Suggestions on cheap NAS

Running a server on a mini, and want to offload the file sharing to a NAS. looking at the lacie drives, as they're fairly cheap, but all the comments on new egg are horrendous. drive failures, ****** tech support...
I'd also like to do raid. saw the netgear boxes but there in the 700's for 1 TB. pretty steep.
any help?

This isn't really relevant to 10.5 server at all.
But, as for a fairly dumb (functional but basic) NAS device, the ReadyNAS (was Infrant, bought by Netgear). Does some (recent-ish) form of AFP.
http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=193

Similar Messages

Small, cheap NAS box that supports nfs/rsync/ssh ?

Hi all,
for my personal backup needs, I'm looking for a standalone NAS box ("networked hard disk/raid solution"). I need to have support for at least one of rsync/nfs/ssh. (smb/ftp is not enough for me)
It shouldn't be too big (eg not the size of a regular pc.) and it shouldn't cost more then 350 euro or so without disks.
If I can mount one or two sata 1TB disks I'm happy.
Bonus points for solutions where I have total control over the "OS" on it, where the hardware platform exists of standardized easily replacable parts and if it's powerfull enough to do encryption. (I'm prepared to throw in extra cash for these features)
I guess my options are:
1) a product that supports what I want out of the box. I couldn't find that (unless ridiculously expensive, eg 500 euro or more without disks)
2) a product that *almost* does what I want, but where you can install a small Linux distro/freenas over the original firmware so you can do what you want. Basically any appliance (be it a storage device, embedded platforms, network equipment, ...) that can host hard disks and where you can overwrite the OS is worth looking into.
3) building something myself. I've seen some really small motherboards based on Atom cpu's, or even embedded stuff can be enough (something like soekris, pc-engines, etc). But it needs 2 sata ports then, I need to find a housing, a psu, etc. SFF-pc's such as shuttle's etc can also be good options
Any tips, pointers, ideas ?
Thanks
UPDATE:
Here is a list of some devices/urls/thoughts/questions I'm working on. Work in progress! I'll update.
Interesting url's
http://www.hardware.info/nl-NL/productd … S_devices/ off-the-shelf-nas
http://www.mini-itx.com/ all stuff mini-ITX
http://www.epiacenter.com all stuff epia
http://www.logicsupply.com/ mini-itx and SFF resource
http://www.logicsupply.com/matrix/mainboard mainboard matrix
http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/atoms/ review of 5 Atom mini-itx boards with power comparison between the 2 intel chipsets
http://resources.mini-box.com/online/po … lator.html power calculator (not prepared for Atom though)
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=275906 power comparison atom vs C2D
Chipsets
TDP's taken from http://download.intel.com/design/proces … 309219.pdf page 399, http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=28994
type - TDP - usage - url
945 GM /GME express - 7 - used with atoms? - http://www.intel.com/products/notebook/ … erview.htm
945 GMS/GSE express - 6 - used on some atom boards who are not available yet (eg the MSI 9830/9832) - http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/em … /index.htm
945 GC - 22.2 - used on nearly all current atom boards - http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=28994
945 PM express - 6 - ?
943 GML express - 7 - ?
940 GML express - 7 - ?
945 GT express - 15 - ?
ultra mobile 945GU express - 5 - ?
G45 - 24 - "rich media" socket 775 boards - http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/designguide/319972.pdf
Q45 - 17 - "business" socket 775 boards - http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/designguide/319972.pdf
P45 - 22 - ?? - http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/designguide/319972.pdf
TDP's of complete systems
type - TDP idle - TDP loaded cpu - TDP loaded cpu+video - source url
945 GSE setup without HDD - 15 - 17 - ? - http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/atoms/
945 GC setup without HDD - 25 - 27 - ? - http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/atoms/
945 GC (and ich7) full setup - 27 - 31 - 38 - http://www.silentpcreview.com/article865-page5.html
G45 Express + C2D E6400 65nm full setup - 49 - 97 - 98 - http://www.silentpcreview.com/article869-page5.html
G45 Express + C2D E7200 45nm full setup - 35 - 64 - 65 - http://www.silentpcreview.com/article869-page5.html
Off-the-shelf NAS
* LaCie Ethernet Disk mini: needs to connect to internet to activate? or is this only for the remote feature? can you run custom OS on it?
* ximeta ndas seems to need special/proprietary drivers/calls to be able to use it?
