Moving to NAS but which one?

[bazz]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to streaming and have initially been doing so from files held on my iMac which works fine.

Now that streaming has proven it's self to be the way forward for me, I think the convenience of a NAS (iMac doesn't need to be on) is the way to go but which one?

Having read many reviews I've short listed Synology and QNAP. Does anyone have any views or experience on which is best for audio streaming. It won't be used for any other duty.

Thanks in advance.

Paul

[StanleyB]

The Zyxel N310 gets my vote. I have even figured out how to switch it on and off remotely so that I don't have to keep running it 24/7.

[Canetoad]

I use a Synology NAS and have had no problems whatsoever with it in the years I have owned and used it.

[Canetoad]

The Zyxel N310 gets my vote. I have even figured out how to switch it on and off remotely so that I don't have to keep running it 24/7.

My NAS is set up to switch off overnight. Simple setup using admin tools. Easy to set up.

[Stratmangler]

Default settings on the Zyxel cause it to spin down after 15 minutes if not accessed.
It draws 17W when under full load, and 4W in standby, so it costs very little in electrickery bills to run, even when used daily throughout the course of the day.

Mine hasn't missed a beat, and when I replaced the HDD with a larger one earlier this year it was a fairly painless process - OK, it took quite a while to back up onto external HDD and then to upload the same HDD backup onto the new disc, but once done it has behaved impeccably, as it did before.

Mine runs LMS for the Squeezeboxes around the house.

[StanleyB]

It's not the electricity cost that I am worried about. A NAS that is on is also an attraction for hackers.

[bazz]

Thanks for the responses.

Is there any advantage of going down the route of a 2-bay NAS using RAID as opposed to a 1-bay, both with an attached HDD for back-up?

Sorry for all the questions this is rather new to me.

Thanks

[Ammonite Audio]

It's not the electricity cost that I am worried about. A NAS that is on is also an attraction for hackers.

+1

Synology vulnerabilities have recently been in the news, but that aside NAS drives and routers need to be correctly configured and the firmware kept up to date. How many casual users know how to do either? I haven't a clue what all the settings are, so got an IT professional to look at mine (BT Home Hub 4 and D-Link DNS-320) - I was a bit shocked to see that the NAS firmware was 4 years old! The router and NAS are now as secure as these things can be, and I'd encourage everyone to take a keen and fresh look at all their security settings.

[Ali Tait]

I use a Drobo. Good thing about these is that they automatically back up the stored data between the four HD's, so you can lose a drive and just hot swap a new one in anytime. Not the cheapest, but plenty secondhand on the bay.

[Ali Tait]

Oh, and you can download Drobo Dashboard, which monitors the NAS from your computer, and you can set it to update the firmware automatically.

[NRG]

As fate would have it my Seagate Time Machine drive has just gone belly up :doh: I use it for my Mac Mini backups...so I've just ordered a dual bay Zyxel plus WD Green drive. I'll be able to use it for backups and also to run LMS on. As it takes external USB drives I'm assuming (probably incorrectly) that my LMS music store will simply plug in...

[skimminstones]

The Zyxel N310 gets my vote. I have even figured out how to switch it on and off remotely so that I don't have to keep running it 24/7.

Can you use external HD with this as well? And is it easy to install LMS?

I was thinking f getting this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZyXEL-NSA310-NAS-320GB-HDD-Network-Media-Server-eSATA-to-USB-2-0-cable-included-/141407738426?pt=UK_Computing_Home_Network_Storage_ NAS_2&hash=item20ec8eda3a as it comes with a 320gb drive included but ive a 1tb external id like to plug into it and be able to stream from that.

[StanleyB]

Can you use external HD with this as well? And is it easy to install LMS?

I was thinking f getting this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZyXEL-NSA310-NAS-320GB-HDD-Network-Media-Server-eSATA-to-USB-2-0-cable-included-/141407738426?pt=UK_Computing_Home_Network_Storage_ NAS_2&hash=item20ec8eda3a as it comes with a 320gb drive included but ive a 1tb external id like to plug into it and be able to stream from that.
:doh:. That's the same one that I mean. My apologies for typing N310 instead of NSA310.
It supports LMS. I run my Touch off it. You can use an external HD attached to the USB port.

[skimminstones]

:doh:. That's the same one that I mean. My apologies for typing N310 instead of NSA310.
It supports LMS. I run my Touch off it. You can use an external HD attached to the USB port.

Cheers Stan

[Alp]

I have a two-bay Netgear ReadyNAS 102 which seems to do the trick very nicely. It runs LMS and feeds my Touch (including server side FLAC conversion) and Squeezebox Radio as well as performing general NAS duties without any issues. It can be configured to power-down overnight, during the day etc. It is quiet but not quiet enough to be in the room where you are listening (at least without headphones).

The drives are typically configured as RAID 1 so if one fails the data is not lost - you still need to back-up on to a separate external drive - although this process is pretty arcane if you want to keep file permissions on an Windows NTFS formatted drive. You can also increase the drive capacity by removing one drive, inserting a larger one and it will copy all the data to the larger drive. Once it has done that, remove the smaller drive and replace that also with the larger drive.