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.”
WIFI 6 and Cat 8 are not standards. By the time they become standards (if they ever do) the specifications will have likely changed.
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.
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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……….
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.
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
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.
Yeh, the WD NASes have small Linux boards inside, and you could actually SSH right in.
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
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…
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
Great advice! Any recommendations for a good large heavy duty UPS?
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.
APC is not what it used to be but probably still the best.
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.
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.
I used to be an APC fan. In fact I was an authorized dealer for a while. .
But of late the consumer level APC have not impressed me. I have old APCs from DOS 3 era still going strong. But I have ones from 5 years ago that are now junkers. The are not correctly charging the batts.
Cyberpower is what I have been recommending of late in the consumer side.
With Cyberpower you need to check the Web site to see what replacement batteries the things use.
The 1500VA (at least the ones I know about) use a pair of 12v 7AH (or 8AH) batts.
These are common and you can make up a pack easy and not have to pay for a high dollar OEM replacement pack.
All sorts of equipment uses these things.
Some of the 1350VA UPS use 12v SH7 size. Think 3/4 the length, taller, and thicker than the 12v 8AH.
Nobody has those things locally. So you get stuck with shipping a lead cell.
So it’s worth paying the extra to get a UPS that uses a common sized battery.
The UPS will last for years, but you will be replacing the frigging batteries ever 3 years or so.
I keep threatening to make up a LiFe UPS, with a good BMS. But the darn things are so expensive.
If you want long run times, you can always makeup an external lead-acid battery pack and cobble it into a source for a consumer UPS.
All the Best,
Jeff
Electronics fail eventually, capacitors etc. Can’t blame APC for that. They used to be the gold standard though.
I wasn’t really joking all that much about using a bus-battery. One of my old… 150VA? 200VA?… whatever was the cheapest long’n’skinny APCs with just the lit rocker-switch up front, no other lights… I couldn’t find a replacement battery that wouldn’t cost as much as a whole new UPS (ain’t kidding), so I drilled a hole in the little trapdoor on the bottom, and used quick-connects to run nice thick wires out of the now scarily-light carcass and to a spare car-battery I had. (Car took something like an 80AH but the “emergency” one I got from the boneyard was only 60AH or so.)
Worked great, lots more runtime even if not that much oomf.
Back when the only competition they had was TrippLite and that other brand that slips my mind. It was all about quality in the mid-high level single workstation UPSs. Like the SMART 1500s and the XL versions with more batteries. These things refuse to die.
The little flat jobbies that sit on the floor are good for a few battery replacements. But I’ve had too many fail in clients systems to recommend them for critical stuff.
The APC enterprise type UPS are still worth looking at, but are way too expensive and who wants to deal with a UPS that arrives on a pallet?
I also like that you can get a Sine wave output in some of the Cyberpower UPSs at reasonable prices. An O-Scope shot of some older cheap UPSs was an eye opener. Yet still they kept the systems running.
I do have some failed Cyberpower units at the shop. Often it is the LED display that get flaky. One had BMS problems and couldn’t’ be trusted not to over cook the batts.
But none have caught fire and burst into flames like an APC that was on a server several years ago.
It was out of warranty, but still I expected something more from APS other than, well, you are SOL. Buy another.
Then again, I bet I’ve sold 20 or 30 APCs to 1 Cyberpower, so my sample base is skewed.
The problem I face with most users is what to do when the power actually fails. Depending on the battery capacity, a smaller UPS is really only good for giving you (or the OS) time to shut down in an orderly manner.
They are not designed to let you keep working for the next hour.
Another benefit of UPSs is power conditioning. When the guy with the welder comes online next door, the UPS will protect against brownouts and the like.
And LB, I’ve got a pair of deep cycle truck batts powering my test bench power. I don’t want to be shut down in the middle of a data recover run that I may only get one chance at.
All the Best,
Jeff