* linksys nas200
seems pretty customizable. some 3rd party firmwares
http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showt … hp?t=60232
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/NAS200/Hardware
http://www.iomega-europe.com/section?SI … ecid=40380 (nslu2 firmwares)
slow: 3MB/s over 100Mbps
slower then dlink and qnap. see http://www.trustedreviews.com/networkin … -NAS200/p2
* intel SS4000E or something?
* qnap ts-509 or other qnap?
http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=86 -> 480euro
http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=104 -> 800 euro
* iomega storcenter
* netgear readynas: they have decent pricy ones who are big and consuming as much as an atom based server or something.
they also have smaller ones.:
2disk 310euro
4disk -> 1000 euro
http://www.netgear.nl/producten/product … od=RND2150 -> 300 euro
6disk http://www.netgear.nl/producten/product … d=RNDP6610 -> runs on an intel C2D -> 1500euro
* dlink
* thermaltake muse looks pretty cool http://www.xpcgear.com/n0001lnu.html 390 euro http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/149904/t … -wit).html
* synology has lots of stuff. eg http://www.synology.com/enu/products/CS407/index.php
http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS207+/index.php -> 285 euro
http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS408/index.php -> 510+ euro
http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS508/index.php -> 800+ euro
* hp
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaig … martserver
DIY-style (TODO: look up motherboards, enclosures, etc) miniITX, arm, via, intel atom,...
* info/tutorials
** http://blogs.sun.com/paulie/entry/zfs_n … _the_intel
** http://www.mashie.org/casemods/udat2.html (note: the 5disks into 3 bays thing is discontinued)
* complete boxes/barebones:
** Asus eeebox: perfect except that it can only contain 1 disk, of the format of 2.5"
** http://www.norcotek.com/DS-520.php 5x hotswap sata. Celeron, 2x Gbps,... looks great although very hard to get in EU apparently + you're bound to custom motherboard etc
** Shuttle XPC X27D dualcore atom, 1x 2.5 hdd. but 645GC http://loveno.be/product/16866
* motherboard/cpu combos
** http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainb … ard_id=610 Via C7 1.5Ghz, 4-8x sata, padlock engine, via gigabit controller. CF and miniPCI slot, 1xddr2
** http://www.intel.com/Products/Desktop/M … erview.htm . Atom 230 1.6Ghz. 1x IDE, 2x sata. only 100Mbit/s, 1x PCI, 1xddr2
** MSI MS-9830. fanless. 2x Gigabit. 2x sata. available yet?
** MSI MS-9832. http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9832 2x Gbps, 4x sata. 1x ata. expected 1/20/2008
** Intel D945GCLF2 -> like D945GCLF, but dualcore,Gigabit.
** Intel DG45FC http://www.intel.com/Products/Desktop/M … erview.htm socket775, 4x sata, 2x Gbps,... -> based on intel G45 "media center" chip (eg more media features), but same price as DQ45EK !
** Intel DQ45EK http://support.intel.com/Products/Deskt … erview.htm socket775, 4xsata,Gigabit. -> based on intel Q45 "business" chip. perfect for the chenbro case, except no 5th sata (unless i loop the esata back in) or ide for the 5th 2.5" disk
** http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3& … odelmenu=1 Similar, but more media-features and 6x sata
** Jetway J7F4K1G5D-PB. Via C7. 2X Gbps, 2x sata 150, 1x ata 100
** Epia SN xx -> various epia boards with 4x sataII
* cases
** http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/pr … ?serno=100 (nice mini ITX server case with 4x hotswap bays and PSU) (just make sure you have good AHCI suppport) 170euro
** http://www.xpcgear.com/pcv350b.html Lian-Li PC-V350B , 2x 5,5", 2x 3.5", microATX
Notes
* I heard via Epia is rather expensive especially for it's quite low performance
* Via nano might be a good platform (must google more for this, stable?)
* There are no Atom boards with more then 2 sata ports. (the msi's still are to be expected)
* Taking an intel board with a slow celeron / amd with sempron can be an option, it will be fast , stable and not expensive. I'm told it wouldn't pull too much power either. (although more then atom/epia)
* "ready-to-go" SFF-pc's/barebones can be found in the <300 euro price range, making this a good target for a simple 1/2-disk NAS
* AHCI problems with AMD/ATI RS400-200, RS480 HBA and Nvidia nForce 560. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_H … _Interface
* An intel G45/Q45-based system would be sweet, they have
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_In … _Factor.29
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_In … C_45_nm.29
with very low TDP, but they don't fit in socket 775
Last edited by Dieter@be (2009-01-30 10:11:53)

