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[industrian]

How do I check that?

If you're on Windows, open up a Command Prompt.

Now type in: netsh wlan show interfaces

This will show the details of all your Wifi connections.

The option "Radio Type" will tell you the standard you're using.

"Receive rate (Mbps)" and "Transmit rate (Mbps)" will tell you the speeds.

 

[pikablu]

I've always seen this thread but never clicked. Always secretly wanted it to be about the rapper Nas. It's not but the OP delivered. That's all.

 

[Pachimari]

If you're on Windows, open up a Command Prompt.

Now type in: netsh wlan show interfaces

This will show the details of all your Wifi connections.

The option "Radio Type" will tell you the standard you're using.

"Receive rate (Mbps)" and "Transmit rate (Mbps)" will tell you the speeds.

I'm using 802.11n.

Receive rate is: 150
Transmit rate is: 150

How is this? Is this way too slow for streaming my movies?

---

I also went for a 4-slot Synology NAS DS411j I think it is.

 

[shuri]

While rolling out your own nas can be cheaper (and a great learning experience!); buying a quality solution can save a lot of potential headaches and usually provide a well tested solution.

I went for a Synology 4 slots NAS two years ago, and I've been very happy about it. I don't use it to stream movies, simply to backup my data and important files like scanned documents and whatsnot.

I went for 4x3tb drives; I stupidly went for those 'green' drives because at the time of purchase, hdd prices had gone thru the roof because of those floods in Asia; and those new 'NAS' red drives were just coming out. Those green drives are slower and they make less heat, but eeh they arent the toughest mofos from what I've heard. But so far so good!

 

[industrian]

I'm using 802.11n.

Receive rate is: 150
Transmit rate is: 150

How is this?

150Mbps = maximum speed of 18.75MB/s.

To say that's slow is being generous.

A wired gigabit connection will give you 128MB/s.

I'm 99.99% sure that your issue with media streaming is a network thing, not a NAS one. Do you know what standards your Wifi router supports?

While rolling out your own nas can be cheaper (and a great learning experience!); buying a quality solution can save a lot of potential headaches and usually provide a well tested solution. [...]

If you buy a NAS from Synology, QNAP, et al you're paying for the software and the branding than anything else. Especially when it comes to home apps like media players and such. And "Well tested solutions" aren't immune from user mistakes, errors and general SNAFUs.

As a disclosure, I work for a major NAS company. And with that said I plan to build a DIY FreeNAS myself later in the year.

Don't get me wrong though, pretty much any NAS on the consumer market right now will serve you well. It just comes down to what else you get that justifies the cost (with timely technical support being the No. 1 factor in my book.)

 

[Pachimari]

150Mbps = 18.75MB/s.

To say that's slow is being generous.

A wired gigabit connection will give you 128MB/s.

I'm 99.99% sure that your issue with media streaming is a network thing, not a NAS one. Do you know what standards your Wifi router supports?



If you buy a NAS from Synology, QNAP, et al you're paying for the software and the branding than anything else. Especially when it comes to home apps like media players and such. And "Well tested solutions" aren't immune from user mistakes, errors and general SNAFUs.

As a disclosure, I work for a major NAS company. And with that said I plan to build a DIY FreeNAS myself later in the year.

We bought this cheap one, as I gave the good one to my parents.

D-Link GO-RT-N150.

Specifications:

- Standards: 802.11 b/g/n
- Speed: 150
- Security: WPA2,WPS

 

[captive]

150Mbps = maximum speed of 18.75MB/s.

To say that's slow is being generous.

A wired gigabit connection will give you 128MB/s.

I'm 99.99% sure that your issue with media streaming is a network thing, not a NAS one. Do you know what standards your Wifi router supports?



If you buy a NAS from Synology, QNAP, et al you're paying for the software and the branding than anything else. Especially when it comes to home apps like media players and such. And "Well tested solutions" aren't immune from user mistakes, errors and general SNAFUs.

As a disclosure, I work for a major NAS company. And with that said I plan to build a DIY FreeNAS myself later in the year.

