Very Small, Very Simple NAS or Built In Router USB

[Anotherusername]

Hello- Thank you in advance for your help.

Anyone recommend a very simple NAS solution. It would be awesome if I could just use a memory stick.

Here's the need:
- 20 clients saving very very small text files (as in 25KB) 1 time an hour- Very light workload
- Transportable- Size matters- It gets shipped within shipping crates

I've tried to simply use different router's built in USB file sharing, but most seem to max out at between 5-10 connections to the USB port. So, If you have a recommendation of a router that is pretty small (these machines do not connect to the internet. They just share files) and allows 20 connections to the usb port, this would probably work great.

Thanks!

 

[sfx2000]

Win 10 Pro on a corp grade laptop (think Thinkpad 430 or equivalent from Dell/HP/etc...).

Can set up a file share there...

 

[Anotherusername]

Yes, thank you for mentioning it. All the documentation I could find said that the maximum connections is 10. I've thought about bringing a small build PC with me, but that just feels really complicated and again, I hit the 10 limit.

Does Win10 Pro lift the 10 limit?

Thanks!!

 

[sfx2000]

I think Win10 Pro is still limited to 10 concurrent sessions...

Another idea would be to set up an Intel NUC using Ubuntu and Samba - fairly easy to set up a simple Samba server in about 20 lines of configuration...

 

[Anotherusername]

That's an idea. Or even a RaspberryPi. Or if I end up in this direction, I could just go with a Synology single bay DiskStation (https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/DS115j). I was just trying to avoid a big 3.5" disk solution. I know I have an edge case, but it is what it is.

This is why I was looking for a router that allows 20 clients via SMB, but it seems hard to find.

Thanks!

 

[thiggins]

There are the Seagate Wireless and Wireless Plus if you can live with only wireless access.

Also this and this. Some of these devices say they stream to up to 5 devices. Not sure that is a connection limit or guidance on how many devices will stream smoothly.

 

[Anotherusername]

Yes! Thank you! I think these will work terrific. Thanks a ton. I have probably spent 2-3hrs of searching to find something exactly like these solutions. Many thanks for this. I'll experiment and report back.

Thanks again!

 

[Anotherusername]

Another item I'd found was qnap genie : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LPMMKR8/?tag=snbforums-20

 

[sfx2000]

Another item I'd found was qnap genie : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LPMMKR8/?tag=snbforums-20

Cannot recommend the genie - I have one... it's ok as a travel router, but in many ways it was a science project and not fully fleshed out.

 

[Anotherusername]

Thanks. Good to know.

I did some research last night and from what it looks like, Microsoft upped the shared folder maximum connections from 10 to 20. It was installed within a service update at some point during Windows 7.

So, I'm going to test this out tomorrow (Monday) and I'll report back. Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[Anotherusername]

Hi Everyone- Ok, wanted to report back.

I setup 20 laptops connected to my Lenovo x201 i7 Win 7 machine. Worked no problem. Can't even notice the performance hit whatsoever. As soon as I tried to connect #21- Would not let me.

Thank you for your help with this! Very helpful to me.