Advice on Network attached Storage??

Off-topic Chatter
4

You can do nice local backup system with “Synology drive” (PC <-> synolgy) + “Hyper backup” (inside synology) with synology (they come free with synology DS220+)

We used WD RED PRO disks on synology (they OK) so cant comment Seagate IronWolf drives

Dont understand your home-work situation. My experience are that you can somthing do over internet but there allways big latency (big internet speed dont help) so you cant do normal work with bigger (not needed be very big) files or databases. And all “cloud” solutions are that you work with local file and they are syncronised (for checking from big brother :slight_smile: ) to someplace after that

5

Since I started out with Hollerith Cards, you can’t accuse me of pushing the IT envelope every day.
But you are talking about speed, redundancy, and safety.
I missed the term Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).
Making lots of backups is fine, but you need to have just that extra bit of time, and energy, to do so.

Bring it to me softly, if I just hurt my knee by kicking in an open door. :wink:

6

Great thread! I’m building a house with CAT8 going from every room to a network room in my basement. Planning on putting a NAS down there and a WiFi 6E 10 gig router. Dealing with my slow mofo wifi network right now. Going to put repeaters all over the house with Ethernet backhaul

I also learned that people often back up their NAS. This one looks good for $10 a month

Here’s a review of some other options 5 Best Cloud Backup For Synology 2023 [SFR NAS Alternatives]

7

I ordered the nas and the drives. One thing I am unclear about though. Can I plug two computers directly into that and have them share one drive. Or do I need some kind of adapter? I don’t want to do anything over the internet. I want all of it hard wired.

This is the Nas
https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Bay-DiskStation-DS220-Diskless/dp/B087ZCBWFH/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=Synology%2Bnas&qid=1613189844&sr=8-4&th=1#

8

The NAS attaches to the router/switch just like your PCs do. You don’t connect the computers directly to the NAS. In some cases you can attach one PC via USB but then it wouldn’t be “network attached storage.”

9

WIFI 6 and Cat 8 are not standards. By the time they become standards (if they ever do) the specifications will have likely changed.

10

I only used NASes for bulk storage, as big as I could reasonably afford (back a ways, 4/6/8TB). Hooked up right to the back of my router, accessible from any ’puter that got onto my net. Could be wired, too.

Then I found that as long as the drives were powered, I could hook up plain ol’ external USB drives to the back of the router, too. It’d even work on usb flash-thingies, but not usb spinny-disks.

I’m still using the same WD routers even today, going uninterrupted for who knows how many years, 24/7. Yeah, WD as in Western Digital, they actually made routers, too. And pretty good, too. Dual-band 2.4Ghz and 5GHz, iirr.

Drives, I always stuck with WD NASes (RAIDable, too). So an 8TB drive with 2 physical 4TB drives inside could be configured as a single 8TB drive, or RAIDed as a single redundant 4TB drive. RAID0, RAID1, whatever that is.

Now I pretty much just stick to external USB drives, Seagate and WD.

Oh, I keep things separate, too. One router is JUST internal, zero connection to the outside world, airgapped, wifi disabled, wired-access only. Another router has 2 networks set up, one internal-only but via wifi, the other that plus innernet access. Airgapped network has zero connection to that.

I might stick a small external usb drive onto the wifi router just for movies and the like, but that’s it.

Anyway, whichever way you want to do it — wired and airgapped, wifi internal, wifi all-access — whatever’s tweaked on one drive will be accessible to everything else on that net instantly… unless things are buffered, or there are “lazy writes”, etc.

11

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I think this is basically what I am after. If I purchase a second router and have no internet connection to it. Plug the NAS and my 2x PCs into that, then only the computers that are plugged into that second router directly will have access to the drives right? Even though those computers are both connected to my wifi using my original house router no one else would be able to access any of the drives etc?

Alternatively if I were to plug everything in to my existing router using lan cables then anyone who connected to the Wifi would have access to the NAS? Or can it be setup so only computers I choose have access? Trying to determine risk factor here……….

