NAS drive for a file server.

We have a little home network, with three pcs, and a dedicated server.

The server is set up to be a domain/file server, but seeing as now one bothers to log onto the domain, we basically just use it as crude file server, and i though maybe i could just ditch it and use a network harddrive (like the buffalo) in its place, and save having a full PC runing 24/7.
- Espcially as the server is geting a bit unreliable, which i think is hardware related and terminal.

I was just wondering if this is feasable, and how reliable these units are?
- Do they just work by being a network drive?


Daniel

The network hard drives are good, but you do limit yourself for upgrading in the future, if you have a limited number of ports for example, you can't get too many of them.

Whereas with a PC you can just upgrade the drives or buy new controller cards, mini ITX systems (1GHZ ish) do the perfect job for this as they are VERY low power.

I did find some software to turn an old PC into a NAS box - its not very sophisticated but it might well be cheaper then buying somethign like a buffalo terrastation ( sexy though they are )

its called NAS Lite+

you coudl also look at rebuilding your server and using somethign like clarkconnect - whcih woudl give you lots more functionality without the domain hassle.

http://www.serverelements.com/naslite.php

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Originally Posted by Moby-Dick

I did find some software to turn an old PC into a NAS box - its not very sophisticated but it might well be cheaper then buying somethign like a buffalo terrastation ( sexy though they are )

its called NAS Lite+

you coudl also look at rebuilding your server and using somethign like clarkconnect - whcih woudl give you lots more functionality without the domain hassle.

http://www.serverelements.com/naslite.php

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Good find, will try

Thanks.

Huge amount of space are not really needed, the server currently has a 80gb HDD and only 31GBs of stuff on it, so a 120GB nas would do us a lifetime.

The current server seams to be nacker, i rebuilt it last night without all the domain crap, and it still keeps 'pausing' and crashing about every 3hours.
- So although i could go an find a new old pc and turn it into a nas or a simple file server, eather using Clarkconect, or win2k, or NAS Lite+ (thanks for the link)

I dunno.
- I just liked the idea of the nas as simple and hopefully relable. And quiet and low power (17w)
- The 120gb one is only £135.59 inc vat, and my dad would pay for it, as its for the 'family'


Still looking for ideas tho. Daniel

Also, i beleve you can plug an exturnal (usb) hdd into the Buffalo, and us this to back up its contence?
- Is this true, and is a safe and sensable way of backing it up?

Daniel

Linksys NSLU2 - then when it is working, have a look at www.nslu2-linux.org

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Originally Posted by oshta

Also, i beleve you can plug an exturnal (usb) hdd into the Buffalo, and us this to back up its contence?
- Is this true, and is a safe and sensable way of backing it up?

Daniel

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Hello

I used to use the Buffalo Linkstation NAS. I found it very slow and not that stable. If you connect an external USB hard drive to the Linkstation, you have to let the Linkstation format it and it uses a Linux standard. It cannot read or write to NTFS. The Linkstation is not very flexible. My advise is to keep away.

You may want to consider the Freecom SL series of Network Drives, which you can use as a NAS or a standard USB drive. Check out prices on Dabs.com

Cheers

"Remote administration through TELNET"

I dont know about you, but that line makes a few very large and loud alarm bells ring in my head!

Would also suggest the Linksys NSLU 2. The web interface is reasonable (the auto backups are good once you figure out how to configure them).

As peterb said once you get it working if you want a challenge turn it into a Linux server and you can do all sorts of interesting things (Itunes music server... web sevrer ....) http://www.nslu2-linux.org/

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Originally Posted by milanlad

I used to use the Buffalo Linkstation NAS. I found it very slow and not that stable...
....The Linkstation is not very flexible. My advise is to keep away.

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Originally Posted by MiggyMan

"Remote administration through TELNET"
- I dont know about you, but that line makes a few very large and loud alarm bells ring in my head!

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Originally Posted by mjhants

Would also suggest the Linksys NSLU 2. The web interface is reasonable (the auto backups are good once you figure out how to configure them).

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Originally Posted by peterb

Linksys NSLU2 - then when it is working, have a look at www.nslu2-linux.org

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So i'd better off geting the linksys over the buffalo?
- Thanks, i'll have a look into that, becuase although im not very bother about runing fancy linux setups on it, it needs to be very stable, as i will be going away from home for several weeks at a time (uni) and it will have to carry on working while im gone.



Daniel

This might be worth a look.

thanks

I've used the Linkstation (still use it) and also the Linksys. The linksys was PURE poop and way slower than the Linkstation 120 I have. I find the Linkstation does everything I want it to, host my music, all my files and at a pretty darn good speed. Installing stuff over the network is no problem whatsoever.