Don't get me wrong though, pretty much any NAS on the consumer market right now will serve you well. It just comes down to what else you get that justifies the cost (with timely technical support being the No. 1 factor in my book.)

I think the distinction between buying something and building a NAS comes down to how comfortable are you with troubleshooting on your own?

I chose to build me own because the prebuilt NAS's are fucking expensive, especially the ones that dont even include the hard drives.
I spent $150 bucks on a box and put freenas on it, and I put 6 drives in it. I can also add a second SATA card to add more drives, which i plan on doing. With a lot of the nasses your limited to 2 or 4 bays, rare devices hold 6 or more.

 

[crazygambit]

While rolling out your own nas can be cheaper (and a great learning experience!); buying a quality solution can save a lot of potential headaches and usually provide a well tested solution.

I went for a Synology 4 slots NAS two years ago, and I've been very happy about it. I don't use it to stream movies, simply to backup my data and important files like scanned documents and whatsnot.

I went for 4x3tb drives; I stupidly went for those 'green' drives because at the time of purchase, hdd prices had gone thru the roof because of those floods in Asia; and those new 'NAS' red drives were just coming out. Those green drives are slower and they make less heat, but eeh they arent the toughest mofos from what I've heard. But so far so good!

I really don't get the point of a 4 slot NAS. You lose 25% of your storage right away if you want a parity drive (and you do). There's no space for a cache drive, since that would mean only 2 disks of actual storage, that will hasten the wear and tear of all your drives, so by then you're probably better off just buying an external HDD.

Plus those NAS usually require you use the same size HDD, so if you want to upgrade, you need to change all the drives at the same time (and throw away the old ones) which I shouldn't need to tell you how inefficient it is.

I talked about unraid before and I haven't found anything better yet. If you can't build your own, which like you said can be a lot of fun, you can buy one of their ready made solutions (though they don't seem to have as many choices as they once did)

 

[Pachimari]

Would something like this do it then?

Its speed is 450 + 1300 Mbps.

 

[LakeEarth]

My lab's Synology suddenly stopped letting people log-in, "currently update, try again later" for weeks. It tried converting from DSM 4.0 to 5.0, and it fucked up along the way.

The best fix Synology had for me was to put in a blank drive and re-install with the latest software, and then swapping back the old drives. Yeah it worked, but what a dumb fix.

 

[Valkyr Junkie]

Would something like this do it then?

Its speed is 450 + 1300 Mbps.

You should play with the channel settings on your existing access point first. Your existing 150Mbps connection (which real world is probably less than half that) is still fast enough to stream even full-quality Blu-rays. Since your interruptions are happening intermittently and not constant, it's very likely that something is interfering with your connection (activity on other WiFi networks, a microwave oven running, another electronic device on that frequency, etc). I would try changing your broadcast channel first before spending money on a new device.

Also, none of your existing devices are likely 802.11ac anyway.

 

[Pachimari]

You should play with the channel settings on your existing access point first. Your existing 150Mbps connection (which real world is probably less than half that) is still fast enough to stream even full-quality Blu-rays. Since your interruptions are happening intermittently and not constant, it's very likely that something is interfering with your connection (activity on other WiFi networks, a microwave oven running, another electronic device on that frequency, etc). I would try changing your broadcast channel first before spending money on a new device.

Also, none of your existing devices are likely 802.11ac anyway.

Where do I find the channel settings?

I have never played around with routers. =/

 

[Valkyr Junkie]

Where do I find the channel settings?

I have never played around with routers. =/

Here you go.
http://www.dlink.com/-/media/Consumer_Products/GO/GO RT N150/Manual/DEU_Manual_RevA.pdf

After you get logged into the admin portal for the router, page 20 describes playing with your channel settings. If it's already set to Auto Channel, I'd turn that off and manually choose a different channel. I would avoid 6 and 11, as well as whatever it had previously selected for you automatically. You can test from there.

