Considerations when Choosing a Network Attached Storage (NAS)
Device:
Over the
last few years Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, have
become a better and more cost effective way of storing and backing up your
Data. Due to larger and cheaper Hard Drives, NAS devices are no longer a Business
only solution costing thousands of dollars. Obviously the cost of storage would
depend on the importance and amount of the DATA being stored. For home and small
business use NAS would be the best way to go, for some of the following reasons:
1. Set up
is less complicated now compared to previous devices.
2. Running
costs are lower than running a dedicated Server.
3. Hard
Drives are cheaper, allowing better and more secure storage.
4. A NAS can
be at any location on your network.
5. No need
for a PC to be running before anyone can open shared files.
6. The
ability to store and backup data in a central secure location.
7. Better security
and control over file shares and services.
Although
some points are not relevant for all NAS devices, depending on what you are
trying to achieve. Advanced features on NAS devices require a reasonable amount
of knowledge, to configure in a secure and reliable way.
A few examples of typical NAS
setups:
A home user with one Computer and maybe a Laptop
or Smartphone, no security issues like Wireless or other devices that will be
connected to the network.
This home
user is just looking for an easy way of transferring and storing non critical
data. A simple NAS would do the trick, simple file shares would be setup on the
NAS for allowing the data to be seen on the network. Maybe if wanting a little
more, would be looking at a NAS with dual Hard Drive capability for added data
protection, using raid etc.
An Average home user would be someone that has multiple
Computers on the network, a Wireless connection for hand held devices like
Tablets and Smartphone's. Also streaming Music, Pictures and Movies to TV's and
Media Players etc. Has people often coming onto the premises that bring devices.
This
becomes a lot more complicated, security now becomes something to think about.
The NAS would have to be capable of many more features, for supporting all the
different devices on the network. Also
the NAS would need to be able to keep up with all the activity on the Network.
Could be a case of looking for a NAS that supports 4 or more Hard Drives and
has 2 Network Interfaces.
An advanced home user would be someone that may run a
small business from home. At this point security would be a much bigger issue,
especially if still wanting to stream media etc.
Careful
planning would be needed in this situation, if a Server is in place for the
Business then maybe a Backup location is needed to a NAS. Or maybe the NAS is
the only required Storage on the network with no Server present. Keeping the
home users and business separate on the network may be required, or maybe a
second NAS for the business could be the easier option. A NAS Server PC could
be the best solution at this point allowing more flexibility, but does require
a lot more Computer Knowledge.
As you can
see, choosing a NAS Device is not a one fits all solution, Considering what NAS
storage device to buy requires a fair amount of research. Some come with Hard
Drives, some without. Most NAS devices now days come with similar features, but,
I say similar not the same. I would say when considering a NAS device start by
writing a list of things you may want to use it for on any device.
1. TV -
Streaming movies, Photos
2. DVD
Player - Streaming movies, Photos
3. Tablet
PCs/ Smart Phones etc, viewing documents, Movies, Photos, Backup Data
4. Media
Centre, Streaming Movies, Photos, Music.
5. PC, Sharing
and storing files, backup data.
Backing up Data ...
With a NAS
device you have many ways of backing up data from your PC's.
One of the
simplest would simply be storing all of your data on the NAS device. If the
data is not important that may be the only thing needed.
Another
option would be to have the PCs run a Scheduled backup that copies all your
data to the NAS. With many software options available for this, some research would
be required to find the best solution for your Network.
File Storage ...
File
storage options on you Network would depend on what devices you are running.
Windows
networks generally use Server Message Block (SMB) and Common Internet File System (CIFS).
Linux PCs can
support various file sharing methods, NFS, SAMBA and SMB etc.
Mac devices
use various methods depending on what MAC devices you are using.
So as you
can see it is important before buying a NAS that you look at all aspects of
your network.
Streaming Media ...
Streaming media
to devices it not that hard, still it needs to be considered. The more devices
that will be using the NAS at any one time can mean unreliable media streaming.
You may have gigabit network cards and switch etc, but streaming large files
over a network, to multiple devices at the same time. This requires a fairly
reliable network and network hardware, including the Network interfaces on the
end devices.
UPnP and DLNA ...
Most NAS devices
now days support UPnP, many support another service called DLNA. These services
can help with the streaming of media to devices on your networked, but they are
in no way the only thing to consider, for example..
UPnP will
help all your UPnP compliant devices discover each other on the network, your
UPnP compliant TV will see your UPnP NAS server. Meaning you will be able to
browse though any Media shared on that device fairly easily. The main problem now
being that every device supports different media formats, with many formats
available now days the chances are the device may not play the media.
People then
start looking at other services like DLNA as an alternative to this problem,
but DLNA is just another standard, pushing out media to devices on a network.
UPnP is the method used for compliant devices to find each other on the
Network. UPnP will allow you to find file shares on another UPnP device, or
stream media between UPnP compliant devices.
DLNA is simply another service that runs along side UPnP, putting it simply,
without UPnP, DLNA would not function.
There are
advantages of using DLNA, but these do no include the ability to play all file
formats, presented by your NAS and DLNA Server. The main advantage of a DLNA
Server, instead of having to look through all the shared folders, DLNA sorts
your media into Audio, Pictures and Movies "more or less" for you. This sounds simple and great,
but in my experience with DLNA I have personally found it to be problematic.
DLNA is
easy to get running as you would expect on a NAS server, but it is not
that easy to have it present all your
media in a nice format. This requires a very well organised media collection,
or your media will just be presented to your Devices as a big mess. Most likely
even harder to find media than searching via directories.
Once you
have a DLNA Server presenting all the files to your devices, the next thing you
may see, depending on the DLNA you are running. When you click on a media file
presented by the DLNA server it may not play on the device. Unlike browsing for
media on a UPnP device, where say the TV will only show the compatible media
format, DLNA will present all media formats to the TV.
At this
point you only really have a few options:
1 Convert
all the media you have to a format supported by most of your devices.
2 Setup a
stand alone Media Player that will play most media formats like (XBMC)
3 Look at
running a DLNA Media Server that can Transcode the media to a supported format
for the devices.
To be
honest, in past experience I have found it easier to run a media player that
can play most file formats, rather than trying to covert all media to specific
file formats. Transcoding the media can work but requires a reliable Transcoder
application, it can be a pain to get running nicely as it does require a fair
amount of processing power.