deadrabbit wrote:I recently bought an MSI Wind desktop, with pretty much the same thing in mind. I ended deciding against a NAS enclosure, since I wanted to be able to install a conventional Linux distro, and have complete control over it. The Wind is cheap, and all the hardware is Linux compatible (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6856167032). I ended up installing the OS on a CompactFlash card, so the hard drive would have to run constantly. As a result, it's nice and quite, uses little power, and the OS on the CF card is automatically backed up to the hard drive. I wrote up a detailed description of the project here: http://rockhoppernotes.blogspot.com/200 … sktop.html.
Thanks, looks quite good.
Except one thing: the 945GC chipset has a TDP of 22.2W.. that's stupid imo, and defeats the whole purpose of a low-tdp cpu such as the Atom. Right now I'm still doubting between waiting for an Atom board based on the 945GM(S)/945GSE chip (TDP 6Watt) (eeebox has that one, some MSI mini-ITX boards should be available in january) or going for a socket775 board with an intel core2 45nm cpu, which would consume not much more then Atom+ 945GC chipset (when idle, loaded is much more but I don't plan to load it ).
Nvidia is also working on an Atom chipset but I don't think I'll wait for that.

Best cheap NAS/UPnP drive for MPB - APX - PS3?

looking to get a NAS drive to hook up to the APX that the PS3 could then see...Any advice on a good cheaper 1Tb drive?
thanks

I'm using a Buffalo Terastation 2TB-R5, but it's not a cheap one.
However, Buffalo are a good make and their tech support is excellent, so I would definiely recommend one of their standard range, without the expensive RAID option.
I use mine as a central server for both my PC's and Mac and it supports Time Machine. Not sure if all Buffalo's do though.

Any suggestions for CHEAP improvements to dequeue performance?

We have a case where we have to call the SO change BAPI twice in rapid succession on the same SO. It would be nice if we could avoid this, but we can't, so let's assume that redesigning the code is not an answer to the problem.
In our dev instance, dequeues are very quick, and as a result, we almost never get "self-contention" on the second BAPI call.
That is, the second BAPI call almost never returns an error saying that the SO is in use by the same user.
But in our first-level QA instance, we were almost always getting this kind of "self-contention" error until we actually put the second BAPI call in a DO loop that executes up to 20 times with a 2 second wait inbetween each iteration. (Note that before taking this extreme measure, we tried calling the "VBAKKE" dequeue function twice (explicit and wildcard) with a 2 second wait, but this didn't help.)
What is causing the difference between dequeue performance in our dev and QA instances, and is there anything CHEAP that can be done to improve performance in our QA instance?
Inquiring minds want to know, so thanks for whatever time you can afford to spend thinking about this matter.
djh

Hi Krish L -
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Before we went to the "VBAKKE" dequeue in explicit and wildcard mode, we tried a simple dequeue all that didn't work.
Also, before we put the second call in the DO loop with the wait two seconds, we changed the explicit commit between the two BAPI calls to a commit and wait, and also put a hard wait up to 2 seconds AFTER this commit and wait.
So you can see that our enqueue server must be really suffering, because the only thing that's worked so far is the do loop around the second bapi call, with the 2 sec wait inbetween each iteration.
That's why I'm asking for help from the Basis side, because it's clearly a problem of overload on the enqueue server contention for the lock table at the Oracle level.
Do you (or anyone else) know if the lock table can be parallelized at the Oracle level?
Best
djh

Suggestions for (cheap) speakers for MacAir?

I realize I'm probably just old & going deaf, but the volume from the speakers is the WORST. Headphones are fine, but not always convenient. Any suggestions for inexpensive speakers I can plug in that will actually pump out some volume (not trying to rock the 'hood, just actually hear stuff while I'm away from the computer but in the same room). Logitech has some for $15, but I want to be sure they'll be louder than what's already coming out of the computer.
Thanks, all.

best computer speakers for very little money are a set of Klipsch
For $200 you get fantastic audio and you can dial them up to rattle the house
http://www.amazon.com/Klipsch-ProMedia-Certified-Computer-Speaker/dp/B000062VUO/ ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1391660686&sr=1-1&keywords=klipsch+computer
their extremely high rating speaks for themselves
I have a set. Even best buy carries them.