 

[Pachimari]

Here you go.
http://www.dlink.com/-/media/Consumer_Products/GO/GO RT N150/Manual/DEU_Manual_RevA.pdf

After you get logged into the admin portal for the router, page 20 describes playing with your channel settings. If it's already set to Auto Channel, I'd turn that off and manually choose a different channel. I would avoid 6 and 11, as well as whatever it had previously selected for you automatically. You can test from there.

Weird, I get an error?

 

[industrian]

I think the distinction between buying something and building a NAS comes down to how comfortable are you with troubleshooting on your own?

To most people, I don't think the idea of building a NAS would even cross their mind. And I imagine that most business/corporate users would just buy a NAS for centralized RMA procedures and the overall convenience in purchasing and setting up.

To my knowledge FreeNAS, NAS4Free, etc, do not come with dedicated apps/plugins for music, video and photos (I don't mean DLNA/Plex/etc here, I mean actual software within the web-based control panel on Synology and QNAP NAS). NAS companies know that the software components and plugins included are the real deciding factors for educated consumers, so they're scrambling to add as much "add-on" value as they can.

I chose to build me own because the prebuilt NAS's are fucking expensive, especially the ones that dont even include the hard drives.
I spent $150 bucks on a box and put freenas on it, and I put 6 drives in it. I can also add a second SATA card to add more drives, which i plan on doing. With a lot of the nasses your limited to 2 or 4 bays, rare devices hold 6 or more.

The reason why I will build my own comes down to two simple factors: ZFS and ECC RAM. If I am building a dedicated, long-term, always-on storage solution then it better be as close to bulletproof as possible. I don't care about fancy apps or plugins.

 

[Norwegian Rudo]

Where do I find the channel settings?

I have never played around with routers. =/

If you can't get the wireless working reliably, you might consider adding a powerline network to run the NAS on. I used one before I moved into my house with wired connections. That worked fine with 720p, and that was an older generation of the technology.

 

[maeh2k]

I have once more arrived at the point where I'm seriously considering buying a NAS. I'm considering an affordable Synology DS214.

I'm concerned about the noise. Right now the router is in my bedroom. At night, all my devices are off. But with a NAS I'm afraid that might be an issue. At night it should be quiet.

Do you think the noise level of the NAS would be problematic?
If I connected it to the network via Wi-Fi and placed it in another room, I suspect that would be detrimental to the performance, right?

 

[Got the Shakes]

I have once more arrived at the point where I'm seriously considering buying a NAS. I'm considering an affordable Synology DS214.

I'm concerned about the noise. Right now the router is in my bedroom. At night, all my devices are off. But with a NAS I'm afraid that might be an issue. At night it should be quiet.

Do you think the noise level of the NAS would be problematic?
If I connected it to the network via Wi-Fi and placed it in another room, I suspect that would be detrimental to the performance, right?

I have a Synology 213j and I can share my thoughts. I have my NAS setup in a room that I'm not in often, but when I am in there I can't say that I've ever heard the fan running or the drives spinning. There are 3 different settings for the Synology when it comes to fan speed that you can adjust depending on how little or much cooling you need (cool mode, quiet mode, and low-power mode). I have my Synology plugged into my router but stream all of my media wirelessly from it and access it remotely all the time, and haven't had any real issues with the performance. I've had no problems streaming 1080p video with DTS surround tracks to my Plex server that I have setup on a Mac Mini.

 

[Pachimari]

If you can't get the wireless working reliably, you might consider adding a powerline network to run the NAS on. I used one before I moved into my house with wired connections. That worked fine with 720p, and that was an older generation of the technology.

I might have to do something like this.

So I plug that into the the wall, and then an ethernet cable from the powerline to the router, and another from the router to my NAS?

 

[maeh2k]

I was close to pulling the trigger on the DS214 + 2 x 3TB drives, but now I'm questioning whether I even need two drives.

Raid1 adds some convenience in the case of a drive failure, but it also adds quite a bit to the cost. More importantly, if I want to store files on the NAS, Raid1 isn't a backup solution. I'd still have to back up the files on the NAS.

