Reasonable priced NAS for home use

[MobileTechie]

Hi

Can anyone recommend me a NAS for home use, should have DLNA and media server capabilities. Key things are reliability and working well with Windows re: shares, security, logins etc.?

Thanks

 

[ProTech-MN]

I've had excellent results from Netgear's ReadyNAS Ultra line for home/residential use. They come in 2, 4, and 6-bay flavors.

-Randy

 

[Simmy]

Using a synology ds211 here - great piece of kit which works out of the box without much faffing around (unlike qnap NAS boxes).

 

[MobileTechie]

Thanks.

I wouldn't really call them reasonably priced? They come in at the same level as Synology and QNAP unit.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Any reason to not reuse a computer laying around and throwing your preferred flavor of Linux on like, FreeNAS or something of the sort instead of buying one of these precon-figured devices?

 

[jeubank]

Any reason to not reuse a computer laying around and throwing your preferred flavor of Linux on like, FreeNAS or something of the sort instead of buying one of these precon-figured devices?

All Network Attached Storage is, is really a mini computer running linux with a slew of harddrives haha. Oh. and in a pretty case and a price tag to match.

All my customer's backup's and my own, as well as my media streaming at home (from pirated movies of course.. haha.. or netflix) comes from a Linux box with 3 500gb harddrives (room for 8, but motherboard can only support 6)

The box was $45 - p4 1.8ghz / 1gb SDRAM.
Additional Harddrives from Newegg were 38.00 (usually 48 but was on sale).

I have far more control with my setup, then there proprietary scripts on a linux OS.

HOWEVER.

not everyone knows, or are comfortable yet with linux.

I also spent $27 on a Gigabit NIC card for the computer, as i use Gigabit 10/100/1000 switches + cat6 cabling.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

All Network Attached Storage is, is really a mini computer running linux with a slew of harddrives haha. Oh. and in a pretty case and a price tag to match.

All my customer's backup's and my own, as well as my media streaming at home (from pirated movies of course.. haha.. or netflix) comes from a Linux box with 3 500gb harddrives (room for 8, but motherboard can only support 6)

The box was $45 - p4 1.8ghz / 1gb SDRAM.
Additional Harddrives from Newegg were 38.00 (usually 48 but was on sale).

I have far more control with my setup, then there proprietary scripts on a linux OS.

HOWEVER.

not everyone knows, or are comfortable yet with linux.

I also spent $27 on a Gigabit NIC card for the computer, as i use Gigabit 10/100/1000 switches + cat6 cabling.

That was pretty much my thought for about 1/2 the price you could throw something together that works better than a preconfigured kit, but I suppose ease of setup wins. I would imagine prebuilt NAS setups are probably PNP.

 

[dbdawn]

You can save yourself quite a bit of money if you throw something together with some old parts. However if you did not want to do that then I would go with the Synology lineup.

 

[sassenach]

Have a read of this http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/homemade_nas.aspx

Still want to buy a ready made one?

 

[MobileTechie]

This is a home user. They just want some small, quiet, cheap, cool little box doing a basic NAS job.

Building one is not going to fit the bill and will take me time to do it.

All I want are some recommendations, born from personal experience, of some that work and are cheap.

 

[dbdawn]

This is a home user. They just want some small, quiet, cheap, cool little box doing a basic NAS job.

Building one is not going to fit the bill and will take me time to do it.

All I want are some recommendations, born from personal experience, of some that work and are cheap.

Ok, then like I said before check out Synology.

 

[kevinjhaag]

Wifi with usb storage

Why don't you look into devices like a wifi router with usb ports for plugging external usb drives to for storage. Should be more in your price range and should be easier to upgrade. I have one here by asus (http://usa.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Routers/RTN16/) which also downloads my big downloads while all my computers are off. This is another option for you. Let us know what you go with.

Kevin

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

Hi

Can anyone recommend me a NAS for home use, should have DLNA and media server capabilities. Key things are reliability and working well with Windows re: shares, security, logins etc.?

Thanks

I had a decent laptop abandoned that wouldn't charge the battery. So I used the single core, 512 mb, 4200rpm drive and laptop mobo that I put into a ITX case with 2nd sata and with Linux on it. uses less than 60watts and makes no noise. Best of all it was free built from my recycle bone pile.

If you want a ready made I like the Netgear or Dlink stuff both come with good free tech support.

 

[othersteve]

Just bought a Synology 710+ actually today along with 2 x 2TB 7,200 RPM drives also. It looks like a good one... hopefully it was a smart buy.

The NAS was $450 and the drives were $110 apiece.

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

dlink dns-320 we use then alot for home users even have a couple running in my home network. Also we use one of them as our FTP server to hold our tech tools instead of having loads of dropbox links for when techs are onsite.

certainly not the fastest in the world but are dirt cheap, quiet and more than capable of streaming 1080P and itunes server which for a home user is going to be their main concerns. Downside we find is it can sometimes be bit slow to wake from sleep mode but then again so are most expensive NAS drives too

nas itself and couple 2TB drives and you can have nice basic RAID 1 2TB NAS for about £150 (or cheaper depending on drive prices).

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

Just bought a Synology 710+ actually today along with 2 x 2TB 7,200 RPM drives also. It looks like a good one... hopefully it was a smart buy.

The NAS was $450 and the drives were $110 apiece.

you wont go wrong with synology apart from that even after a while the price still annoys (maybe i just a skinflint).