Can anyone help me with my ReadyNAS? (Setup/Solution/General Help)

[troy14]

Hi Guys, I hope this is in the right place (Mac Peripherals) because it really isn't made by Apple but still could be considered a peripheral?

Anyways, for my birthday my brother bought me a Netgear ReadyNas Duo, with 2 western digital 2TB hard drives. It is set up (in a very basic way), but I have quite a few issues/questions/hoping I can do this things that I need to figure out. My brother is a very big IT guy but he just knows everything for windows - my Mac he is clueless to. He promises to look into / research what I need etc, but he does not live with me and works very long hours and has little free time.

Anyways, this is what I hope I can accomplish.

Let me first tell you what I hope I can do with it, and then describe my situation/setup. I am a college student who uses my laptop to type all my notes - usually on Word or Powerpoint. I have many notes, work, etc. that is very valuable. As I type my notes / save the files on my Macbook Pro, I would like to not only save them on my computer - but have that "backed" up to my NAS as well. At the same time would be preferred. This is so I can access my important school files from any computer (whether it be my friends, computer lab, teachers, etc).

On this same token, I would like the NAS (or any other program I need, free or buying) to back up my iPhoto, and iTunes music. I have become more serious about my digital camera picture collection and need it to be always backed up (previously if I lost my pictures I didn't really have anything that I needed and it was ok). I would like to do this automatically as well.

My other goals for my NAS are to have a separate partition for Time Machine. I think this is an easy part because the Netgear ReadyNAS software has an option for this built in.

Finally, as mentioned before, I would like a very easy way to access my files from any computer. I do not want to have to download any software, etc. because I will not always be able to do that (computer lab restricts installations, friends computers etc).


Now, for my actual hardware setup. I have a 2WIRE Router/Modem/Gateway from AT&T UVerse, which my ReadyNAS is plugged directly into via ethernet. This router is only a WiFi G router, but I have an additional NetGear router that is dual band, G and N (used it as my main router before we switched to uverse).

My router/ReadyNAS are located downstairs, and my laptop is upstairs in my room. If I plug my ReadyNAS in to my 2WIRE, the wifi transfer speeds are pretty slow, esp when it is backing up time machine or transferring large files! The WIFI N would be a little faster I think, but I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make.

Running an ethernet cable from my room to the ReadyNAS is unfortunately pretty much out of the question. I also can't imagine how much an ethernet cable that long would cost!

I know I have listed a lot of problems, but I'm hoping someone here can help me get this thing running full speed and the most efficient way possible!

 

[drsox]

What you want to do is not so difficult, but it involves setting up your ReadyNAS for remote entry. This will allow you to access your files from anywhere. I don't do this as all my work is done over a local LAN.

I suggest you pose these questions on the Mac and Time Machine sections of the ReadyNAS forums - see http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=28&sid=78b8b616d96d21b2ce956743fb4d26a6. There are some very clued up folks on the forum who will help.

You should also think about storing all your stuff on the NAS and only accessing what you need from your Mac rather than keeping the stuff on the Mac and copying it to the NAS. You also should think of an off-line backup for the NAS as the NAS only protects against a single drive failure. A USB drive is all that's needed.

Data transfers over WiFi are never the best option, but if you can guarantee an N connection, then that will be the best option. You shouldn't give up on the LAN approach. There is a Powerline alternative that uses a wired LAN approach over the local power cable network. If you use 500Mbps units at each end then you should get 150Mbps transfer rates. Also the cost of running a wire might not be high, as the actual cost of the wire is low. The cost is in the bits at each end and the effort involved. I cabled the house with CAT6 after trying to get WiFi and Powerline to work and now I get 800Mbps + .