trying to find a NAS...any suggestions welcome

[dazeman27]

I'm trying to get a NAS at a reasonable price that will allow for the following functions:

1) Allow my three computers to access files and backup
2) Allow user restrictions by computer/username to folders (my files private, wife files private)
3) Allow good automated backup
4) Good access over wireless N network

My current network is a uverse wireless G router with the wireless function turned off and acting as a gateway to a linksys wireless N router.

I have a desktop with wireless N usb adapter and two laptops with wireless N NICs.

I plan on giving my wife and I folders on the shared NAS and managing them similar to how I would with active directory on a true network storage. We would store all of our photos, videos, word documents, drivers, software...etc.

I don't need to access them that fast, but I'd like to know if it's possible to access them almost like a local hard drive so we could play 720P videos or listen to music from the network drive without having to copy things locally first.

I was looking at the following drive as a solution:
Synology DS211J

Does anyone think that this drive would provide the functionality I need with reasonable wireless N speeds? I'd basically like a server that runs like a true server I'd manage at work and allows for wireless playback, transfer and storage of all files. I'm not interested in running CATV; I know that would give the best speeds.

Please let me know if this is feasible or if I should look for another solution; I would like the cheapest option that functions well

Thanks

 

[stevech]

Opinion:

I have looked at NASes and the DS211J is probably what I'd get today. QNAP and Synology seem to have matching products and duke-it-out.

Remember that a NAS is not a substitute for backup. You need a copy of irreplaceable files that are on the NAS - copied to a USB drive, thumb drive, off-site storage service, or some combination thereof. I'm in the camp that says RAID1 mirroring helps protect from a single drive failure, but not from file system corruption (corrupts both), nor from burglary/fire/flood, nor my mistake.

Given this, there's an argument for getting a single-drive NAS and use one of the backups as above.

The reason I haven't bought a NAS is the my use of MS Windows folder shares are just sufficient - mostly because of the PC where the shares are has several disks and is always on if someone is home.

Don't forget the UPS w/shutdown of NAS.

 

[dazeman27]

Thanks for the info. I was planning to do RAID 1, but hadn't considered a drive corruption. I'm used to working with RAID 5 at work where you have parity bits, and I never saw an issue with any data loss.

I was planning to use a 3rd parts cloud storage for photos since that's the biggest concern for me in the event of a drive corruption or fire. I guess that Amazon S3 is the only one supported right now, but I"m not entirely sure on that. I didn't consider an UPS to be a necessity as people have said that the drive seems to handle power outages pretty well without issues and continues where it left off when powered back on, but I guess it's always a good idea to have.

 

[stevech]

cloud backup is nice, if you don't mind the price, the risk that they go out of business, and you encrypt your private financial data before it CAN get uploaded to avoid risk of employee hacking.

I've decided that triple duplicate (automated) backups to other drives here, and really important stuff on media I take offsite, is what I want. I also encrypt using SafeHouse (free), and take that virtual drive as a file on various media and mail it to my 7GB gmail account. (It's easier to use than TruCrypt).

A few photos - sure, to share with family: just use free Google Picasa.
OpenDrive is great - backup plus virtual drive; but their business model is shaky.