (same one as in the basement I presume) to the RJ45 wall socket so I get it to bump the wifi signal for indoors and outdoors.
I also want to hook up two media centers so i can watch videos or photos which are stored on the NAS on the living room TV or bedroom TV.

My questions:
Is this a do-able setup? Is it any good? Can it be done better (I’m not mister A+ technical so easy is best and the set up needs to be reliable)
What products would you recommend?
I have no idea which NAS is right for me. I’d prefer a device without disks as I already have 4 of those.
In terms of modem/router I was thinking the Linksys WAG 320N or 610 (not sure if this needs a separate modem), they both look good and they seem to be good quality products
In terms of media centers I’m also at a loss, there are lots and lots coming out with a lot of new players or names that might not be familiar to people not in the business. I checked out the WD Live, Xtreamer and popcorn hour players.
Recommendations are more than welcome.

Firther info: I'm in Europe and use Windows 7.

Thanks

 

[thiggins]

Your basic plan is fine. Make sure you convert the second, upstairs router to an access point, or you'll end up with computers unable to file and printer share.

Media players all have limitations of one sort or another. We've reviewed a bunch of them, check here.

I the end, one of the new $600 netbooks with Atom/Ion (or similar) with an HDMI output might be a better deal. A PC will play pretty much anything, plus let you play all websites with video (Hulu, etc.) All the media players limit you to web content from their "partners", usually at an subscription cost.

As for the NAS, you may not be able to reuse your drives in a BYOD NAS. You really should use drives only from the manufacturers' approved drive list. See
Is That an Approved Drive In Your NAS? Or Are You Happy To Risk Your Data?

 

[Barry Bird]

Thanks for the sound advice already.
I didn't know the access point bit, thought I could just hook two modem/routers up to the same network and get a single wifi field to play with.

With regards to de MCs, I understand where your coming from, but I'm a lazy so and so as I don't like taking hauling stuff up and down the house just to be able to watch something. I want to be able to switch on the TV, home cinema set and a MC player and away I go. I don't really want to use a MC for watching videos online either. I work on the net all day and a couple of hours off are heaven.
I'll definitely read your reviews carefully and will keep lookign for new ones as I know a ton of these stand alone MCs are coming out in the next few months.

Thanks also with regards to the NAS situation. They don't make it easy for us do they.
Anyone have any thoughts on drive-less NAS setups that work with a lot of disks?

Same goes for the modem routers. Anyone any thoughts on ther linksys WAG 320 and the Linksys 610?