Wanted: NAS w/ eSata, firewire, remote access, swappable drive bays ALL-IN-ONE

[Absent]

I guess at this point I'm convinced it doesn't exist. None of the big online retailers or well known manufacturers have shown me what I'm looking for. Before I settle for less, I'm hanging onto the hope that someone, somewhere has captured and tamed this beast in the wild. The description is as such:

Network attached storage, wired to router, that supports remote access to files. Really like the Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/network_storage/blackarmor/blackarmor_nas_110/, since it has built in remote access support, but it lacks faster connections, esata and firewire, for the times I would like to use it as a scratch disk. Also, can't really change out the drive. Plus there's only one, so no RAID.

Next for consideration was one of OWC's Mercury arrays, http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/RAID/Desktop/, because it has USB, eSata, and Firewire. This thing is pretty baller, but its not a NAS. The four bays are nice, but I'd really only need two.

If these two products could magically fuse into one, I could quit my search. I'd be happy with a two drive bay, remote access capable, USB, eSata, firewire, NAS enclosure. Is that really too much to ask for? I definitely don't need server grade rack mounts.

What do you sexperts say? Is there such a beast to satisfy my tastes?

 

[kronos87]

Drobo

This still may not your perfect solution, but it is pretty close. The Drobo by Data Robotics is a NAS with firewire and some models have eSATA, they have swappable drives and are one of the few NAS that work with time machine. They also have remote access. It is not exactly a RAID, but offers redundancy in a similar fashion that is supposedly easier to use.

 

[Absent]

Thanks for the recommendation. The Drobos are pretty good, but it doesn't look like the NAS versions even have firewire. They do have one, the Drobo S I think, that has eSata and firewire, but it lacks the networking ability. They sell an add-on that gives networking, but its an extra $200 on top of the already expensive array. And it has horrible transfer speeds to boot. With Drobo, you're basically paying way over the price of other arrays to get their custom automatic recovery algorithm that manages the drives entirely by itself. Pretty neat, but not worth what it costs, imo.

I think I might be well off to get a router that supports an external drive, maybe an airport extreme, and going with OWC's enclosure. The only problem with that though, is I believe I've seen that the only way to remotely access it would be to buy into the mobile me crap. Seeing as the Seagate can manage it on its own without any kind of service, that seems kind of ridiculous, if its true. I haven't looked into it any deeper after hearing that. Maybe someone could set me straight. (Just checked and it looks like it is possible as long as your ISP doesn't asign static IPs.)

Any other suggestions for any configuration really, that can manage all of this?