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Archive for the ‘Network Drives (NAS)’ Category

by Zac Garrett

Question by cyberliger0: Can a NAS host a website?
I plan on getting a NAS (Network Attached Storage) to keep my files and I just wanted to know if a NAS could also host websites like a server could. I only ask because I hear NAS drives compared to servers all the time and a lot of people say NAS is better, at least in respect to accessing files and media over the network or from remote locations. Whether it can or can’t I’m still getting the NAS, a Netgear Duo in case the specific NAS matters or not, so unless you can suggest a better NAS or a server that has all the same features and specs. for around the same price I only need to know if I can host sites or not. Lastly, like I said if it can host sites that’s a tremendously great bonus, but the primary reason I want it is for remote storage and access to files, not hosting sites. Thank You!

Best answer:

Answer by Haneef Puttur
You can use latest version of freenas. It has built in web server.
You can download and try from www.freenas.org

Good Luck

Add your own answer in the comments!

by coletivonoize

Question by softwarestealer0: Network hard drive?
hey i have a bunch of external usb hard drives now i no theres a bunch of ways to do this using say a server or a base computer but is there anyway i can say get a usb to ethernet adapter and use it as network attached storage without buy a nas server or encloser

Best answer:

Answer by Dal N
do you mean something like this? cuz i’ve used these and they kick major @ss

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1&pid=628

What do you think? Answer below!

by lungstruck

Question by Robert: What is the best way & equipment to speed up a network to share devices?
I need to share Maxtor 1TB & 2TB external hard drives between 2-4 desktop pcs. I found the only way to do this was to put the hard drives on the network.

I’ve tried using Network Magic and a Buffalo Tech 1 TB NAS hard drive, but they are both too slow. The Buffalo tech transferred a 4.4 GB dvd file in 12-13 minutes (same as reading/writing from a DVD disc), Network Magic about 45 minutes. USB takes 6 minutes, but obviously can only use one hard drive per pc and I need any or all pcs to be able to access all drives at any one time. I also found USB and Firewire switches, but as expected can only use one pc at a time.

All pcs are Windows Vista Ultimate, 4 GB RAM (Maxxed) with AMD 64 X2 Dual Core Processors 4200+. The network cards vary,,,one is a D-link and the other is onboard. Router is a Linksys WRT54GS with Speedboost.

So I’m wondering how I can speed transfer rates up or is that possible? Getting a better router and network cards are options I would use if I knew it would help. That and any adjustments. All will be hard wired into the router. nothing wireless.

Thanks for the help and enjoy your Sunday.
Update:

I upgraded to a Linksys WRT350N (with storage link) router, 2 Linksys 10/100/1000 network adapter and Cat 5 cables.

Much to my disappointment the Storage Link is way too slow. It takes 45 minutes to transfer a 4.4 GB movie file (stored on a USB Maxtor 1TB drive plugged usb into the router, however I can hook the drive up usb in my 2nd computer and transfer it thru it, the router, to my first computer in 9-10 minutes. Go figure. Makes no sense to me.

I originally couldn’t do that but I used Network Magic and replaced my network adapters with Linksys 10/100/1000 and that alone made it faster going through 2 computers. I was hoping adding a Linksys 10/100/1000 router and Cat 6 cables would help with the storage link, but it didn’t. Looks like I will add hubs to each pc and just transfer back and forth that way for now. My next experiment would be to add a NAS Hard drive to see if it’s faster.

Thanks for the info.

Best answer:

Answer by SonicD
You need to replace your router and all of your network cards. You’re running a 100MB network, and you can upgrade to a 1GB network. Make sure you buy a router and network cards that support the 1GB transfer rate. For routers, the LinkSys WRT350N would work. Also, upgrade your network cables from Cat5e to Cat6 (Cat6 supports faster data transfer rates and better shielding from noise).

If you really need blazing fast speed and have the money to spend, consider setting up a file server with multiple network cards connected to a professional grade router (Cisco or equivalent).

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by wickedboy_007

Question by AD: Does an external hard drive exist which has RAID, NAS and USB connectivity?
Hi,

I am looking for an external drive which has a capacity of 500GB-1TB which can be either connected to a PC via USB2.0 or via NAS (over the network).
The external drive must have RAID 1 capability as well i.e. taking at least 2 disks.

This is for home use so Im not looking for anything that is rack mounted. It needs to be something that can easily be placed on a desk.

Does anyone know if this does exist? I have had a look at the usual brands (netgear, western digital, freecom, lacie etc) but they all seem to have products with only two of the three requirements (RAID, NAS and USB connectivity).

Thanks for your help.

A.
no…. the Western Digital 1 TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive (WDG2NC10000N) does not have USB connectivity from a PC
Unfortunately the Synology one only has USb attach compatibility for other external drives not for the pc

Best answer:

Answer by justaguyok
Well one pricey but feature rich option would be the Synology DS-207. Here are the features at a glance:

Product Synology Disk Station (DS207)
Summary Dual-drive BYOD SATA RAID 1 NAS with Active Directory and AFP support.
Pros • LAMP webserver (HTTP, PHP and MySQL support)
• UPnP AV Media, iTunes, proprietary photo and USB print servers
• Built in BitTorrent, HTTP, FTP download service
• Gigabit Ethernet with 4K and 8K Jumbo frames supported
Cons • iTunes server doesn’t support Apple DRM files
• Can’t modify created volumes
• Only RAID1 volume expansion supported

I’ll link to the review done on the SmallNetBuilder section of Tom’s Hardware which you really should be reading if you are shopping for a good NAS. One thing I can’t figure out on these is whether the USB ports are just for additional drives, print servers, or if it can be connected directly to a PC that way. Do a little digging on that before you buy. Good luck.

