Looking for a NAS which works well with OS X

[ascender]

I've been looking at a few NAS devices recently, but have yet to find one which "just works" with Macs. I'm looking for something which will connect to my network and I can then access it quickly and easily from any of my machines which are running OS X.

Having tried a couple out, I'm starting to wonder if a better option would be to buy a Mac Mini or old Mac of some sort and stick a big HDD in it. Obviously I'm a bit more limited in terms of storage space, but its starting to look like the nicest option.

An old Mac with an external HDD doesn't seem to be an option as I've not been able to share out an external HDD across the network yet.

So just wondering if anyone is running a NAS which they're really happy with.

Thanks,


Mike.

 

[ascender]

i'm guessing that an Airport Extreme base station is also an option as I could hook an external HDD off the back of that, albeit only a USB2 one.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Here's the thing -- any NAS is going to be a SMB server. Therefore there will be some un-maclike things about it.

The only native AFP server is going to be a Mini with a drive hung off of it.

The Airport solution is slow slow slow... I wouldn't even consider it, myself.

 

[LeviG]

a synology nas seem to be a good product from my experiences

 

[BigAD]

I recently got a Lacie 1tb nas hard drive. It works perfectly with OS X. You can use AFP as well.

Hope it helps

 

[DoFoT9]

u could cloverleaf a whole bunch of fw800 drives

 

[ascender]

I recently got a Lacie 1tb nas hard drive. It works perfectly with OS X. You can use AFP as well.

Hope it helps

Is it easy enough to manage users and shares? I'm looking for something that I could just set-up a link too on the desktop of a few machines and then walk away, happy that I won't be getting pestered to sort out passwords or the like.

 

[BigAD]

Is it easy enough to manage users and shares? I'm looking for something that I could just set-up a link too on the desktop of a few machines and then walk away, happy that I won't be getting pestered to sort out passwords or the like.

The Lacie is real easy to setup. I just connected it up, set it up, found the IP address of the device and mounted it on the desktop. I tried out a Maxtor shared storage NAS device but you need to set up shared folders for different users and the whole process was stupid.

I suggest the Lacie one because it just works.

Hope it helps.

 

[ascender]

The Lacie is real easy to setup. I just connected it up, set it up, found the IP address of the device and mounted it on the desktop. I tried out a Maxtor shared storage NAS device but you need to set up shared folders for different users and the whole process was stupid.

I suggest the Lacie one because it just works.

Hope it helps.

Thanks, that sounds ideal. I just want something that works, so I'll order one up now.

 

[Sesshi]

Bear in mind most are really slow.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190/chart,12/

I used to use the QNAP TS-101 which is comparable in general performance to the Lacies. I found it unusable. I still have the Thecus N2100's floating around which are marginally better but not what I'd call fully usable, while the Thecus N5200's I have are usable - but approach the price of a Mini. If I'd stuck at it I'd have the Adaptec Snapserver on order, but apart from archival duty for the N5200's I've switched to silenced PC's for NAS use.

 

[motulist]

You should think hard about if you really need a NAS device or not, because I tried one, and it was way more trouble than it was worth. Unless you really specifically need a NAS for some reason that I can't imagine, I strongly urge you to just buy a regular hard drive and connect it to an always-on computer that will act as a file server that you network to the other computers in your area. Network file server duties are not very intensive at all, so any machine currently on your network could act as the file server in addition to their current duties, or you can even get yourself a G4 400 Mhz desktop to setup as a dedicated file server for $100, which is the same premium you'd pay to get NAS capabilities on a hard drive.

Seriously, it's a much better solution.

 

[shecky]

i built my own using off the shelf parts and FreeNAS as the operating system. works fantastic and very fast over my gigabit network. i have about 1.2TB of redundant RAID5 storage space now. cost about $1000 including cables and a gigabit switch. it supports AFP also, so i do not have to deal with SMB.

 

[ascender]

You should think hard about if you really need a NAS device or not, because I tried one, and it was way more trouble than it was worth. Unless you really specifically need a NAS for some reason that I can't imagine, I strongly urge you to just buy a regular hard drive and connect it to an always-on computer that will act as a file server that you network to the other computers in your area. Network file server duties are not very intensive at all, so any machine currently on your network could act as the file server in addition to their current duties, or you can even get yourself a G4 400 Mhz desktop to setup as a dedicated file server for $100, which is the same premium you'd pay to get NAS capabilities on a hard drive.

Seriously, it's a much better solution.

I guess this was the reason behind me posting in the first place as I tried a Buffalo NAS a while back and it was a pain in the rear-end to setup and admin, not to mention showing other people how to use it.

That Lacie drive seems to be out of stock at my preferred suppliers anyway, so that and your comments are making me think about trying to find an old Mac to act as a fileserver.

Decisions, decisions....