12

We must not forget. The NAS is a computer. It just does not look like one. As such, it has permissions and other forms of security that can be set. So its not that easy for just anyone to go on your network and see your files. As for the router, I personally use a guest network for any computers that need internet access that I don’t personally own. The guest network does not allow any browsing to the local area network. There are many ways to accomplish the same thing.

13

Yeah CAT8 will get you up to 40 Gbps but the only widely available hardware that’s not super expensive is 10 gigabit

I thought about going with fiber which can go to 100 gig and even beyond but the idiot who’s building my house didn’t want to wire it at all and then he wanted to use CAT5.

Here’s some info on the new Wifi 6e

14

As to the first part, I think that’s correct. Those computers (only) would have access to the internal network, and no one from the outside should. Possible to get hacked, ie, once the computer itself is compromised, it might sniff around and see what else is connected, but that’s kinda remote.

But you never know, nowadays.

As to the second part, pretty much.

You could connect to the internal-only wifi channel, ie, innernet disabled.

You could connect to the full-access wifi channel, ie, internal network and innernet.

You could enable “guest” mode, ie, innernet only and (ideally) no access to the internal network.

As for me, when I’m not using the NASes, I keep ’em powered off to save wear’n’tear. It’s only when I want to dump more stuff down the hole that I even power it up.

15

Yeh, the WD NASes have small Linux boards inside, and you could actually SSH right in.

16

That’s great info, thanks. They have helium filled 18 TB drives now but I’ll probably go with SSDs. Right now I have a difficult time streaming 4K video to my Nvidia shield across my wifi network

Thinking of doing RAID 6 to avoid losing stuff that can’t be replaced (family photos, etc.) and then doing an offsite backup

17

I just RDP to what ever computer I need to pull the file and keep on trucking…

All these fancy NAS, extra computers, supper routers and stuff with the Network sharing going on. What, do you guys live in 2021?

It is ok, I just don’t worry about sharing things across the network at home. My needs are generally all on one computer and several tablets and 2 TVs that I can watch youtube how to vids…

18

Someone mentioned it.
But don’t forget UPSs. For the router, NAS, and, PC.
They are not sexy hardware, but a decent UPS is the best gift you can give a network where data integrity is paramount.
And airgap is a good thing. If you can see the Web. The Web can see you.
All the Best,
Jeff

19

Great advice! Any recommendations for a good large heavy duty UPS?

20

I have a Cyberpower GX1325U that has my computer, modem, router, and NAS all hooked up to it. I wanted to get a pure sine UPS so that’s why I chose said model.

21

APC is not what it used to be but probably still the best.

22

I only have experience with QNAP. It's very reliable and has lots of features. My first NAS is still running since 12 years ago.

23

APC used to be The Fæces, but lost its lustre a while ago. Things check out, even the self-test, but pull the plug, and it can’t detect a dead battery (even though the self-test says everything’s fine) and the stuff just drops dead from no power.

And you’d have to replace the Pb-acid batteries every coupla years at worst if you wanted protection.

I got (for no other reason than it was on sale) a Cyberpower or something like that. Surge suppressors for network cable, coax, usb, other stuff. Seemed pretty robust, but it’s well out of the way and I can’t get to it, so who knows the condition of the battery inside.

What I personally think should be best would be to have a bank of raw 12VDC power, and everything and its grandmother that takes 12VDC input (external usb drives, routers, NASes, cablemodems, you name it) gets plugged into that, and separately would be all 120VAC stuff that needs AC power would run off the inverter. Rather than have the battery inside and generally inaccessible, you could have a bus-battery for power and keep crap going overnight in case of a power failure, if you wanted to.

In fact, one idea I had (never implemented, though) was just that, all my NASes and external drives in a vented/cooled cabinet, all fed off the same 12V rail, with battery backup and an ATX supply providing the bulk 12V. Let the battery trickle charge when not needed, but kick in and switch over within microseconds if the ATX would lose AC input.