So maybe I should just go with a DS114 and then buy a sufficiently large external drive to backup the NAS to. If the drive in the NAS fails, it wouldn't be as convenient to get it back up and running, but how inconvenient could it really be, when you have everything backed up to the external drive?

Or maybe I should get the DS214 and start with only one disk and an external drive, so I'd retain the option of adding Raid later..

 

[Valkyr Junkie]

Why do you not consider a NAS running RAID1 as a backup solution, but you would consider it if the NAS is running a single drive plus an external drive? If a thief or natural disaster gets your NAS, presumably the external drive it's connected to is as good as gone as well.

 

[mike23]

Why do you not consider a NAS running RAID1 as a backup solution, but you would consider it if the NAS is running a single drive plus an external drive? If a thief or natural disaster gets your NAS, presumably the external drive it's connected to is as good as gone as well.

http://serverfault.com/questions/2888/why-is-raid-not-a-backup

 

[Valkyr Junkie]

http://serverfault.com/questions/2888/why-is-raid-not-a-backup

Right, it's just that Backup Manager on DSM to a permanently attached external drive isn't going to alleviate all of those concerns, while adding new ones (data between incremental backups will be lost in the event of a drive failure).

 

[maeh2k]

I think I'll definitely stick to one disk at first, since I don't need Raid. Now the question is whether I go for a DS114 or a DS214 with only one disk. The 214 would let me add another disk later on.

If I only buy one disk, I could go for a 4TB one. Any reason why either a 3TB or a 4TB is preferable over the other?

 

[industrian]

If I only buy one disk, I could go for a 4TB one. Any reason why either a 3TB or a 4TB is preferable over the other?

Price.

That and how much storage do you actually need. 3TB and 4TB is a lot of space.

 

[RSP]

I've got a couple of very silly questions, please do mock me if this is common knowledge, but I don't seem to find it using my searches.

#1 - Are there any NAS devices out there that server content to Apple TV?
#2 - What is a good way to help you decide what NAS to get? Are there any good side-by-side reviews out there? I cant seem to find any.

 

[mrklaw]

is there anything stopping you just using a normal windows 7 computer with some software?

I use a HP microserver with an adapter for the optical bay to give me 6 drives, and unraid. But it was a pain to set up. A normal PC case can hold tons of HDDs, and a nice cheap i3 setup would be handy for transcoding etc too.

 

[RSP]

is there anything stopping you just using a normal windows 7 computer with some software?

I use a HP microserver with an adapter for the optical bay to give me 6 drives, and unraid. But it was a pain to set up. A normal PC case can hold tons of HDDs, and a nice cheap i3 setup would be handy for transcoding etc too.

Well, I would like to keep size down to a minimum. I do have a spare PC that isn't used much but it's also nice to have something really small I can just put away and don't have to worry about too much.

 

[Got the Shakes]

I've got a couple of very silly questions, please do mock me if this is common knowledge, but I don't seem to find it using my searches.

#1 - Are there any NAS devices out there that server content to Apple TV?
#2 - What is a good way to help you decide what NAS to get? Are there any good side-by-side reviews out there? I cant seem to find any.

Synology can AirPlay video content directly to an AppleTV. There are some restrictions as to the file types that it can AirPlay though.

 

[RSP]

I'm seeing a lot of different versions, the one with "Play" in the name seems to feature hardware transcoding, which is nice. Any suggestions for what I should be looking for in terms of the model? I'll be using it primarily for streaming movies and series.

 

[rkn]

Had a near disaster and looking to see what my options are.

ReadyNAS NV+ (Sparc)
Running latest everything in their Raid-X config
4tb

Long story short, power went out, power supply was fried. Was able to purchase a mini itx ps and ghetto rig it to be back up and running, but I'm on edge about this setup.

Is my only option to put up the cash for a new NAS setup and transfer everything over one step at a time?

 

[maeh2k]

Do you guys know a great guide for setting up a Synology DiskStation?

