Which NAS do you use?

[Geebee]

I attached the WD NetCenter to my router. Works perfectly. Silent, no fan!

• WD Caviar SE 7,200 RPM hard drive inside for fast, quiet and cool operation without a fan
• 10/100Base-T Ethernet connection
• Common Internet File System (CIFS) for platform-independent file sharing
• Two hot-swappable USB host ports
• WD EasyLink utility to set up WD NetCenter as a local drive on any computer on the network
• WD NetCenter Manager software to easily view system status, share folders and printers, create and resize volumes
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) client for automatic assignment of TCP/IP addresses
• Automatic power management when the WD NetCenter hard drive is idle
• Kensington security slot

[wylistener]

Originally Posted by gbdesai

I use several including:

- Buffalo Terastation 1.0TB RAID5 with 750GB usable
- Infrant ReadyNas 1.6TB RAID5 with 1.2TB usable
- Fire-n-Ice IceCube 2.0TB RAID5 with 1.6TB usable (again not a NAS requires a host PC through USB2.0)
- Acuta-4 RAID5 with 750MB usable (not suggested as it is not a NAS requires PC)

Any company make a NAS with both gigabit and built-in wireless 802.11g? Iomega announced one in April 2006 but I avoid Iomega products.

[dbarthelfl]

Using 400gb Buffalo Linkserver as NAS and video server for wired DVD players. Will be adding Infrant Raid5 in the near future, too.

[georgemd]

WD Netcenter 250 Plugged into Ethernet port on Sonos Zone Player 100 which is plugged to the ethernet port on an Apple Extreme Airport Wireless router running off the iTunes Library (Mac OSX)

Works Great!

When Sonos 1st arrived, I ran it off the iTunes Folder from my Mac. It worked great but it didn't take me long to figure out that this was sub-optimal since I needed to keep the Mac on 24/7. Not to mention I have 3 Macs and 2 PC's to deal with and the Mac is loud. I was completely impatient to get it set up "right," so I did NO homework, didn't price shop and was unwilling to wait for an internet delivery. I ran out to my local Circuit City, they showed me 3 or 4 options and I walked out with a WD Netcenter 250. Works Great! Since I'm only using it to stream music, 250 Gb is sufficient (for now) and gigabit ethernet is unecessary. Hook up was "plug-n-play" easy. I dropped my iTunes folder into it. Redirected my iTunes Preferences and was done. Just don't forget to list the drive in the Login items under user Accounts (in OSX) so that if you restart your computer you won't have to remount the drive.

Edit: Now that I have liberated my music library from my Mac and I am playing it on my Audio System, I have come to the sobering realization that AAC files are not adequate. I started to re-upload my CD's using AIFF. (I tried WAV but it didn't work well with iTunes- could not add album art to WAV in iTunes and it was not transferring the files to Sonos). I will therefore be needing a much larger drive Maybe ALAC is a good compromise IF someone can convince me that it is truely "lossless." I don't want to have to upload my music library a 3rd time. To my ears, AIFF and ALAC seem to sound different (?placebo?).

Otherwise, WD Netcenter drive still working great!

[dlipetz]

I had been using a Buffalo LinkStation 250GB unit for a bit over a year. While mostly satisfied, I had noticed that the unit wouldn't retain its time and date setting which was a real nuisance, but one I was willing to live with. Then things got worse...

Started to notice that applications were not finding files that I knew were on the NAS. This led to my NAS isolating itself on the network in that no other devices could see it other than it's own Web-based admin screen. Going there was futile though, as I was no longer able to save any configuration changes to the LinkStation. This was not looking good at all. While I had a recent backup of my music library on 14 DVD+R DL discs, my photo library hadn't been backed up in months nor were other data shares.

Speaking with Buffalo tech support was futile. While they tried to be helpful, they conceded that my LinkStation was dead (although the data MAY be on the drive) and offered an RMA for a replacement unit. But wait! I was one month out of warranty so all they could do was send me URL links to sites that show how to disassemble the LinkStation and mount the drive in a PC for an attempt at data recovery.

I was able to install the LinkStation drive in my Windows PC but found that the recommended software to mount the drive would not read it due to unwritten packets or some such in some sort of journal. No go.

Searching the internet, I was able to find another utility (UFS Explorer) that was able to access the drive. This utility worked at a snails pace, but I believe this was due to the apparent fact that a portion of the file system (or drive) was in fact hosed.

Anyway, I was able to recover about 80% of my photo library though it took many hours over several days to do so. I do consider myself lucky.

Having gone through one catastrophic failure, I decided that any NAS I purchase must be able to support a USB attached drive of equivalent capacity and have an integrated backup system to automatically copy the NAS data to the USB drive at specified intervals.

So now I had the task of replacing the Buffalo LinkStation. Do I dare purchase another Buffalo product? What else it out there? I read about the new Buffalo LinkStation Pro and was prepared to purchase one until I found out that it would not be available for several months. Looked at the Western Digital units and was ready to place my order. Their admin screens looked slick and WD has a good reputation so I was ready to bite. Call WD just to make sure that the unit would meet my requirements and was convincingly told that there was no way to automatically backup the NAS to an attached USB drive. I was incredulous but not willing to take the risk so I moved on.

Finally, I stumbled across a review of a brand new NAS from Plextor. I have Plextor DVD drives and have been very satisfied with them. The reviews were very positive with the only downside being the visual quality (and grammar) of the admin UI. The Plextor has configurable backup routines in firmware so I made the purchase along with a 250GB WD My Book USB external hard drive.

I've now had this combo operational for a couple of weeks and I am quite satisfied. The Plextor NAS is dead quiet as it has no fan. It seems much faster than my old Buffalo unit and is contained in a very sturdy metal housing. The admin UI is a little clunky but that can easily be fixed by a future firmware upgrade. Backups to the WD take many hours even with just 110GB of data but all works as advertised.

