NAS Drive Newb

[jprb85]

I am a NAS drive newb, and have a few questions. Basically what I want to do is to create an back-up storage website where I can back-up all of my files and be able to download and upload the files from practically anywhere. I know that I can do this with a webhost, but for a variety of reasons, I want to have my own server.

With sites such as www.dyndns.com, I can get a free domain name, but I have to provide my own server like a NAS.

I would greatly appreciate if you could help me decide how to pick out a NAS server.

The primary concerns that I have are speed, reliability, and storage space.

I have heard that some DNS and NAS servers have a maximum upload speed of about 60 kBps which is too slow for me. I want to be able to upload files onto the server at the maximum download capacity of my internet router, and download files from it at the maximum upload capacity of my internet router.

I need it to be reliable. I do not want it to be down unless the power is turned off.

Finally, I would like to put several hundred GB up to a potential few TB of storage space in it.

Any and all help is appreciated.

 

[b1lk1]

I can't help you with the server, but there is no way you will ever be able to upload at the same speed you download. if you're lucky, you could maybe get 1-2K Kbps upload whereas 10K Kbps dowwnload speeds are becoming common.

 

[Rob Williams]

I use DynDNS and it works well.. you just need to sign up for the account and then edit the functions on your router appropriately. I'd give in-depth instructions, but I am near-clueless about it right now. I've done it once or twice and don't recall anything.. just that it was a little tricky in spots.

Essentially, the NAS will need to be accessible from the internet, so it needs to have the ability to be set up as a server, not just a network device. Perhaps Greg would be able to jump in here about this...

What I do is set up my main computer (Linux) as a server with SSH. I can access files and everything else through that one server. I am not sure if things like Apache/SQL are possible on a NAS though. I could be wrong.

 

[Greg King]

Are you looking for full server capabilities or simply a way to access your files at home remotely? When you say that you want to do a backup storage website, I assume that you are talking about an FTP. If not, there aren't a lot of NAS devices that will allow you to host a full website. If that is what you are after, any of the Synology enterprise NAS devices will do you well as they offer Apache and SQL serving capabilities.

This Synology DS207 that I have been working with can take up to 2TB of space (1x 1TB drives in RAID 0.) If you are looking for protected redundancy, you can always step up to the big 4 and 5 bay NAS devices from companies such as Thecus, Synology, Netgear and many more.

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, please feel free to stop back in and ask.

Thanks.