What do you think? Answer below!

by lungstruck

Question by m b: How many partitions can you have on a network attached hard drive?
I want to have a nas connected to a router and the router connected to a server, i want the clients to be able to save and share files on the network, but I don’t want them using the physical hdd’s in each computer

Best answer:

Answer by BigE
I think you miss the point of NAS. NAS isn’t a network disk. It is a network filesystem. So it typically has big partitions that you carve up per client using CIFS or NFS. If you are thinking virtual disk, that is either SAN or iscsi.

Or I missed the question.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Question by Malaysia,Kuching,Sarawak: NAS (Network Attached Storage) Issue?
What is the difference between implementing a physical and logical drive onto the NAS using RAID-5 Module (4 Hard Disk with 500GB per volume)? Which one is the best practice?

Appreciate for the answers and help! Thanks

Best answer:

Answer by Che jrw
Physical drive structures are more stable, but cannot be dynamically re-allocated. If you use a logical partition structure, you can change the size of the partitions at any time without losing data. Depending on what you intend to use your NAS for, you may want the flexibility to change the partition structure, so I suggest logical voluming.

Since you have a RAID anyway, you don’t need to worry too much about the reduced stability, since if any one of the drives loses data, you can rebuild the array from the redundant drive(s).

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by philcampbell

Question by : Looking for help creating a nas using my old laptop?
im looking at creating a nas using my laptop computer. I know how to do this if i were to not want to use the computer anymore but i was wondering if there is a way that i can partition just a portion of the laptop hardrive, so that it can still be used stand alone if i need to.

i have a wireless router and hardrive connected to this via usb. i use a single pc to connect to the network. I was hoping to connect the old laptop wirelessly in another room and access say 100gb as a network drive.
Great thanks for that anser

Could i also attach an external hard drive to the computer and access this via other comps on the network too?

Best answer:

Answer by Sally B
What is a nas?

Give your answer to this question below!

by Mark Kenny

Question by dust180: Any NAS solutions that work with Windows File Sharing?
I need a NAS that will work with Windows File Sharing. Does anyone know of one that will work 100% with Windows XP’s File Sharing? I need it to be able to join a Workgroup to share files just like a windows xp machine and be able to join a domain. If you know of another NAS solution that will allow me to map it as a network drive and be able to run programs off of it (with full read and write access) that would be very helpful to as this is what I need to do. It needs to support 10/100 and 10/100/1000 (or gigabit) network speeds. If there is an enclosure that would allow me to install my own harddrive in it with these features that would also be great.

Best answer:

Answer by Pat Yuen
You can use Freenas or Openfiler to build a NAS using old hardware. Both are free and requires minimum hardware. Both support gigabit, even multiple gigabit connections. The connection to the hd can be anything: usb, sata, esata, firewire, iscsi. I have a comparison and some quick installation notes here.

http://blog.patyuen.com/lessons/technology/openfiler-vs-freenas-tips-for-building-your-own-nas/

Give your answer to this question below!

by Olivier H

Question by Mick: Would a wirelss N router make any difference to a network consisting of all Wireless G adapters?
I’ve got my xbox, several laptops and a networked NAS harddrive unit all using my wireless. Whenever transferring files to and from a laptop to the networked hard drive via the wireless it practically stops everything else in the network (like another computer can’t even browse the internet).

I was wondering if I upgrade to a Wireless N router would this improve the performance of independent G devices?

I know that G has a limit of 54mbps, but would every single device on my network be using the same pool of 54mbps bandwidth on an N router, or would the N router give them the equivalent of 54mbps bandwidth to each device up to the 300mbps limit of the N technology?

Best answer:

Answer by John A
No the router type would not improve the signal strength. The only thing I can suggest is that you upgrade the LAN card to a 10/100/1000. I used to have the same problem and went from a Linksys wireless B router to a G router then to the N model just like my ISP customer service tech person told me and the signal strength was always the same. A tech guy from Tiger direct told me about the 10/100/1000 lan card. Once I installed this card and reconfigured the network the signal strength improved by 75%.

Give your answer to this question below!

by Olivier H

Question by Sven Okonomi: Mapping a network drive on a Wifi computer?
Is there a way to stop windows from whining it cant connect to network drives?

I have a laptop that connects through wifi, and I have a server/NAS full of data I need to access so I mapped it as a network drive. The only problem is windows starts to attempt a connection to this Network drive even before wifi had a chance to lock on to my access point, so it keeps throwing complaints at me whenever my machine comes out of hibernation/reboots.

The OS is win7, but if anyone knows the solution for vista, it might work too since its similar in a lot of ways.

Best answer:

Answer by dublklik
You could always remove the mapping and have it set as a batch file that you can run after Windows has finished connecting?

net use g: \name-of-connection\name-of-folder save as login.bat ?

There may also be a local policy you can set to not connect drives until network has been established?

What do you think? Answer below!