Home Network Attached Storage

[philg]

I'm looking to buy a NAS to simplify sharing of files between mine and my wifes pc

Currently the Iomega Storecenter IX2 (http://go.iomega.com/en/products/network-sto
rage-desktop/storcenter-network-storage-solut
ion/network-hard-drive-ix2/)
looks to be the favourite

Good combination of features, compatible with PC and MAC as well as built in media server and RAID support without overloading with features that I might never use

But I'd be interested if there were any "gotchas" that I am missing before I part with my dosh

Many thanks

Phil G

[ChuckFickens]

Keep in mind it only has 2 drive bays, so the only RAID level it supports is level 1, that means one drive is just an exact copy of the other so you will only get half the storage space they state in the specs.

Although it will work with both drives acting as either 2 separate drives or as one large drive then you have no backup protection and the latter option would mean if one drive fails you'd lose the whole lot!

I'd get one with 4 bays personally so you can use RAID5.

[philg]

Indeed but for a home NAS it's always going to be a balance of cost

As the StorCenter also supports extra USB attached storage I may turn RAID off and just go for a regular backup of key data

Or I may stick with RAID for the key data and put less important stuff on external drives

Thanks for you thoughts though

I'm looking at the 2TB version so I'll have 1TB of RAID protected storage and 1 or 2 TB of additional unprotected storage

[VHG]

I think RAID 5 is well over the top for most home users, in fact it cold be argued RAID 1 is slightly over the top as well.

As long as all your important files are backed up in other places (CD, DVD, other external drives or even other computers) then having raid switched off on a home NAS is fine. That way you get twice the storage capacity in the NAS.

Note that most NAS boxes use Linux for running the internal hardware in the NAS box and the hard drives will be formatted in a Linux format, so cannot be read directly by Windows (out of the box I mean). If the NAS box fails and you have to take the hard disks out you need Linux to read them. Not a big deal, but be aware of it.

[VHG]

One other thing to rememeber. Moving data round the network may be limited by the speed of your network.

Make sure your wired network is running at gigabit speed (most run at 100mbps).

Also try to get a "n" wi fi router as this will run much faster beween a wireless laptop and your router.

I recently upgraded to an "n" router, plus upgraded my cables to Cat6, and also got a gigabit hub/switch.

Now my data moves round the network much faster (does not move round at gigabit speed of course, but is much faster than it was).

[philg]

Well, for now we're not intending to be slinging huge quantities of data around, so I think my 100Mbps network will suffice

However, for wireless stability (we have a largeish bungalow) we're currently running a b wireless network (plenty fast enough to keep up with our lousy broadband speed) but may have to look at increasing that to g at least

Thanks for your comments about the Linux file system - hadn't appreciated that little fact!

[ChuckFickens]

There would be very little problems accessing the data on the drives in a windows system if it came down to needing to do it, there are loads of EXT3 (the Linux file system) drivers available that would enable you to read the drive directly attached to a windows system.