There's so much functionality that I don't even know what I actually want to set up...
And I'm not so sure about all of the basics, either. E.g. how best to set up a system with a single drive -- how do I want to set up the Volume(s)?

 

[RangersFan]

Do you guys know a great guide for setting up a Synology DiskStation?

There's so much functionality that I don't even know what I actually want to set up...
And I'm not so sure about all of the basics, either. E.g. how best to set up a system with a single drive -- how do I want to set up the Volume(s)?

I've had my DS1513+ for almost 8 months now and I pretty much know I'm not nearly taking advantage of the many features it has. All I've done is setup folder shares for my music, movies, tv, and misc. and used the synology assist tool to map drives to windows explorer for seemless interface with windows. And it serves all my xbmc matricom g-box's, boxee box's, and sonos components throughout my house. Besides the occasional system update, I rarely go into the DSM to play around with it's features and settings. I tried to play around with I first got it but found myself lost with little info nor guides on their website and forums. It serves my purposes well but I'm sure there is some cool stuff I'm missing out on.

 

[Furyous]

I need help deciding between

asustor as-304t
http://www.asustor.com/product?p_id=17#

Vs

QNAP TS-569L

http://www.qnap.com/useng/index.php?lang=en-us&sn=862&c=355&sc=688&t=2752&n=13704&g=1

I need to set this up as an itunes server, media server, and use it with an HDTV via HDMI.

I don't need five drives but the only QNAP model that comes with an HDMI port AND external power supply is the 569L.

I'm open to any other solutions that don't break the bank past sub $600 options.

 

[diehard]

Can i ask why you need HDMI on the NAS? Wouldn't a cheaper 2 bay solution put in a room somewhere with wifi and things like WD TV Live's on your TV's not be a cheaper solution?

 

[Furyous]

Can i ask why you need HDMI on the NAS? Wouldn't a cheaper 2 bay solution put in a room somewhere with wifi and things like WD TV Live's on your TV's not be a cheaper solution?

I want to hook it up to an HDTV so I don't have to always have my computer on. I forgot to mention that I maxed out two 4 TB drives. I have another 2 TBs scattered across drives that span a decade so I need the storage. The only NAS that I found that comes with an HDMI port is the 569L and the 304-TE.

 

[Stumpokapow]

I want to hook it up to an HDTV so I don't have to always have my computer on. I forgot to mention that I maxed out two 4 TB drives. I have another 2 TBs scattered across drives that span a decade so I need the storage. The only NAS that I found that comes with an HDMI port is the 569L and the 304-TE.

Right, but he's saying that the better option would be to connect your NAS to your router and then using a set-top of box to access files off the NAS, rather than paying extra / getting a worse NAS for your money by trying to make it something a NAS doesn't typically do.

 

[RangersFan]

I would definitely go the NAS without HDMI route and just use a set top box to stream media to. No need to shell out extra for a NAS with HDMI. I suggest getting something like Matricom G-Box Midnight MX2 mini HTPC. XBMC will probably be better than any media player an HDMI NAS would offer I would imagine.

 

[industrian]

XBMC will probably be better than any media player an HDMI NAS would offer I would imagine.

QNAP uses XBMC.

However, if you're looking for a QNAP NAS with HDMI-out, get one from the x70 or x70 Pro series. I believe that the others suffer from tearing because of driver issues for Atom CPUs (the x70 Pros use an i3-3220, not sure about the CPU in the x70s.)

 

[diehard]

QNAP uses XBMC.

However, if you're looking for a QNAP NAS with HDMI-out, get one from the x70 or x70 Pro series. I believe that the others suffer from tearing because of driver issues for Atom CPUs (the x70 Pros use an i3-3220, not sure about the CPU in the x70s.)

Those are so expensive you might as well just build a HTPC

 

[maeh2k]

I want to back up multiple PCs to the DiskStation using Windows 7 backups and Windows 8 File History and I'm not sure how to properly configure the NAS.

