Access your data from anywhere on your network
Do you have more than one computer on your home or small office network? Would you like to share your data between these computers?
The two best solutions for this need are to set up Windows Simple File Sharing or set up a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device.
With Windows File Sharing you make a folder on one computer available to other computers on your network. The other computer(s) can read and (if you allow it) write to this folder. You can, if you wish, do this on each of the computers so that each one is sharing one or more folders, or you can let all the computers use the shared space on only one computer (the server).
Setting up Windows File Sharing is beyond the scope of this article. Plenty of web sites describe setting up file sharing, including PracticallyNetworked.com and Microsoft.com.
One of the disadvantages of using a general purpose computer as your file server is that computer must be up all the time -- or, at least, any time you might want to access your files! If you're going to have something running all the time, you might be better off with a special-purpose, simple, energy-efficient server: A Network Attached Storage, or NAS, device.
A NAS device is dedicated to providing data storage space for computers on your network, and giving access to the data stored on that device. NAS devices can be purchased for as little as under $100, or as much as several thousand dollars. Spending more money typically gives you more reliability, more storage space, and faster data transfer. For a typical small office, a $200 to $400 investment in hardware can give you basic file storage and retrieval, file sharing, and data backup capability.
"But wait," you say, "why can't I just use one of those inexpensive USB hard drives for storage and backup?" You can do that, but USB drive space isn't easily shared between computers. You can share them with Windows File Sharing, but then you're back to the situation where you need to keep the general purpose computers running to access the data attached to them. What's more, many of the external USB disks spin constantly rather than idling down when they are not being used, so your disks are likely to wear out faster. Where will you be when your data backup device fails?
There are roughly four classes of NAS products:
As you research NAS products, look for these attributes:
- JB
The two best solutions for this need are to set up Windows Simple File Sharing or set up a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device.
With Windows File Sharing you make a folder on one computer available to other computers on your network. The other computer(s) can read and (if you allow it) write to this folder. You can, if you wish, do this on each of the computers so that each one is sharing one or more folders, or you can let all the computers use the shared space on only one computer (the server).
Setting up Windows File Sharing is beyond the scope of this article. Plenty of web sites describe setting up file sharing, including PracticallyNetworked.com and Microsoft.com.
One of the disadvantages of using a general purpose computer as your file server is that computer must be up all the time -- or, at least, any time you might want to access your files! If you're going to have something running all the time, you might be better off with a special-purpose, simple, energy-efficient server: A Network Attached Storage, or NAS, device.
A NAS device is dedicated to providing data storage space for computers on your network, and giving access to the data stored on that device. NAS devices can be purchased for as little as under $100, or as much as several thousand dollars. Spending more money typically gives you more reliability, more storage space, and faster data transfer. For a typical small office, a $200 to $400 investment in hardware can give you basic file storage and retrieval, file sharing, and data backup capability.
"But wait," you say, "why can't I just use one of those inexpensive USB hard drives for storage and backup?" You can do that, but USB drive space isn't easily shared between computers. You can share them with Windows File Sharing, but then you're back to the situation where you need to keep the general purpose computers running to access the data attached to them. What's more, many of the external USB disks spin constantly rather than idling down when they are not being used, so your disks are likely to wear out faster. Where will you be when your data backup device fails?
There are roughly four classes of NAS products:
- Very simple network devices to which you add external USB drives. These are inexpensive units (about $100) but you still need to add the cost of USB drives. They generally do not let the disks spin down when they're not being used. Example: The Linksys NSLU2.
- Simple NAS boxes that allow you to insert your own drives. These typically cost $100 to $200 plus the cost of the drives you add. These are more likely to let the disks spin down when not in use. Examples: D-Link DNS-323 and Linksys NAS200.
- Simple NAS boxes that come with their own internal drives. Typical cost: $130 to $500 depending on storage capacity. Examples: The Western Digital My Book World Edition and the Buffalo LinkStation series.
- Business-class NAS units designed for high availability, high capacity, and high speed. These typically cost over $1000, and will not be covered in this article.
- An informative Network Attached Storage article on Wikipedia,
- NAS reviews by ExtremeTech.com,
- Plenty of information and reviews at SmallNetBuilder.com (click on NAS)
As you research NAS products, look for these attributes:
- Standard file sharing protocol, usually identified as SMB/CIFS. Bonus if the description specifies Macintosh and/or Linux compatibility.
- Energy saving capability, sometimes referred to as Automatic Power Management, that spins down the disks when not in use.
- Transfer speed. Manufacturer and store web sites often don't mention this; you'll need to read the reviews or performance comparisons. Also, read closely to see if they are report megaBITS per second or megaBYTES per second. 8 megabits is equal to 1 megabyte.
- Storage capacity, which also affects price. 1000 MB (megabytes) is 1 GB (gigabyte), 1000 GB is 1 TB (terabyte). For estimating your storage needs, a typical digital photo may be 2 MB, a recordable CD holds 700 MB, a typical recordable DVD holds about 4 GB.
- Whether backup software is included with the system.
- Other capabilities, for example connecting a printer to the same device.
- JB
posted by JB at
10:57 AM
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