Suggestions for [cheap and temporary] mirrored SAN for vSphere

vmware vsan is an option but you'd need a 3rd host.

I am researching potential upgrades to a system currently used for corporate events/roadshows, which need to be very resilient, but relatively cheap as only used for a few weeks/months at a time.
Existing system uses dual ESX hosts in a HA cluster, using a shared SAN. Almost everything is duplicated and redundant - both hosts and SAN have dual power supplies, coming from different power circuits. Each host has multiple NICs connected to different management and iSCSI switches on the different power circuits. SAN has multiple volumes on different disk arrays on different iSCSI channels. Whole lot is backed by UPS.The one single point of failure, is the SAN. We have single physical box due to cost. I can't be sure if it's multiple controller (haven't checked). If the SAN hardware catastrophically fails, we're game over.We've thought of...
This topic first appeared in the Spiceworks Community

G3 laptop won´t do gb. any other good software-suggestions? cheap tricks?

hello,
my g3 4oo mhz, 512 mb ram, pismo is just not doing it right with gb 1+2. oh bummer. has anyone out there a good idea, wich software could do the trick for recording just a couple of tracks? it does not need all the effects and its gotta be cheap. i need it for a outdoor ecording project, and the whole thing is impossible without my laptop.
thanks a lot in advance,
eddie
here is some music that i do with gb2 if you feel like listening to guitars:
http://www.eddie-wagner.com

Searching for "multi-track recording" on Apple's website turns up these two applications (I haven't tried them):
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/bluegiant.html (Shareware)
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/deck.html (Demo)

Suggestions needed for NAS

I'm looking at upgrading my home kit. I want to ditch the MDD and get a laptop instead (it's a space issue). As this is going to remove 1TB of available storage, I'm after a NAS to replace it. Can anyone recommend one based on the following criteria, in order of importance:
1. It must be quiet. This is non-negotiable. I have a small flat and there's nowhere discreet to put a noisy box.
2. There must be some data safety. Ideally, I'd like to use this as the backup device for the laptop as well as bulk data storage and I'd like to RAID it if possible. So a single disk is out.
3. Future-proof. Ideally, it'll be upgradeable. I may need more space in the future.
I've been looking at QNAP, Netgear's ReadyNAS and D-Link's DNS323, but there's very little info on noise specs. And I don't take marketing speak at face value, so personal recommendations please.

Basic Backup
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although a USB drive will also work they are much slower than Firewire drives.

NAS device suggestions ...

Hi,
I would like to have a NAS drive with gigabit ethernet to do my nightly backup. What are the best suggestions for this NAS ?
Thanks in advance.
Robert Lespérance

Robert,
I'm currently using an Netgear (former Infrant) ReadyNAS NV+ (http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage/ReadyNASNVPlus.aspx)
Mine came with 2x 500 Gb SATA disks in a mirror (models vary), which I can later expand to a RAID5 set when I run out of disk space (can take 4 disks in total).
It's very silent and does it's job very well; all the info is online.
bram

Just need a cheap printer for home use

Can sombody suggest a cheap color printer (say around $50) that I can use at home to just print simple documents. I want something I can hook in to my Airport Extreme by USB, that will let me print from both a PC and a Powerbook running Tiger.
I just bought a Lexmark Z735, and it doesn't seem to be at all Mac compatible. There are no Mac drivers, even on their website.

Hi,
I found a really great ink jet printer for you that will work with both Mac & PC. It is from Epson and only costs $59.99. The Epson Stylus C68 offers the perfect solution for fast, affordable home printing. You can print your simple documents as well as photos too. Visit this link to learn more:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&in foType=Overview&oid=58650440&category=Products
I did check out the Lexmark Z735 and you are correct, there is no driver supported for the Mac. It is for PCs only.
-Jason

Can multiple devices access drives connected to Airport extreme at the same time?

i have a few days to decide before someone gets me either an airport extreme or a decent NAS adapater to using with my existing airport express, from the US. my airport express serves me good for all my networking needs but i have decided to take my portable media wireless.
i wanna know which will be the best option? to plug in the portable hdds to an a.extreme via a usb hub and share it across devices or to do the same with a nas adapter using my existing current generation a.express?
i got ios, android, mac and windows devices on my network. and an apple tv.
please share ur thoughts.
Neerav

