NAS recommendation for use with MBA

[ZBoater]

Ok, so I am about to bite the bullet and get me some NAS. I currently have a 2TB Time Capsule also acting as my primary access point. I have a couple of 1TB USB drives attached to my Windows 7 desktop PC, but I think I want to leave those be. I want to setup a NAS to put all my media files and have them accessible from anywhere.

My options: A WD My Book World Edition in 2, 4, or 6TB flavors. This provides some remote access capabilities, as well as iTunes server support.

A Netgear ReadyNAS.

A big USB drive connected to the USB port of my Time Capsule. Not sure how I would access that remotely without messing with my router and getting a VPN solution.

I am more concerned with ease of setup, maintenance, and use than saving a couple hundred bucks. I want this to be as plug and play as possible. Any other recommendations or ideas?

 

[maflynn]

What I found with WD, and seagate NAS units is that the performance is rather slow, the options and flexibility are quite limited and generally speaking you have no say in what drives go into the enclosure.

I instead opted for a Qnap TS-219P+ but Synology is the other maker that's highly regarded. They're a little more money but offer more features and performance.

 

[ZBoater]

I had a WD unit before and it was alright, but you are right. Zero flexibility. That's why I am looking at the Netgear as that one lets you put in your own drive and is hot swappable. I'll look into Qnap. Thanks!

EDIT: The Qnap TS-219P+ and TS-212 look very nice.

 

[misterneums]

While I don't have an answer for the OP--I too, am interested in this. I've been thinking about doing the same thing (but maybe on a more advanced level.)

 

[Tae.One]

There are many options for NAS severs and it all depends on your skill set. Though technically a USB drive connected to a time capsule is a NAS I would say its really amateur.

First, you need to determine how important your files are and if you want redundancy. This is where you will say is having a USB drive shared through my network enough or not. If you want something safe then you want to go RAID. Most common RAIDs for home/personal networks are 0,1,5,10. I currently have a custom 4tb Terastation Pro II RAID 5 NAS server rooted and it's really fast over my gigabit network, plus I can access my files anywhere.

With any RAID setup, you are going to need to do some research and find which one fits your needs. I think a Linkstation might fit your need and it has everything built in.

 

[ZBoater]

The Seagate Blackarmor looks interesting...

Its mostly going to contain my media, and a copy of it at that. So RAID is not that important. If the NAS explodes, my data will be safe somewhere else. Ease of access remotely is more important, even if just using FTP. I haven't gone gigabit ethernet yet (old school) so this may prompt me to upgrade my home switch as well.

I just want something that is as plug and play as possible. Although I am technically skilled I am lazy and don't want to spend hours tinkering with this. I have more important things to do (like play with the dog). I want to unwrap it, plug it in, make a couple of setting changes, a GO!

 

[maflynn]

I tried the seagate black armor and for some reason it really didn't support AFP (but time machine did work) so much so that I couldn't put my Aperture Library onto the NAS.

 

[safelder]

Look at Synology. I've been very happy with my DS109. It supports WebDAV, so I've got my own little personal cloud...

 

[deeddawg]

Look at Synology. I've been very happy with my DS109. It supports WebDAV, so I've got my own little personal cloud...

This. A DS111j or DS211j. Synology.com for info, buy on Amazon or Newegg. It's what I'll buy when I stop being too cheap to not use old equip laying around the basement.

Speaking of which, if you have an old desktop or laptop sitting around, look at freenas.org. Its a freeBSD based NAS package perfect for older desktops to live a new life as a NAS. Slick web interface for management/config. Minimal config needed to get it up and running.

 

[misterneums]

DS411 looks exceptionally sexy. Too bad I don't have the money to fill it, or even purchase it >.<

A question though to you guys who have Synology NAS's: Can you access that file server from outside your network? I'm assuming you should be able to, but I've been wrong before.

 

[oripaamoni]

Drobo?

i have a drobo S connected to my TC over usb and love it! although it does suck that a lot of the space is unusable. Keep all my ripped dvds and important files on it never had any issues with it. I know people complain about the Drobo having slow read/write speed but i haven't noticed it being any slower than copying stuff to the TC's internal drive.

 

[ZBoater]

I finally bit the bullet and bought a gigabit Ethernet switch. My house is wired and I've had a 10/100 switch for years. Always worked, so I never thought about upgrading. But with the new Time Capsule I'm thinking it's time.

I'm leaning towards the WD Live Personal Cloud drive. 3TB for $179. Anyone have any experience with it?

 

[blueroom]

I finally bit the bullet and bought a gigabit Ethernet switch. My house is wired and I've had a 10/100 switch for years. Always worked, so I never thought about upgrading. But with the new Time Capsule I'm thinking it's time.

I'm leaning towards the WD Live Personal Cloud drive. 3TB for $179. Anyone have any experience with it?

If you get the new TC you won't need the WD.

I went with a Netgear WNDR-3700 & Synology DS110j (works great with OSX)

 

[ZBoater]

I have the new TC but I'm not sure how (nor do I want to) mess with it to store media and access remotely. I just want it to keep my two Macs happily backed up. I was thinking maybe connecting a drive to the TC. I tried it with a smaller 320GB drive I had laying around and it works, but remote access is still an issue. I'm nervous about messing with my TC. I think I'd rather stick a nas on the network right next to my TC, let the TC handle backups and the nas serve up media.

