NAS Advice

[lilelvis2000]

I've been thinking about sorting out my wife's file storage problems for a while now. She has one PC where most of her files are kept, but she keeps putting them on a USB Pen and then copying them to the other machines on the network. Everyday I tell her that the files are available via shares on her PC - which flies over her legal head. Lawyers are the sort that:
- can't find the power button
- talk to the PC (a'la Scotty in ST IV) to try and get it do something
- forget immediately what you tell them

Anyway, Saw a LaCie 1TB NAS with RAID 1 on it. That could help sort our problem. I could point to it and say - all the files are on the network, use it!

http://www.dabs4work.com/productview...00000,48960000

It looks to me like it would be cheaper than buying a second-hand PC £50, putting windows XP Pro on it £80, plus anti-virus, disk £40x2? RAID ?

Anyone have any experience with such beasts? (not the wife the NAS)

[TravelMonkey]

Will she have any less difficulty finding her files on that tho????

[moorfield]

Freecom FSG-3 Storage Gateway

I'm looking for something similar, that preferably I can access over my wireless setup from various laptops around the house for photos music etc, currently considering one of these once the price drops a little.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freecom-STOR...4236554&sr=8-1

[Ardesco]

I use one of these:

http://www.dabs4work.com/productview...avigationKey=0

Does the job for me. I believe that you can hack the firmware as well to install other services onto it such as a torrent program to download OSS such as Linux, Open Office, Etc.

[Chugnut]

I've got the 1TB version of this: -

http://www.dabs4work.com/productview...avigationKey=0

I use it for file storage and music streaming to the Sonos.

Ardesco - is your Terastation Pro silent? Mine has an resonating fan noise every three seconds or so. You couldn't have it in your sitting room for instance.

[NickFitz]

Will she have any less difficulty finding her files on that tho????

It's a trivial matter to replicate all her data to the NAS, then conceal the hard drive on her machine from her account - I assume she wouldn't know (or care) that the disk containing her "My Documents" folder wasn't actually the one in the box next to her.

[Ardesco]

I've got the 1TB version of this: -

http://www.dabs4work.com/productview...avigationKey=0

I use it for file storage and music streaming to the Sonos.

Ardesco - is your Terastation Pro silent? Mine has an resonating fan noise every three seconds or so. You couldn't have it in your sitting room for instance.

No idea mine is locked away in the garage. I cut holes in all the walls, put a patch panel in the garage and had BT install the telephone socket in the garage. I have a small comms box on the wall in the garage with the patch panel in it, a switch, the wireless router from BT and my main telephone socket with converters from RJ11 to RJ45. Every room in the house has at least 2 network ports with 4 in the sitting room and 10 in the office. The garage also has reinforced door frames and six barrel security locks so even if you do get into the house it would take a couple of hours to break into the garage, there are a couple of internal doors that close behind the garage door meaning it can't be opened from the outside (unless the internal doors are left open that is) The garage acts as a mini server room, nice and cool all the time and I don't hear any noise from the kit in there

Took a while to cut all the holes in the walls and route the cable but time well spent IMHO (although my wife was not impressed at the time)

Yes I know, i'm a geek

[b0redom]

Just map a drive, something like Z or T to the network shares. Then tell her that all her docs are on that drive. If you mount it on all the machines she uses, then you're set - that's what I've done for my Mrs and it works a treat.

[NickFitz]

Took a while to cut all the holes in the walls and route the cable but time well spent IMHO (although my wife was not impressed at the time)

Yes I know, i'm a geek

builder

HTH

[FarmerPalmer]

I got an old PC from a skip, put on freeNAS, got a RAID card off fleabay for £100, and two 500Gb drives from different manufacturers (about £60 each), giving me 500Gb dual redundant - and mapped differnt drives for different people - my wife has some, my son has some, and I have some.