Express is slow ethernet.. 10/100 only. The max speed of any connection to a USB hard disk is limited severely by the 100mbit..
USB is always slow btw.. This is actually a poor way to share a drive. A cheap NAS.. ie ethernet to Sata directly is far far superior and a single disk NAS can be had cheaply.. you will never get close with USB in network situations.
If you use a hub though, you can plug multiple disks into an Extreme.. I guess the network speed is at least no worse than the USB hub -- ethernet devices which are lousy as a whole.
Never forget you have the fastest ethernet adapters and fastest possible connectors already on computers on the network.. people are so utterly mesmerized by NAS they forget.. a FW800 or better USB3 if you have a newer computer shared to the network from a computer has much higher throughput and is much cheaper than even the very low end network stand alone boxes.

Can I set up an FTP server from a networked Time Capsule?

I've been looking around and can't seem to find this specific question addressed anywhere, so I'm hoping someone knows the answer to this.
I have a Time Capsule connected directly to my router. Other than its intended purpose, I would like to connect an external USB hard drive to it, and use that as an accessible FTP server for a select few.
To my understanding, port forwarding the router and giving WAN access would allow any user to see the entirety of the Time Capsule - which I do not want. I only want to share this one drive and have it maintained by an FTP login/password. I would then share this drive on the internal network.
Is this possible? Or will I have to run the FTP server off one of my workstations?
Cheers.

Not in usable and reliable way no.. many things are possible.. if you have the (various bad words for foolishness or courage)... but it is too hard as there is no hacked firmware out there for a TC. It is a device intended for TM backups of laptops by wireless. Anything else is restricted strictly to what Apple want you to use it for. You can buy a cheap NAS, single disk unit will almost inevitably have FTP in them.. over network FTP is ok but remember it is not secure so you want SFTP for internet access.. And be warned.. FTP itself will be blocked from WAN on the TC.
There are severe FTP issues with the AE/TC.. the last couple of versions of the Gen1-5 firmware as well as the Gen 6.. See this thread.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22948061#22948061
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22927625#22927625
The last post in this thread by.. SBeattie2
I think will condemn you to replacement of the TC by a router that actually conforms to standards if you are trying to forward it to a workstation or NAS even.
SFTP might work.. see this thread.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22872985#22872985

Ejecting iPod causes other USB devices to be ejected at the same time.

When ejecting an iPod Nano 4g from iTunes under Windows Vista, all other USB devices attached to the computer are also ejected at the same time (external hard drives, thumb drives, scanners, etc.). Is there a way to prevent this from happening?

Express is slow ethernet.. 10/100 only. The max speed of any connection to a USB hard disk is limited severely by the 100mbit..
USB is always slow btw.. This is actually a poor way to share a drive. A cheap NAS.. ie ethernet to Sata directly is far far superior and a single disk NAS can be had cheaply.. you will never get close with USB in network situations.
If you use a hub though, you can plug multiple disks into an Extreme.. I guess the network speed is at least no worse than the USB hub -- ethernet devices which are lousy as a whole.
Never forget you have the fastest ethernet adapters and fastest possible connectors already on computers on the network.. people are so utterly mesmerized by NAS they forget.. a FW800 or better USB3 if you have a newer computer shared to the network from a computer has much higher throughput and is much cheaper than even the very low end network stand alone boxes.

Sharing an external HD on a Powermac Network

Hi !
I'm working in a graphic & motion design agency in Paris, and we would like to share on our network an external hard drive containing our picture, sound and video libraries, so that anyone can access it.
Can anyone help us do that ?
Do we need it to connect it to one of the computer ?
How to make it appear in our network without connecting through the computer it's connected to ?
Power Mac G5 at work, iMac Core Duo at home Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Greetings-
I agree with the Hatter-grab a cheap NAS device and use it. If your external drive is USB you may be able to use it as additional storage for the NAS device.
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

How do I highlight a pdf stored in ibooks on my ipad?

I know this has been a problem for ages, however has this been worked out?
Can somebody suggest a cheap app that can do this?
Thanks for your help.

It's not currently possible to add to or view your wish list on the iPad, you will need to use your computer's iTunes for it.

Suggestions on cheap NAS

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