Hi,
I am new to all this NAS, hard drive networking, WLAN etc... stuff. But I think a NAS is what I need for me home; because I have a computer, a laptop and a PS3 at home that are used for watching films, listening to music and showing pictures in slideshows. On top of that, everyone uses the computer and laptop to do work and when it comes to getting certain documents we have to keep on transferring them by USB which is time consuming.
So I decided I needed to put everything in once place, at first I was going to get a server like the "HP Windows Home Server or the Fujitsu Servio" but a mate of mine said try looking at a NAS because they work out to be cheaper.
However after reading your thread "How to choose the right NAS for you?", I kind of understood this NAS jargon and was wondering if anyone could help me in deciding what NAS would be good for me.
I know that I need a NAS that can do the following:
- Store all my music, films and pictures on one place.
- Store all my documents and other files (like: .doc, .pdf etc...)
- Allow back up via an external hardrive (I originally thought RAID 1 was the best but read that it isn't 100% reliable it self but I do not mind having RAID 1 technology at least.)
- Allows computers, laptops and an UPnP device to access it (I understand that UPnP is more important then DLNA and Viva but having them in the NAS would be a bonus.)
- Now I won't be using Ethernet cables to connect up my computer, laptop and PS3 but instead will be using a wireless router like the Linksys WRT610N because it seems to be future-proof with its "dual-band" feature (but it has a hefty price tag, any good alternatives out on the market?) However I guess the read and write speed will be less due to it being wirelesses, but is this a good idea? To use a wireless router instead of Ethernet cables? Will the speed be read and write speed be really slow or just below average because I am fine with just below average? Or would I have to rip out the wallpaper just to install Ethernet cables in the house?
On top of that, my internet connection will be coming from a separate router that was provided by the ISP, and I am thinking about getting a wireless printer. Will having the wireless printer, getting internet from another router and then accessing files from another wireless network be a problem or would the computer and laptops be able to access them all at the same time?
Now I know these are a lot of questions that may seem stupid to you lot but I have reading up reviews and doing research on NAS for the past month and I sometimes get confused. I read a review for one NAS and it seems to be a good NAS but then another review says it is bad. Which makes things a lot harder, however I have noticed that the NetGear NAS’s are in general the best on the market but their prices are way above what I would be willing to pay especially for a simple home set-up. I thought about the Linksys Media Hub or the Freecom Network Hard drive weren’t too bad.
So any help?
I am new to all this NAS, hard drive networking, WLAN etc... stuff. But I think a NAS is what I need for me home; because I have a computer, a laptop and a PS3 at home that are used for watching films, listening to music and showing pictures in slideshows. On top of that, everyone uses the computer and laptop to do work and when it comes to getting certain documents we have to keep on transferring them by USB which is time consuming.
So I decided I needed to put everything in once place, at first I was going to get a server like the "HP Windows Home Server or the Fujitsu Servio" but a mate of mine said try looking at a NAS because they work out to be cheaper.
However after reading your thread "How to choose the right NAS for you?", I kind of understood this NAS jargon and was wondering if anyone could help me in deciding what NAS would be good for me.
I know that I need a NAS that can do the following:
- Store all my music, films and pictures on one place.
- Store all my documents and other files (like: .doc, .pdf etc...)
- Allow back up via an external hardrive (I originally thought RAID 1 was the best but read that it isn't 100% reliable it self but I do not mind having RAID 1 technology at least.)
- Allows computers, laptops and an UPnP device to access it (I understand that UPnP is more important then DLNA and Viva but having them in the NAS would be a bonus.)
- Now I won't be using Ethernet cables to connect up my computer, laptop and PS3 but instead will be using a wireless router like the Linksys WRT610N because it seems to be future-proof with its "dual-band" feature (but it has a hefty price tag, any good alternatives out on the market?) However I guess the read and write speed will be less due to it being wirelesses, but is this a good idea? To use a wireless router instead of Ethernet cables? Will the speed be read and write speed be really slow or just below average because I am fine with just below average? Or would I have to rip out the wallpaper just to install Ethernet cables in the house?
On top of that, my internet connection will be coming from a separate router that was provided by the ISP, and I am thinking about getting a wireless printer. Will having the wireless printer, getting internet from another router and then accessing files from another wireless network be a problem or would the computer and laptops be able to access them all at the same time?
Now I know these are a lot of questions that may seem stupid to you lot but I have reading up reviews and doing research on NAS for the past month and I sometimes get confused. I read a review for one NAS and it seems to be a good NAS but then another review says it is bad. Which makes things a lot harder, however I have noticed that the NetGear NAS’s are in general the best on the market but their prices are way above what I would be willing to pay especially for a simple home set-up. I thought about the Linksys Media Hub or the Freecom Network Hard drive weren’t too bad.
So any help?
