NAS advice

[AD-15]

Hello,

I'm looking for a NAS hard drive to hook up to my network. However, I am totally confused as to what I actually need.

I'm looking for something reasonably basic, that I can just connect via ethernet to a router and store media/shared data on.

How exactly would I connect to the hard drive from a PC for example? Is it simply a case of making a shortcut to some network address?

Another thing I'm after is the ability to stream media to certain devices, like a Sony Bravia TV. I understand I can ensure compatibility by selecting a DLNA certified drive, but these all appear to be products which are a bit OTT for me. The drives all come with things like Bit Torrent and itunes clients built in - stuff I don't need whatsoever

I don't want to have to install software on my PC's for it to work, just something lightweight and simple. Is there any product out there like this, but is capable of streaming to and being picked up by DLNA devices?

I'd really appreciate any help, thanks!

[spoon_]

DLNA certified drive? You got yourself confused here..

You need to run DLNA server to be able to connect/stream media files to DLNA client [your telly/PC/PS3 as examples]

QNAP TS-110 should do:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Qnap-...nd-VDD-Support

+ any 2TB drive and you're good to go for around £210...

To connect from your PC simply type:

net use X: \\ip_of_the_server\share_name

username//password and that's it [assuming you have Samba/AFP running on the NAS]


Adrian

[AD-15]

Sorry, when I was referring to a "drive" I meant the whole package as opposed to just the physical drive itself.

Thanks a lot for that link. I've found something similar, but it is a lot cheaper and comes with a drive:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-S...10-72001-GIG-E

Would this kind of product achieve the same kind of thing? There's also this:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-I...d-Drive-(34237)

I'm assuming both require no kind of software installation, if all I have to do is create the kind of directory you mentioned.

I don't mean to sound too ignorant, but what exactly is Samba and why would I need it? Apologies, I don't have much experience with networks at all.

[spoon_]

Samba is a protocol you use to connect to network resources/shares.

You need it in order to see files/folder on the NAS/whatever you have on the network and want access to via Explorer.

Seagate drive has only this mentioned:

Stream media to DLNA® compliant devices and computers running iTunes® software.

which may or may not mean video...

Either solution [if it streams video] will only do 480p/standard def movies/music.

net use X: \\ip_of_the_server\share_name

is a command you need to issue in order to 'map' the drive to NAS box so you can see it in My Computer as X drive.

[peterb]

SAMBA is the open source implementation of Microsoft'ds Sever Message Block (SMB) protocol which is the application layer protocol for file transfer over a TCP/IP network. It is pretty much the de facto standard for file transfer - other are NFS (network file services) on *nix networks and netbios (MS networks)

There was a thread about building a NAS here - which you may find useful/interesting.

http://forums.hexus.net/networking-b...ce-thread.html

[MSIC]

Hi AD-15, I recently bought a NAS with more capacity than you need (a 4 bay Synology) but the prinicple was the same - once the NAS is set up (which for mine meant using the default software that comes with it, giving the NAS a static IP address, and then creating a few standard directories such as 'video', 'photo', 'documents' etc etc), then in windows you right click on 'computer' and 'map network drive'.
I now have 'z' for videos, 'y' for photos etc.
It all works seamlessly, although I must admit that there were a few concepts that I just didnt get right for the first day or so, until pointed out to me.

I'll be posting an updated review to my initial 12 hr review this weekend

[AD-15]

Thanks a lot guys for the advice.

So, from what I understand, Samba is something that is already part of the product - not something I'd have to implement myself?

Either solution [if it streams video] will only do 480p/standard def movies/music

Why is it only videos of specific resolutions can be streamed? I'd have thought the only thing that would matter is bandwidth, and I'm sure 100mbps is more than enough right?

There was a thread about building a NAS here - which you may find useful/interesting.

http://forums.hexus.net/networking-b...ce-thread.html

Cool, thanks for that.

Hi AD-15, I recently bought a NAS with more capacity than you need (a 4 bay Synology) but the prinicple was the same - once the NAS is set up (which for mine meant using the default software that comes with it, giving the NAS a static IP address, and then creating a few standard directories such as 'video', 'photo', 'documents' etc etc), then in windows you right click on 'computer' and 'map network drive'.
I now have 'z' for videos, 'y' for photos etc.

Do you know if there is any manual way of doing all of this? Or does the actual NAS have to be setup by installing software on every system?

[watercooled]

So, from what I understand, Samba is something that is already part of the product - not something I'd have to implement myself?

Samba is a very widely used protocol so it should come already installed (although you'll probably have to do some limited setup such as passwords etc.) on any off-the-shelf NAS.

Do you know if there is any manual way of doing all of this? Or does the actual NAS have to be setup by installing software on every system?

It's as simple as that, no extra software needs to be installed in order to access your NAS.

[MSIC]

Indeed - in my example, and I assume others, I only had to use software initially as a means to set up the NAS, not the computer. Once it has it's IP address, file system and directories etc then it's ready. You then simply map drives on as many or as few computers as you want, which takes seconds.

[jamieuk23]

I have a drobo ! 100% love it ! have a look around the web

[peterb]

Samba is a very widely used protocol so it should come already installed (although you'll probably have to do some limited setup such as passwords etc.) on any off-the-shelf NAS.

Strictly the protocol is SMB (Server Message Block). SAMBA is an open source application that implements it.

It's as simple as that, no extra software needs to be installed in order to access your NAS.

Yes - although there are(were) Network Direct Storage decvices that used a proprietary protocols over an ethernet link (rather than TCP/IP) and they had to have client software installed on the PC. But generally ready built NAS boxes use some form of *nix and de fact standard protocols like SMB, and plug into any TCP/IP network. (As SMB is an application layer protocol, it would probably work with any network protocol, such as ipx/spx - but that is not really relevant here! )

[AD-15]

Many thanks for all your help guys.

Would the products I linked be relevant to what you have described? Is there anything I should check for in terms of specifications etc to ensure I wouldn't have to install all this extra software?

Could anyone explain to me also why these products would only be able to stream video with a maximum resolution of 480p?

[MSIC]

Could anyone explain to me also why these products would only be able to stream video with a maximum resolution of 480p?

I cannot imagine that any such product exists, unless they had some sort of very deliberate limitations going on (I'm imagining that a company such as Sony might approve of such a device to deliberately segment it's products... but that would be a management decision, not a technical one).

However no, it's about bitrate and reliable data transfer. When we talk about 480p, i guess we are talking about DVDs which play at up to 10 Mbit per second if not further compressed.
A higher resolution file would simply have to stay at around this data rate, which isn't too hard given more efficient compression methods, lossy encoding etc.

Certainly a NAS, and all the physical networking points wouldn't know or be interested in the content, it's just about the data rate.
With 10/100 ethernet (ie quite old fashioned now, basic networking) you can transfer at up to 100 Mbit per second (although would never see exactly this much in the real world, but certainly a high percentage of this). More common these days (and which I am also looking in to getting) is gigabit (AKA 10/100/1000), which gives much more headroom and transfer speeds. However, even with the older standard, you can see how typical compressed video would easily be sent over ethernet.

As one final example of this, go to http://trailers.apple.com/ and click on any film. If you select a 480p version, for me at home on my 5 Mbit speed ADSL connection, I can download this faster than I can watch it.