I don't want to jinx this setup, but the Plextor NAS really seems like a terrific device and I'm happy I made that selection.

Take my story as a lesson... If you don't backup your NAS or have a fault tolerant solution, you are asking for trouble.

One more word of caution: Using Roxio Retrieve to restore my music library from the 14 DVD+R DL discs, ALL of my top level folder names (AlbumArtist level) were restored in all UPPERCASE, not the specific case in which they were created. This is definitely a Roxio software issue, but Sonos is case sensitive and refused to display meta data from all playlists created from WMP. WMP doesn't care about case so it writes the path in all lower case, but since the folders are actually in all upper case, SONOS doesn't see them (finds and plays the tracks, but will not diplay the meta data).

I actually reported this issue to SONOS before the last software release as it reared it's head in a slightly different manner. I called SONOS again on this issue and they indicated it was on a list of considerations for future releases but wasn't sure if and when it would be fixed. By fixed, I mean that SONOS should not be sensitive to case as the Windows products it interacts with are not. Bottom line for me was having to manually rename every folder.

[wylistener]

Originally Posted by dlipetz

So now I had the task of replacing the Buffalo LinkStation. Do I dare purchase another Buffalo product? What else it out there?

Although it's not a NAS, I use SATAVault in RAID1 configuration for continuous safety. It's very slick because the RAID is done via a chip inside the drive enclosure---no hardware and/or software drivers to install on the computer. I can attach the RAID box to any laptop or a desktop without special RAID cards, etc.

For my particular setup, I rotate among 3 Western Digtal 400gb drives. I mount 2 drives in the SATAVault and they stay continously mirrored. Once a week, I swap out one drive with the 3rd one. It then takes about 2 hours to resync/rebuild the swapped drive.

So you can see, with this setup, you'll have "2" backups: one backup that's synchronized up to the millesecond and another backup that's---at most---a week old (or however often you decide to swap out drives). (I also backup to 400gb tapes and store them offsite but that's another set of details.)

For some, this is overkill. In my case, the data on my drives (music, photos, business files, document scans, etc) has been accumulated since 1989---it's my ENTIRE life. The data would be impossible to reconstruct. Spending the extra $$$ for a fault-tolerant solution was a no-brainer. I think the SATAVault is the best setup for a home user with critical data to protect; I'm amazed it's not given more publicity. The Infrant ReadyNAS NV and Buffalo Terastation get more discussion on the net but those boxes are too slow (even with gigabit LAN).

The SATAVault performance is extremely fast because it's a external SATA (eSATA) connection to the computer. I also plan on upgrading from the 3 WD 400gb to 3 Seagate 750gb drives within a few weeks.

In context of Sonos, the SATAVault may not be workable for some folks (fans, noise, not a NAS and needs a host computer, etc). It's an option worth considering.

http://www.satadrives.com/dusahadrhara.html

...The Plextor NAS is dead quiet as it has no fan....

I'm not convinced yet than relying on passive convection is workable. It seems that the #1 cause of drive failure is heat. With this in mind, I put extra fans in cases dedicated to blowing air over the harddrives. I currently have 15 WD 400gb, 3 Seagate 400gb, and a couple of Maxtors---none have failed. I've not had a single drive failure in 5+ years. The last drive failure I had was the infamous IBM DeskStart 75GXP. (I hope I didn't jinx myself now.) I think today's drives still run too hot to optimistically think that fans aren't required.

[personalnerd]

We've historically used the Buffalo products. We've had a few issues over the last year or so. Although more expensive than Buffalo, we've moved to the Infrant NAS Server NV. Some really nice features. Very flexible. Great backup capabilities. easy to expand.

[Brazza]

Hi

To copy music I just used WMP

For the NAS I have a Buffalo Linkstation 120 and it didn't take long for that fan to start making noise. So removed the cover (there are two little screws beneath the mirror polish front, but a little force and the strap comes off!). Fan is now hanging beside the Linkstation (very close but not touching anything) blowing its air into the now "convertible" Linkstation - Has been fine through this hot weather - and NO NOISE.

Didn't want to send it back as backing up to a very old, with small HD, PC was not an option.

On close examination of the buffalo there does seem to be a design fault with how the fan is secured (sandwiched between the two halves of the case) which, with manufacturing tolerances, twist the little fan.

So go on you know you want to (but it will void the warranty!!)

[dlipetz]

Originally Posted by Brazza

Hi

To copy music I just used WMP

For the NAS I have a Buffalo Linkstation 120 and it didn't take long for that fan to start making noise. So removed the cover (there are two little screws beneath the mirror polish front, but a little force and the strap comes off!). Fan is now hanging beside the Linkstation (very close but not touching anything) blowing its air into the now "convertible" Linkstation - Has been fine through this hot weather - and NO NOISE.

Didn't want to send it back as backing up to a very old, with small HD, PC was not an option.

On close examination of the buffalo there does seem to be a design fault with how the fan is secured (sandwiched between the two halves of the case) which, with manufacturing tolerances, twist the little fan.

So go on you know you want to (but it will void the warranty!!)

http://www.natfairbanks.com/

[Stuberman]

Has anyone installed the new Maxtor Fusion NAS box? From the release literature it seems to be an incredible product that will support not only Sonos, but also serve as a personal web server to serve up my internet website.

I would appreciate hearing of anyone's experiences with the Maxtor Fusion. I made the mistake of buying a Buffalo Linkstation, against the advice of the folks at Sonos, a year and a half ago. No amount of tech support from the Buffalo folks could get it up and running. I just don't want to make the same mistake again as the Maxtor Fusion is a fairly pricey product.