My First NAS - Feedback Please

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MikeAqua

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#198014 22-Jun-2016 12:09

So I've wanted a NAS for a while.

For relatively simple stuff - storing/streaming music and the occasional movie (I'm not a big re-watcher) and backing up mobile devices, photos and important documents. Will be <1TB of data all up.

I want to start off small and simple.

So I've decided on a WD MyCloud, single disk 3TB unit. Seems like it will meet my needs, and allow some remote access which will be helpful.

But I'm struggling with back up.

I want to be able to back up photos, home videos and important documents (music, movies etc I can legally re-sync from the vendors' servers or have on mobile devices). There is about 300GB I currently back up.

I've looked at 2 disk systems with RAID backup, but this doesn't address my main concern: Physical loss of the device (Fire/Theft). Commercial NAS to Cloud services seem expensive. Free ones are limited in storage.

So I was thinking about getting a couple of 2TB USB drives. Back up the NAS onto one, take it to the office. plug the 2nd one in. Swap regularly. ~$250 to set up, which is equivalent to about 2 years of 1TB cloud storage.

Mike

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#1578291 22-Jun-2016 12:51

Yeah that has worked well for me in the past, just have to set up a reminder to swap the drives over.

I setup a scheduled task which fired whenever the USB drive was connected, and triggered a mirror copy

(Formatted the USB drive with encrypted file system too so didn't matter if it got stolen)

SumnerBoy

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#1578334 22-Jun-2016 13:54

Have you checked out Crashplan? They offer unlimited storage from one computer for about $65/yr. They have a data centre in Sydney too so the upload speeds are reasonable.

I think for $65 a year it is a pretty good deal and have been using it for 2-3yrs now. Works very well and they have clients for Windoze, Unix, iOS and Android.

I also have a local backup but for the very important stuff (docs, photos etc) I backup to Crashplan. Total of about 80GB at this stage.

300GB will take a while to seed but if you want guaranteed protection from fire/theft then a cloud based solution is the only way IMO. Swapping USB drives *regularly* becomes a real pain, you eventually forget, and even if you do it weekly, you still run the risk of losing a weeks worth of data.

My 2c.

MikeAqua

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#1578415 22-Jun-2016 15:53

Trouble with crash plan is it won't backup direct from the NAS, it has to go via a computer and I'm specifically trying to avoid doing that.

If I went with qNAP or Synology I could direct sync from NAS to Google Drive where I can buy 1TB for $10/month. Trouble is they cost more than twice as much as the MyCloud by the time I buy a drive as well.

I agree I'd be taking a risk with weekly USB backup. I don't have much data exposed in the space of a week though.

Maybe I need to shell out for a Synology or qNAP

SumnerBoy:

Have you checked out Crashplan? They offer unlimited storage from one computer for about $65/yr. They have a data centre in Sydney too so the upload speeds are reasonable.

...

300GB will take a while to seed but if you want guaranteed protection from fire/theft then a cloud based solution is the only way IMO. Swapping USB drives *regularly* becomes a real pain, you eventually forget, and even if you do it weekly, you still run the risk of losing a weeks worth of data.

Mike

SumnerBoy

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#1578417 22-Jun-2016 15:55

Yep fair enough - I managed to get the Crashplan jail running on my Freenas box so it all runs from there, but it was a bit of a PITA to get running and has the tendency to fall over whenever Crashplan update their apps.

Sideface

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#1578419 22-Jun-2016 15:57

MikeAqua: <snip> Maybe I need to shell out for a Synology or qNAP <snip>

Good idea - do it right

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MikeAqua

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#1578443 22-Jun-2016 16:33

Yeah but lot more complicated, which is where I got lost and gave up last time I looked this.

Can anyone recommend a trans-coding capable 1-2 bay NAS?

Sideface:

MikeAqua: <snip> Maybe I need to shell out for a Synology or qNAP <snip>

Good idea - do it right

Mike

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#1578465 22-Jun-2016 16:59

MikeAqua:

<snip> Can anyone recommend a trans-coding capable 1-2 bay NAS? <snip>

Do you need 4k video? [if so, you need a more powerful NAS CPU]

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jonb

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#1578469 22-Jun-2016 17:04

There was another thread last month about whether you need a NAS powerful enough to transcode video for streaming.

In most instances you don't need that capability - e.g. you can watch from your phone, ipad, laptop and probably tv by just directly playing the file over the network.

SumnerBoy

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#1578471 22-Jun-2016 17:05

VLC for Android now has network streaming - so you can browse directly to your NAS shares and play on your phone/tablet.

MikeAqua

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#1578478 22-Jun-2016 17:18

The NAS will be in the office but I'll be watching video on TV in the lounge.

Via a Plex client app on my BD player (Samsung Smart Hub) or via a Plex phone App and Chromecast.

Plex's site has lot of references to making sure your NAS can transcode, so I got the impression it was important.

2K/4K isn't required. 1080 would suffice.

Another use of the NAS would be streaming audio to my Onkyo network receiver which is a dLNA player.

Edit: Remote access would be nice but not essential.

Mike

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#1578610 22-Jun-2016 19:30

SYNOLOGY DISKSTATION DS216PLAY, 2-BAY NAS SERVER

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YadaMe

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#1578847 23-Jun-2016 09:43

DIY openmediavault.com.

Just set mine up and works well. Running on an old pc, with 1 old HDD for the system and 3x 2tb HDD in raid 5. Tried FreeNAS but more work than I was willing to put in trying to figure out jails etc.

Running SMB, Plex, Bittorrent etc

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#1579010 23-Jun-2016 13:13

Rappelle:

Sideface:

SYNOLOGY DISKSTATION DS216PLAY, 2-BAY NAS SERVER

Plex says transcoding is not supported on this NAS

Can my Synology NAS transcode videos for my device?

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MikeAqua

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#1580950 27-Jun-2016 11:02

I think this is where I gave up last time I looked at this

Synology says the 216 Play can transcode 4K (reviewers agree).

Plex says it doesn't even transcode 1080 with their software ... so maybe plex is the issue in this instance.

Synology offer their own media server app for NAS, so maybe I can just use that.

I know my BD player (BD-E5500) can see computers on our home network and is a DLNA client so maybe that will work with a NAS ...

Mike

MikeAqua

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#1581736 28-Jun-2016 10:14

Can you back up direct to cloud with that model?

I like the HDMI output- how much noise does the unit make?

Rappelle:

On another note, I picked up a QNAP TS-251+ in the weekend which I've set up, and works perfectly so far. Have had movies running on TV, computer and phone.

Mike

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