Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Looking for NAS.....

M

Mikebuzzsaw

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I seem to have extreme difficulty finding what I need. I basically want an enclosure like sever (Drobo) where I can easily add in more external HDDs. I would like to be able to partition the device so I have one place for Time Machine and the other for just random files I want stored on the server.

The most important thing for me is being able to access the files (not the time machine portion) on the sever remotely. Either by FTP or what not. I do NOT WANT to use the FTP/File Sharing supplied in Mac.

So is there any device that has FTP built in? I'm leaning towards Drobo, but I honestly don't know if has FTP capability built in.



I've looked at Time Machine, but I have a feeling I won't be able to partition it or use it like a server.
 
You can't officially use a NAS device (not named Time Capsule) for Time Machine.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306833 said:
Time Machine can back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, or to a Leopard Server volume, or an Xsan storage device.
Click to expand...
 
Mikebuzzsaw said:
The most important thing for me is being able to access the files (not the time machine portion) on the sever remotely. Either by FTP or what not. I do NOT WANT to use the FTP/File Sharing supplied in Mac.
Click to expand...
Why would you want to use FTP instead of AFP, SMB or NFS? If you were to find a device that had FTP functionality on it, then I'd imagine it'd be pretty trivial to get SFTP working. FTP is arguably the worst of the 5 protocols that I've mentioned.
 
I'm open to anyways of accessing my files remotely. As long as I don't use/need to enable the FTP/File Sharing feature in Leopard.
 
A hacked NSLU2 with Debian would probably work. Setup, however, is non trivial. It's very easy to use once it's been setup.
 
There's a compromise in choice. There are good speedy NASs which meaningfully make use of a Gigabit network, but they cost practically as much as a low-end PC. Yet none of them are supposedly certified for Time Machine. The rest have pretty poor network throughput thanks to the underpowered processors in them (the CPU is as much a factor as 'gigabit interface' to deliver 'actually sorta gigabit' throughput). The NSLU2 is one of the most hacked, but it happens to be one of the most pathetic in terms of power.

Back To My Mac or Logmein is an option if you just want access to your stuff on the move.

For standalone storage, really something like a Mac Mini + Drobo or a Mac Mini + any other external RAID enclosure is the most flexible, high-performance option.

A decent basic option would be the Thecus two-drive NAS enclosures since they can act as an FTP server and even a 'hands-off' Bittorrent client (installed as a plugin, and there are other plugins), but they are pretty slow for actual serving duties. I doubt Time machine would work, so you'd still need external storage on your Mac.
 
Sesshi said:
There's a compromise in choice. There are good speedy NASs which meaningfully make use of a Gigabit network, but they cost practically as much as a low-end PC. Yet none of them are supposedly certified for Time Machine. The rest have pretty poor network throughput thanks to the underpowered processors in them (the CPU is as much a factor as 'gigabit interface' to deliver 'actually sorta gigabit' throughput). The NSLU2 is one of the most hacked, but it happens to be one of the most pathetic in terms of power.

Back To My Mac or Logmein is an option if you just want access to your stuff on the move.

For standalone storage, really something like a Mac Mini + Drobo or a Mac Mini + any other external RAID enclosure is the most flexible, high-performance option.

A decent basic option would be the Thecus two-drive NAS enclosures since they can act as an FTP server and even a 'hands-off' Bittorrent client (installed as a plugin, and there are other plugins), but they are pretty slow for actual serving duties. I doubt Time machine would work, so you'd still need external storage on your Mac.
Click to expand...

Very useful information there.

Does Back to Mac require .mac? Couldn't you just enable the FTP feature in Leopard and essentially do the same thing?
 
No - it doesn't quite work in the same way. BTMM, because it works by the host Mac keeping in contact with the .Mac server, bypasses any firewalls - so you don't have to expose any ports. And also it allows remote control instead of file interchange, which makes far better use of bandwidth in some cases if you want to work on stuff remotely. I do believe you have to be a .Mac user to use it.

Logmein works in the same way. It's linked through the Logmein service, which provides a conduit from your remote Mac to your host Mac (which maintains a connection with the Logmein service).

I don't think it's as secure as some of the services I use, but for domestic use I don't see any real problems with either remote control system.
 
Mikebuzzsaw said:
Very useful information there.

Does Back to Mac require .mac? Couldn't you just enable the FTP feature in Leopard and essentially do the same thing?
Click to expand...
Back To Mac requires .mac. There is an FTP client in Leopard, I'm not sure that there is an FTP server. However, you just need to go enabled Remote Login in the Sharing prefs and you'll have an SFTP server setup. Then you can use something like Transmit to connect to it.
 
I got a MyBook World 500GB NAS which I have been using for Time Machine and Torrent downloading for the past few months. I do plan to replace this setup as soon as my Time Capsule arrives though.

In order to make a non-supported NAS work with Time Machine, open the terminal and run the following:
Code: 
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

If you want to reset this setting once you get a Time Capsule, just replace the 1 with 0 like so:
Code: 
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 0
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back