The WD would probably be connected directly to the switch (not the TC) and setup for remote access. The remote access piece is what has me pondering options. Mio.net was not a very pretty option last time I tried it.

 

[dread]

Is it worth it to get a 7200 rpm drive or are there other bottlenecks that will prevent me from seeing a noticeable difference in read and right speeds.

 

[flynz4]

I just posted a detailed reply on a different thread about my experience and opinions on a NAS. You can find it here:https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13199270&#post13199270

I occasionally find it useful to have a NAS primarily for moving data from computer to computer... but in reality, it doesn't fit my computing model well anymore. Take a look at my post for reasons why.

Like you... I do use Time Capsules (which are a NAS) for my local Mac backups.

/Jim

 

[ZBoater]

That's a good post. I have nowhere that level of forethought into my backup strategy. If my house burns down I'm screwed. I should probably at least store a copy of a full backup offsite.

What I would like is access to my files remotely. WD used to have Mio.net which was clunky and intrusive. With the new Personal Cloud drives they have a new service called WD2go where you can access your drive through their web portal. Sounds intriguing.

Truth be told if all I had was FTP access, I'd be happy. I'm old school. WD2go has iOS apps to view photos, yadda yadda. If there was a secure way for me to access a network attached drive via FTP from outside my network, I'd be set. I know I can set this up myself, but I am just tooooo lazy.

I better get off my butt an figure this out...

 

[vitzr]

I have a fairly large network comprised of personal & work computers, laptops etc. Both Mac & PC, I use a Synology® DiskStation DS1511+ NAS. Much like premium Mac hardware the DS1511+ is pricey, yet you get what you pay for. It's fast, flexible, and able to be configured to my exact needs. I'm very happy I chose this unit since it's also very expandable as my future needs dictate.

I purchased it within days of it's release, and thus far it's been completely trouble free. That in itself is worth everything to me. Just set it up & forget it. Can't beat that.

 

[blueroom]

The Synology also has iOS apps for photos & music. Plus TM and all sorts of goodies.

 

[eyespii]

I have a synology DS211j. Streams photos and music to my iphone and ipad, and runs time machine backups wirelessly. DLNA compatible so it streams videos to my PS3 and Xbox. Backs up my windows desktop PC without a hitch too. So many features in it that I can't list them all.

 

[ZBoater]

As I read more, Synology and Qnap are probably what I'll go with. The WD Live can't be setup as a secure FTP server. The other two can.

 

[rezenclowd3]

Personally I have been thinking about building an 8 HDD file server using Windows Home Server 2011 instead of buying a NAS, since it will have quite a bit more functionality. Using 2 raid cards will give me the Raid 1+0 setup on 6 HDDs that I want plus Raid 1 for 2 SSDs for the OS....All for the cost of a pretty darn good pre-built NAS around $2k...

 

[misterneums]

Personally I have been thinking about building an 8 HDD file server using Windows Home Server 2011 instead of buying a NAS, since it will have quite a bit more functionality. Using 2 raid cards will give me the Raid 1+0 setup on 6 HDDs that I want plus Raid 1 for 2 SSDs for the OS....All for the cost of a pretty darn good pre-built NAS around $2k...

But then you get to deal with all of the lovely issues with Windows. Although I can't tell you what some of these NAS companies use to run their stuff--I'm assuming it's a proprietary software that runs them.

 

[rezenclowd3]

But then you get to deal with all of the lovely issues with Windows. Although I can't tell you what some of these NAS companies use to run their stuff--I'm assuming it's a proprietary software that runs them.

Same could be said of the various OS's and their specialized builds used in said NAS's. I would rather troubleshoot something rather well known and used, as well as have the ability to build a file server to suit exactly my needs, which in this case is a silent micro atx 8 bay mini server. This is not to say the NAS's avaliable are bad, but I personally would not spend much on anything but a custom build. It seems the cheaper NAS's really are just darn slow (under $1k). 2K seems to be the sweet spot for price and performance for my needs/wants.

 

[misterneums]

Same could be said of the various OS's and their specialized builds used in said NAS's. I would rather troubleshoot something rather well known and used, as well as have the ability to build a file server to suit exactly my needs, which in this case is a silent micro atx 8 bay mini server. This is not to say the NAS's avaliable are bad, but I personally would not spend much on anything but a custom build. It seems the cheaper NAS's really are just darn slow (under $1k). 2K seems to be the sweet spot for price and performance for my needs/wants.

That's true. When I first started thinking about setting up some form of storage external from my computer--I was thinking about building a headless server. Perhaps if I was looking for only raid 1/0 I might be fine. But once you start to look at raid cards--those can get to be a bit expensive as well. I simply don't know enough on the storage end of things yet. I have no problem flopping a 2 TB drive into my computer and formatting it to be a storage drive. However then getting it to be available outside of my network becomes a problem

It's all in the air I guess. What would be nice, would be an server/nas that I could hook up to with Thunderbolt as well as Gigabit Ethernet