I have created one volume for all the backups. Should I use one shared folder on that volume and use that for all backups? Or use one shared folder per machine? Or maybe give every user a private folder and use that?

If I had just one shared folder for all backups, would that lead to any conflicts between the backups of different machines? Would it have undesirable consequences when the volume is full? Should every machine have its own user for that shared folder?


Edit: unrelated question: today I mapped a shared folder as a network drive in Windows. I hadn't accessed the NAS in a while and it went to sleep. Then I shut down the PC an it seems like that somehow caused the NAS to wake up. What's up with that?

 

[industrian]

Those are so expensive you might as well just build a HTPC

A NAS/HTPC combo has its place, especially if you're not a PC gamer.

 

[diehard]

A NAS/HTPC combo has its place, especially if you're not a PC gamer.

I probably didn't phrase that well enough.

For less money you could build something like an Avoton + low wattage GPU and have var more versatility.

Add ECC for ZFS.. use hardware raid and windows.. ect.

Edit: unrelated question: today I mapped a shared folder as a network drive in Windows. I hadn't accessed the NAS in a while and it went to sleep. Then I shut down the PC an it seems like that somehow caused the NAS to wake up. What's up with that?

I believe Windows kills all associated handles on shutdown, and will wake up any drives to do it safely.

 

[Hammer24]

Hey guys, I think I need help! *pretty-please*

I´ve got a Buffalo LinkStation Quad Pro with 4x 3TB drives. I had set this to RAID5, so basically ~8.5 TB available, of which I used up ~6TB thus far.
Since yesterday I´ve got problems. Drive#3 is shown up as faulty, a red LED for the drive blinks.
What should I do now, as I do not want to lose my data!
- is there a way to try to save the drive?
- should I buy a replacement immediately?
- how to go about data recovery?

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!

 

[Knch]

Hey guys, I think I need help! *pretty-please*

I´ve got a Buffalo LinkStation Quad Pro with 4x 3TB drives. I had set this to RAID5, so basically ~8.5 TB available, of which I used up ~6TB thus far.
Since yesterday I´ve got problems. Drive#3 is shown up as faulty, a red LED for the drive blinks.
What should I do now, as I do not want to lose my data!
- is there a way to try to save the drive?
- should I buy a replacement immediately?
- how to go about data recovery?

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!

- Probably not. (Would need to know what's wrong with it)
- Yes.
- Remove old drive, insert new drive. And maybe tell your NAS to rebuild your raid (mine does so automagically.)

 

[Hammer24]

- Probably not. (Would need to know what's wrong with it)
- Yes.
- Remove old drive, insert new drive. And maybe tell your NAS to rebuild your raid (mine does so automagically.)

THX!
What are the chances to get it done without data loss?

 

[Knch]

What are the chances to get it done without data loss?

Raid 5 allows for one drive to fail, so you won't lose a thing.
(Running raid 6 myself, because I'm paranoid )

 

[Hammer24]

Raid 5 allows for one drive to fail, so you won't lose a thing.
(Running raid 6 myself, because I'm paranoid )

*fingers-crossed*

I´ll let you know how it went.

 

[Pachimari]

Now my HD movies are actually streaming well, now that I have my computer connected to the Internet with a cable.

But why do I have to connect to my NAS every single time I start up my computer? I have my movies located on my NAS, and then I map that folder with a letter, so I can see it in My Computer but I have to connect every time.

 

[industrian]

I probably didn't phrase that well enough.

For less money you could build something like an Avoton + low wattage GPU and have var more versatility.

Add ECC for ZFS.. use hardware raid and windows.. ect.

For guys like us who build their own stuff and like tinkering with stuff, yeah, that's what we'd probably do. I'm guessing that the average home user would feel better with something with a single RMA path and limited setup.

Now my HD movies are actually streaming well, now that I have my computer connected to the Internet with a cable.

But why do I have to connect to my NAS every single time I start up my computer? I have my movies located on my NAS, and then I map that folder with a letter, so I can see it in My Computer but I have to connect every time.

You mean you're getting a Windows prompt for a username and password?