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NAS advice
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I've never had one but got to thinking about whether one would be useful, and from what I've read so far they sound promising.
I need a new hard drive anyway as I've reached capacity. I have 3 portable hard drives that I use to store a variety of media. 1 is almost entirely used connected to a media player in the lounge. So I'm constanting unplugging to add new content.
I currently have a secondary pc that I use on the rare occasion I torrent (I built it quiet so that I can leave it on overnight).
I believe a NAS will allow to to do all the above.
What would clinch it for me is if I can remotely allow access to it to my friends/family.
Is that possible and if so how.
Recommendations for products would be much appreciated.
I need a new hard drive anyway as I've reached capacity. I have 3 portable hard drives that I use to store a variety of media. 1 is almost entirely used connected to a media player in the lounge. So I'm constanting unplugging to add new content.
I currently have a secondary pc that I use on the rare occasion I torrent (I built it quiet so that I can leave it on overnight).
I believe a NAS will allow to to do all the above.
What would clinch it for me is if I can remotely allow access to it to my friends/family.
Is that possible and if so how.
Recommendations for products would be much appreciated.
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I mean is it possible for my brother to stream from my location if I set it up correctly. Not having one before I'm not sure how the remote feature works (FTP access?) and how that manifests itself outside of my network.
I'm assuming he'll need to login to some page to be able to see the content but how does that marry up to his media device?
However if you're planning on streaming TV, films or music, you must have permission from the copyright holders of the media to stream it. Your ISP would not allow you to host illegal content.
There'd be no issue for him to download the files. I was just wondering if he could stream it as that would have been the more elegant solution.
If you're going to use it to store media, ensure you put at least 3 drives in it and configure it as a RAID array using ZFS so that your data is protected against a single drive failure. (Two drives fail and you lose it all).
You could use a cloud storage solution. I have all my home videos on Picasa (and my pictures) and from there I can send a link to anyone I want to view them.
I do have an 18Mbps upload speed though.
Thanks, that's my solution. I just wanted to know if it was possible and/or elegant to do it stated above.
Mainly, so that I could add it as a benefit to me buying a NAS.
I'm still unsure as I don't have that many devices I need to connect. Only one media player downstairs but streaming from a NAS would only save me having to move files about via USB stick.
If remote access is viable but that bro will have to download first (I'd still consider that a benefit).
Torrenting I have a seperate machine but wondering if I can get rid of it altogether if I have a NAS solution.
I'm running out of room so its continue as I do but buy a bigger hard drive or buy a NAS (I see it as essentially the same thing as I'd need to buy a new HD in most cases) but with some added benefits.
Streaming over the internet is fine for music (I can stream to my phone) and for photo and file sharing but I wouldn't think video would be usable unless you have very good upstream capacity.
it can be accessed over the internet using qnap's mycloudnas service
http://www.mycloudnas.com/nas.php
does pretty much anything you could want, ms, apple, unix shares - web server - ftp server - wonky media server - etc etc
You can install Windows or Linux, whichever you are comfortable with. And you can also install a £30 video card, attached it to your TV and use it for playing backing media as well.
I had a MyBook NAS, but have since replaced my primary NAS with a
http://www.synology.com/products/product.php?product_name=DS212%2B
Its brilliant, has loads of thirdparty software you can install on it too. Has remote a OS desktop too. I stream video from it to my phone but then i'm on BT Infinity.
Yes, Synology make some good kit. My 212j is a lower model that you have but it's still perfectly good for home use.
Have a look at Plex which is designed for internet streaming,
http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/MyPlex
You will need a reasonable fast and stable upload, at least a couple of mb for SD content.
Yes, the smart NAS boxes like synology, qnap and of course the Microserver all have torrent clients, though these days may people also use sabnzbd/sickbeard/couchpotato/newsgroups for downloads depending on what you are downloading.
As mentioned above the HP microserver is basically a PC. It comes without an operating system so you are free to install one of your choice. Its virtually silent so also ideal as a media player. Its not to bad leaving it on 24/7 if you want, typically uses around 40w to 50w with a couple of hard drives.
It doesn't come with any drives but support up to 4, 5 or 6 drives depending on if you wish to have an optical drive or not. So potentially up to 24TB of data.
The existing model is currently being phased out so can be purchased fairly cheaply (£170) until stock runs out. The new model is currently over £300 but may drop in price with cash back which HP commonly do.
http://www.serversdirect.co.uk/Hewlett_Packard_ProLiant_N40L_1.5GHz_2GB_RAM_250GB_Micro_Tower_Server_658553-421/version.asp?refsource=SDfroogle&gclid=CMS-oM7P4bUCFUvHtAodWGIAoA