Let me know how that goes for you. I had unenthusiastic results...

 

Any of you tried running the DNLA server on your ReadyNAS with your XBOX? If so, do you know what port the xbox uses?

 

 

Ahh fudgesicles, maybe I should just go with the WD Live.

 

Check the iPod thread for our exploits with XBMC on the Apple TV.....

 

Give it a shot. Just try it out within the 30 days you have to return the ATV.

 

I currently have a Iomega 1 TB NAS that is not showing up on my computer, nor in the attached device list on my router (I have Uverse and their crappy router, which wouldn't surprise me if it was part of the issue). With the need to back up files for my business, my digital photography, as well as my girlfriend's school work, I am looking for something newer, possibly with some redundancy, and hopefully the ability to connect wired if necessary if having issues connecting over the network. I've never been in love with the Iomega, and have found it to be quite slow. Anyone recommend anything that will fit the bill?

 

I have the older version (blue-circles) of this device and it works well. It's Raid-1 which is the minimum I would consider for a backup device. It's not lightning fast, but performance is acceptable on a gigabit home network.

http://store.westerndigital.com/stor...catid.13092900

 

don't we have a whole thread on teh NAS?

 

Yes we do.

Something about infrant ready NAS?

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=348877

 

I'm going to merge this with the NAS thread as he'll get a much better response from all the contributors of that thread.

 

Threads merged.

 

I ordered a WD Live +. I'll try both I should have all the gear by the end of the week.

 

What is your budget?

How much space do you need and how much space will you eat up on a regular basis? (this will give us an idea of how much expandability you need).

 

NV+ ftw...

 

:thumb: on the title change.

I've been thinking I need to do something like this for awhile. Especially now that I'm nearing the end of getting all my media digital.

 

Thanks for merging the threads. I didn't realize there was one already.

I would like to go with something in the 2 TB range. For business, I won't be adding a ton to it. Most likely backing up my Quickbooks file to it, possibly client equipment files (programming files), and the largest thing being my digital photography files. I keep all my pictures in RAW format, plus convert to JPEG. Each image will be over 20 MB when done. I do take quite a few pictures. After a while I am going to end up backing up my pictures to DVD and storing them in a case, but would like the space to keep them on the drive for a while. I am most interested in a setup that contains two drives and writes to both (if available). I have not even searched yet to see if these are available, as I wanted to get some recommendations first.

 

Oh sorry, I forgot to add that I was hoping to spend $250 or less if possible.

 

You should be able to get a used ReadyNAS NV+ on ebay for that or less. You may need to get it diskless but if you already have drives...

 

I will not go used. I will be reliant on this and feel most people get rid of stuff for a reason. If I end up having to spend more to get what I want I will do that, but it has to be new.

 

What's so special about this?

How much and what can I do?

I'm thinking I might just get something to act as a large hard drive connected to my computer w/ redundancy. And then if I want to connect to it with my iPhone/whatever mobile device I got. I will just connect to my pc since it's already on 24/7....

 

I don't know much about the Drobo units. I believe Sarlacc has some experience with those.

Personally, I haven't heard of a single person that has owned a ReadyNAS that has been disappointed. Are they pricier, yes, but they are fully loaded when it comes to features.

Although it is an older model, if you shop around you could find a Infrant ReadyNAS NV+ for approx $275 without the disks, commonly known as a diskless unit. This unit has 4 bays and currently can support up to 4x2TB drives. This will yield you approx 5.5 TB of usable space.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...adynas&x=0&y=0

The beauty of this setup is that you don't have to start with 4x2TB. You could start with 2x2TB drives and expand over time, but IMHO, I would just spend the money now, save yourself the headache and just max it out, but that's just me.

Buying a diskless unit gives you the ability to shop around for your own disks if you can find a good deal on them, rather than buying a preconfigured unit. Of course if you do go this route, you should adhere to the Hardware Compabitlity Lists that dictate which drives Netgear has tested with the NV+ .... http://www.readynas.com/?cat=37

Another benefit to the ReadyNAS lineup are the ReadyNAS forums. There is a massive user base for them and great manufacture support provided on the forums.... http://www.readynas.com/forum/


Compare what they have to offer to many of the other NAS units on the market. I don't know much about the others so I don't want to mislead you. I can only provide you information about the unit that I have experience with.

 

2001Audi,

Have you looked at Dropbox? If you are not doing high I/O intensive operations, the RAID box may be more effort than you need for just business needs.

Dropbox has 50gb online storage for $10/month or 100gb for $20/month.

Best part is no setup, no hassles, access data from nearly any device, no worry about drives dying, power outages, etc...

 

Backblaze is another online service similar to Dropbox if you want to compare online services.

 

True, there are others. I only mention Dropbox because unlike so many other similar services that have come and gone, DB has a large commercial base to support it, so I am sure it will be around for a long time.

 

I respect that but realize that you're more apt to get rid of a piece of hardware like this is because you need a bigger one, not because it's broken.

 

Anyone make their own NAS using some of the free alternatives?

 

Very true. The problem is I would have no way of knowing if that was the case.

 

Thanks, but I do not want an online service. For one, I will most likely be storing files that include customer credit card numbers. I would not feel safe having that stored anywhere offsite. Second, while Dropbox is a good service (I use the free service to get pdf's onto my ipad easily), there is no guarantees they will still be there a year or two from now.

 

Look into ReadyNas Duo, Synology 211J, and NTAP TS-210. They are all around $200 without disks. 2TB drives are around $80.

From what I can tell they all perform about the same. The details are where they are different. Some have hot swap drives. Some support some kind of off-site backup. Take a look at the list of features before making a selection. The thing to keep in mind with these lower end NAS devices is that they will not be as fast as direct attached storage. No reason that they shouldn't be as fast or faster than your Iomega though.

 

I considered this. Home made with a PC would be faster than the lower end NAS for sure. The reason I didn't go this route is that I wanted something small, quiet, and low power.

 

I might start this way and see how I like the setup. I've got a seven year old XP system that's sitting unused, other than it could conceivably be a emergency HTPC. Got a couple of 1TB drives that aren't being used (sorta), I could wipe those and tinker around with RAID 5.

I only have about .7GB of media I want to back up at the moment, it would be a nice little project.

 

If anyone is ever looking into making your own NAS, I would recommend unRaid...

http://www.lime-technology.com/downl...-unraid-server

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php

 

Most of the quality NAS units last a LONG time. I've had mine for almost 5 years now. Some, like the ReadyNAS, support the ability to swap out drives to increase capacity so I wouldn't say that your more prone to get rid of it when you need more space.

A couple weeks ago I increased capacity in my ReadyNAS NV from 1.3 TB to 5.5TB by just swapping the drives. Why replace the hardware if it's still good.

 

I was looking at FreeNAS to start.

 

I bet a lot of the NAS's end up for sale because their data transfer rates are too slow, even over GigE. Slap together a cheap server and be amazed.

 

This is true; however, for most prosumers it's adequate. Unless you have multiple TVs, game consoles all streaming at the same time is it an issue?

I'm peeved that my $3K+ iMac/27" has a crap NIC card that doesn't support Jumbo frames.

 

You could always put in a new one.



Oh wait.

 

Wasn't ever an issue for me for streaming -- but it was a huge issue for other things that a prosumer would want to do with an NAS, like computer backups, and large file archiving/retrieval.