[SOLVED] Best NAS Solution

[Altster]

All,

My youngest son and his wife wish to share files between them. Both of their computers are running Windows 7 Professional 64 and he "has" setup shared folders (actually I did it initially) but there are times when the 2 computers simply do not wish to "play the sharing game anymore!"

It's just the two of them and their computers sit nearly next to each other and connect via a router using "Comcast Internet." I'd just as soon set up a little file sharing system for them.

What would be a good hardware software / solution for them? (we want to keep the $ figure down, if possible and I can build something up for them.)

Suggestions?

 

[OaksLabs]

Well, for light weight file sharing, a Raspberry Pi with a big SD card or an external USB + Ubuntu or the stock OS with Samba setup on would be a simple way to do it. Once configured it could run headless and it would be very energy efficient and much cheaper than anything else (but also it's the least powerful solution, you get what you pay for).

 

[Markverhyden]

Well, for light weight file sharing, a Raspberry Pi with a big SD card or an external USB + Ubuntu or the stock OS with Samba setup on would be a simple way to do it. Once configured it could run headless and it would be very energy efficient and much cheaper than anything else (but also it's the least powerful solution, you get what you pay for).

Something like that just use an old box, assuming it has 4 SATA ports, toss in 4 drives and install FreeNAS. The drives do not need to be the same size. FreeNAS has matured quite a bit. The GUI has plenty of features and FreeNAS can handle file sharing with all OS's.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Synology DS216, can be had for$160 plus drives.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

What types of files, and how much data?
Consider a cloud drive solution? Many are free if they don't need say more than 5 gigs.

 

[nlinecomputers]

What types of files, and how much data?
Consider a cloud drive solution? Many are free if they don't need say more than 5 gigs.

I'd do both. Get a NAS and then sync it to the cloud. That way if the house burns down they don't lose their stuff.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'd do both. Get a NAS and then sync it to the cloud. That way if the house burns down they don't lose their stuff.

OH definitely want to back up the NAS if they take that approach.
Just...sometimes you see file sharing get setup for like..a hundred megs or less....and logic gets me to thinking...why spend 500 bucks or more for a NAS to share 35 word documents and a couple of PDFs and JPGs. For a few years now I've gotten so used to cloud products like JungleDrive, or OneDrive, or DattoDrive, Sharepoint...that getting an old school server to use as a mapped drive just seems to economically "doesn't make sense" to me anymore for smaller amounts of files.

 

[fencepost]

For that matter if they're running Office365 Home, does that allow shared OneDrive? I just have Personal and nothing on there except photos synced from my Windows Phone experiment and a few OneNote files, so I'm not sure what capabilities it offers.

 

[Altster]

@fencepost Not running O365 in any way shape or form

@YeOldeStonecat They aren't crazy about the cloud, but I could see it as a good synching solution

I don't know how much data they have, but I know it is a combination of Documents, Pictures & Music - pretty much what ever you can create with Office. And I know there are a LOT of PICTURES - from many years.

@Markverhyden I like the idea of a multi-drive FreeNAS box. And since it would only be used as a file sharing device I could put together a solution for low dollars. I think I'oll further investigate this AND find out how much data they are talking about.

More later as I find out more details.

Thanks everyone

 

[Altster]

Synology DS216, can be had for$160 plus drives.

Just from taking a quick look at this product I believe it is way more than they would ever need.

But it's purty

 

[nlinecomputers]

Just from taking a quick look at this product I believe it is way more than they would ever need.

But it's purty

You only install the modules you need. Just like FreeNAS or lots of other commercial NAS units. I like them because they are easy to set up, work well with Windows Networks, and have awesome support.(Not that I've needed much.) They are the ONLY NAS units I sell.

 

[fencepost]

My biggest concern with a dedicated PC is my experience in the past - admittedly I was running a decommissioned server (minus some drives) instead of a desktop PC, but when I finally shut it down I think my power bill dropped by $10/month.

As for Office365, gotta love those promos that Microsoft was doing to push Windows Phone - I got a decent phone before WP became a flop, along with a free year of O365, I think for $80ish at the time. Sometime before support for my wife's Office 2007 ends I'll extend mine out a few years for $50/year, then perform magic to switch to Office 365 Home and be able to put it on 5 machines.

 

[MDD1963]

I use to leave my two PC's (Athlon 64/3500+ and XP2000) on downstairs all night, crunching SETI units. When I started turning them off during some mild weather Nebraska months (neither heat nor air conditioning required), noticed my electric bill dropped from a low of $79 to....$29. (This was back in 2006 or so...) Determined that the SETI effort was not worth $50/month out of my pocket!

 

[MDD1963]

What types of files, and how much data?
Consider a cloud drive solution? Many are free if they don't need say more than 5 gigs.

Indeed!

A little bit of research and experimentation has shown one can pretty easily store ~150 GB online for free with accounts for Google Drive/Google Photos, One Drive, Dropbox, Degoo, P-Cloud, HubiC, Box, JustCloud, Magenta, Mediafire, etc....

 

[Markverhyden]

I use to leave my two PC's (Athlon 64/3500+ and XP2000) on downstairs all night, crunching SETI units. When I started turning them off during some mild weather Nebraska months (neither heat nor air conditioning required), noticed my electric bill dropped from a low of $79 to....$29. (This was back in 2006 or so...) Determined that the SETI effort was not worth $50/month out of my pocket!

Similar here. As I worked at CompUSA at the time I'd get old PC's all of the time. And some were not that old. Back in '02 or so I decided to setup 6 desktops to crunch SETI. My electricity bill skyrocketed some $150. After a couple of months I called up the utility and complained. After some questioning they said, if you don't believe those desktops consume that much electricity go down look at your meter. Pay attention to how fast the disk is spinning, then power them down and go look again. I decided I was just going to let ET find me. LOL!!!

 

[Altster]

UPDATE:

At least for now, my son has managed to get his file sharing issues ironed out and will not need a NAS at home. Of course this could change at any moment.

 

[MDD1963]

Similar here. As I worked at CompUSA at the time I'd get old PC's all of the time. And some were not that old. Back in '02 or so I decided to setup 6 desktops to crunch SETI. My electricity bill skyrocketed some $150. After a couple of months I called up the utility and complained. After some questioning they said, if you don't believe those desktops consume that much electricity go down look at your meter. Pay attention to how fast the disk is spinning, then power them down and go look again. I decided I was just going to let ET find me. LOL!!!

The ratio is even identical....$25/month for each system doing SETI crunching....; once I discovered it, I was a bit mad that I had not discovered it many months earlier.....$50 a month for a year will fund a new pistol!

 

[MDD1963]

UPDATE:

At least for now, my son has managed to get his file sharing issues ironed out and will not need a NAS at home. Of course this could change at any moment.

FreeNAS is pretty darn interesting; if you get a chance, and are interested, listen to some of the many tutorials/lectures on youtube. (Headless Ubuntu Server administered w/ Webmin is also almost as easy) Either of these two can be practiced thru virtualbox just for fun....)

Synology, QNAP, Drobo are all pretty popular, I just prefer doing my own, even if it costs $50$100 more!