Recommend NAS for home network

[Chunkers]

Hello!

I am fairly new to the world of NAS and am seeking advice on whether there is a device out there which can meet all of my needs. Apologies for the long post but I thought a little detail might help

My Network
My home network is a bit of a mess and has grown organically, I know very little about networking generally. At its core is a cheap wireless ADSL router, a Speedtouch 585. Connected to this I have the following :

- Cabling to the far side of the house and Netgear 4 port switch for the TV stuff and WAP
- an additional Netgear WAP (extending my wireless coverage)
- An aging Series 1 Tivo from which I import TV programmes
- 3 desktop PC's (1 is dedicated to kids and connected wirelessly)
- 2 laptops (wireless)
- 1 squeezebox (series 2)
- Kiss technology 1600 media player (has just died and I will replace with something else)
- A hacked NSLU2 with a couple of memory sticks plugged in which we use for some small files we like to keep available on the network. Its lacks the juice to run a Squeezebox server and is more of a ornament these days
- A Wii.

The main PC has a RAID 1 disk array to keep family photos, music and videos on after we had a 'near miss' with a hard disk failure a while back and also runs the squeezebox server software. It also serves stuff to play back on the Kiss player (R.I.P). The PC's all run Windows XP and dual boot into Ubuntu which i dabble with.
Two of the PC's sit on an APC UPS, the server PC has the USB connection and will auto-shutdown.

Question
I hope to find a device which will do the following :

Must have :

• Top Priority is secure backup of files, preferably autonomous and invisible i.e. sucks files off the server periodically
• Act as server for my media files, both for a (future-purchase) network video player
• Runs Squeezebox server and support streaming radio (iBBC player)
• Be reliable, quiet and have low power usage
• Modest price, I guess £100-£200, second hand / ebay considered

Nice to have :

• RAID 1 would be my preference based on experience but not a *MUST*
• Hot swappable is nice
• Web server
• Possibility to run webfilter / proxy server software like Dansguardian, squid or somethign like that in the future - I am currently wrestling with how to nail down my internet access as my kids are getting to the stage where they are wanting to 'surf'
• Probably needs to be Gb LAN compatible as I guess I amy end up upgarding the ADSL router before too long
• I would prefer a non-proprietary disk format so that if the thing fails I can remove a disk and read it easily

Current thoughts :

I am working my way through articles and reading forums, I have read positive things about Netgear ReadyNAS series although I am not a great Netgear fan. I also like the look of the cheaper Synology 2 disk boxes, currently I guess the Synology DS210j or DS211j are favourites.

Is there such a thing as a modestly priced, hackable, dual LAN, 2 disk RAID NAS/media server with a non-proprietary disk format?

I was also toying with the idea of building or buying an Atom based system and using Linux - will certainly be faster and more flexible/powerful but I suspect it won't have the robustness of a NAS in terms of data security, will have a large footprint, consume more power and be expensive.

Thanks in Advance!

Chunks

 

[Chunkers]

OK, for the record in case anyone reads this.

I have ordered a Synology DS211j, delivery in 5-8 weeks according to Amazon, for the time being I will settle for a single Hitachi 1Tb drive and add a second at a future date to compete a RAID 1. As far as I know the DS211j has yet to be officially released in UK and they seem to have unlisted it again, but I definitely have a confirmed order with Amazon!

I did have ambitious plans for its role on my network but decided that I was trying to do too much with it and will stick to the basics ... NAS duties and media serving. The webfilter and other stuff ...... I will be looking something else to do, maybe a Sheevaplug or similar when they get them sorted out and they stop catching fire!

I am a little worried that the DS211j will lack power to run Squeezebox server smoothly but will take the chance and maybe the faster cpu of the new model will help (albeit still with teeny 128Mb RAM).

If anyone is interested in hpw the DS211j performs once I have got it then feel free to PM me.

Chunks

 

[thiggins]

The DS211j has plenty of power to run SqueezeCenter. Even my old QNAP TS109 Pro does. You might notice stream problems when the system is running a full scan, though. Just schedule those for off-hours.

 

[Chunkers]

The DS211j has plenty of power to run SqueezeCenter. Even my old QNAP TS109 Pro does. You might notice stream problems when the system is running a full scan, though. Just schedule those for off-hours.

Thats good to know, thanks for the reply. I will sit tight and wait for delivery and post any thoughts once I have it all set up!

Chunks

 

[sdeleeuw]

Subscribed for updates... considering the DS111, but am also worried that it will make the Squeezebox remote very sluggish...

 

[thiggins]

Subscribed for updates... considering the DS111, but am also worried that it will make the Squeezebox remote very sluggish...

Stop worrying. It'll be just fine. The 1.6 GHz Kirkwood has plenty of power for this.

 

[favor]

Can you share your experience with Synology ds211j's performance with respect to Squeezebox server. How seamless is the refresh and scanning music on your squeezebox?

Thanks

 

[thiggins]

Can you share your experience with Synology ds211j's performance with respect to Squeezebox server. How seamless is the refresh and scanning music on your squeezebox?

I don't update my music library that much. Each time I do, I manually rescan.

 

[Chunkers]

The DS211j handles the Squeezebox server absolutely fine. I notice a slight delay initially whilst it 'wakes up' but once the unit has spun up the menus are smooth and the plugins work fine (I use the BBC plugin quite a lot to listen to R4). I am away on business at the moment but from memory I think its running v7.5 of the software.

I haven't noticed an issue with re-scan's a but as thiggins said this doesn't happen very often anyway so wouldn't bother me much.

It has worked out really well and exactly as planned for me as previously I used to need a PC running running the server, I used to trudge into the office every morning and fire up my server and run it all day. Nowadays, the DS211j sits on the network all the time and consumes very little power so my Squeezebox is always available.

A great piece of gear.

Chunkers

 

[sdeleeuw]

Throwing in my 2 cents... I got the DS111... I run Squeezebox on it and it's just as fast for that as my old Core 2 Duo box.

I also run several Joomla sites, an iTunes server, and do remote backups to it. The thing cooks.. I put a survey on a Joomla page about how fast it loaded and sent it out to friends all around the US, most said the page loaded lightning fast. This was from a DS111, on a cable connection, also running Squeezebox. It's a very capable little box.