Wireless: Backup, Music, Cheap

[yourmapper]

So I'm looking for a wireless network storage solution that will allow me to do a number of things:

1. Let my Macbook Pro access wirelessly for automated Time Machine backups.

2. Store all my iTunes music (about 15,000 songs) on it.

3. Access to the music via Shared Libraries through my iPhone, to fling to Air Play devices.

4. 2-4 TB total space, for room to backup other data from PCs, and file browsing through wireless network.

5. Lower power consumption (ie, I don't want to run a desktop PC 24/7).

6. Allow hookup of 2 drives at once, so they can be mirrored, or just to split up the data or swap out if one fails (not sure exactly what's best here).

Anyway, I know there are NAS solutions that can do some of these things. What setups could do all of these things?

Instead of NAS, is there a way to get an AEBS (or other router) with USB access to dual hard drives? This seems like it would be cheaper than a NAS.

Thanks. While I'm a wiz with web application development, networking hardware has always been my weakest area.

 

[Orlandoech]

AEBS w/ USB Hub w/ 2-3 External HDDs.

 

[yourmapper]

Thanks for the quick reply.

So AESB will be able to access music stored on an attached HDD that I can access through Shared Libraries on my iPhone? How does it know where the music is stored, or do you set that up somehow?

I forgot to mention DLNA/UPnP support. Can AESB also stream the music and movies to a supported device, like Xbox?

Thanks.

 

[yourmapper]

No iTunes server in AEBS?

According to this answer on Apple's forums, you can't stream your stored music from attached storage on the AEBS to devices like iPhone and Apple TV because AEBS does not act as an iTunes server. Is that correct?

http://store.apple.com/us/question/answers/product/FC340LL/A?pqid=QXP9PJKFFA7DCYD7HPUPJTTTKHUY9XF9P

 

[blevins321]

No non-iTunes solution will play DRM media. Music, videos, or otherwise. Any non-DRM music can be emulated by many NAS's. Qnap, Synology, etc.. I've been rocking a Synology DS411J for a few months now and love it. Native Time Machine support, DLNA (PS3/xBox media streaming), and iTunes sharing emulation are its key features. If you get the 1-or-2-bay, the cost is relatively on-bar with an AEBS + USB drive. And cheaper than a Time Capsule.

Also does drive redundancy in case of one drive failure.

2-bay on Amazon HERE, with Western Digital Drives HERE.
Review of DS411j I wrote (4-bay, but they all use the same software)

 

[yourmapper]

I'm finally getting the DS411j but have one concern.

Can all of my music be stored on it, and can I still sync my iPhone to iTunes? How does that work?

Does the NAS run iTunes and is that there the iPhone sync backups are stored?

Do I have to run iTunes from a PC/Mac and if so, can I just reference the music storage location on the NAS? Will the backups and apps still sync to my PC/Mac and use up space there, or can they sync to the NAS?