Home network storage advice

[David-fr]

Hello humans,

I'm looking to build little home network storage but I need advice on my options. This is what I think would be good however feel free to add more options.

1. Time Capsule 500GB + 1TB external hard drive. TC would be use for my main computer back up and the 1TB HDD to share files around the house.

2. A router w/ 2 USB ports 1 for the share drive and 1 for back up. This would be hard, since some routers do not take journuled format for time machine.

The option to add a printer later on would be nice too

What I'm mostly looking for is speed at transferring files, and have the back ups be wireless so I can stack the devices in the closet and free my desk

Thank you humans.
David

 

[Peteman100]

I'm running up against the same problem. You can find NAS products that support Time Machine, through some middleman program. However, I have heard from some people that you can run into some compatibility issues with these solutions. A Time Capsule with a secondary drive will obviously have less issues, but at a much higher cost.

 

[David-fr]

I'm running up against the same problem. You can find NAS products that support Time Machine, through some middleman program. However, I have heard from some people that you can run into some compatibility issues with these solutions. A Time Capsule with a secondary drive will obviously have less issues, but at a much higher cost.

Yeah that seems to be the obvious solution, I've found the TC for less than 200$ refurbished and drives now days are cheaper.

 

[nightfly13]

Nas?

Might be beyond your budgetary allotment, but a NAS (many of us choose Synology products) will give you many many more features (moat of which you won't use) and more speed and if you get a multi-bay option, then disk redundancy and expansion potential. I am very pleased with my ds411j.

 

[nightfly13]

Why you need more speed

Afaik, a TC- attached USB drive will be too slow to stream HD video. I mention this because you said speed is a concern.

 

[David-fr]

Afaik, a TC- attached USB drive will be too slow to stream HD video. I mention this because you said speed is a concern.

By redundancy you mean raid arrays? Will it work with time machine? It's kinda getting out of my budget :S

This looks like something I can justify

http://www.frys.com/product/6531673?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
http://www.frys.com/product/6602764?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
http://www.frys.com/product/5457969?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
http://www.frys.com/product/6350111?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

 

[Peteman100]

Afaik, a TC- attached USB drive will be too slow to stream HD video. I mention this because you said speed is a concern.

Really? Even a full bluray (50 Mbps) is only around 6 MBps. If the video has been re-encoded, the bit-rate is even lower. Most router-attached HDDs can manage that.

 

[nightfly13]

By redundancy you mean raid arrays? Will it work with time machine? It's kinda getting out of my budget :S

This looks like something I can justify

http://www.frys.com/product/6531673?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
http://www.frys.com/product/6602764?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
http://www.frys.com/product/5457969?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
http://www.frys.com/product/6350111?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

The prices don't look dramatically different for 2-bay solutions between those you linked and the 2-bay Synology (check ds211j). Synology is a bit pricier (since it's drive-less) but all account suggest the interface and reliability is worth-while. I'm also pleased with the packaging and build quality.

Peteman100 - while USB over router-wifi can theoretically do this, it's not glitch-free. There are peaks and drop-outs that kill the HD playback experience. I'm not saying none can do it universally as a rule, but there are lots of complaints about TCs trying to do this and performing poorly.

 

[Peteman100]

The prices don't look dramatically different for 2-bay solutions between those you linked and the 2-bay Synology (check ds211j). Synology is a bit pricier (since it's drive-less) but all account suggest the interface and reliability is worth-while. I'm also pleased with the packaging and build quality.

Peteman100 - while USB over router-wifi can theoretically do this, it's not glitch-free. There are peaks and drop-outs that kill the HD playback experience. I'm not saying none can do it universally as a rule, but there are lots of complaints about TCs trying to do this and performing poorly.

Good to know. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[David-fr]

The prices don't look dramatically different for 2-bay solutions between those you linked and the 2-bay Synology (check ds211j). Synology is a bit pricier (since it's drive-less) but all account suggest the interface and reliability is worth-while. I'm also pleased with the packaging and build quality.

Peteman100 - while USB over router-wifi can theoretically do this, it's not glitch-free. There are peaks and drop-outs that kill the HD playback experience. I'm not saying none can do it universally as a rule, but there are lots of complaints about TCs trying to do this and performing poorly.

That Synology looks nice, question about it.

Can I use it for TM back up and sharedrive at the same time?

 

[nightfly13]

That Synology looks nice, question about it.

Can I use it for TM back up and sharedrive at the same time?

Yes, although if you're using an older Mac and it's over wifi, you might get some glitchiness on the computer side in HD playback as TM backups hang up the system/network connection somewhat - the Synology can handle it easily.