Nas box

hey there.


I'm considering building a NAS box for storage and downloading when away from my main pc. I'm currently run 3 windows pc's on xp - 64, vista and windows 7.

The nas box i'm considering linux insted of freenas, and i have a few questions. I need remote access to the linux box when i'm away from the house. I must have access to the linux gui so i can access the web with the linux box and download ect through another pc. so its effectivly ready on the linux box. So i'm wondering how i connect to it. I was considering some remote access program which when connected show the gui ect from within a client but not sure which to use for linux.

how easy is it also having the linux box hard drive share on a network so i can just drag and drop to my windows drives?


hope that made some sense.

 

forgot to add the remote software has to be availble on through a webpage or on a usb so i can use it at uni and work thanks again

 

NASlite is a good system, but I'd really have to say just build / buy a Windows Home Server. It has all the functionality your looking for without all the worry of hardening a linux box.
There are a lot of hardware NAS solutions that offer 'web remote' too.
http://www.synology.com/us/index.php

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2346543,00.asp

 

woo a reply

yeah i was looking at the built nas's but tbh i'd rather have the fun of doing it myself. plus the price. I suppose i could use windows but i'd rather try linux (more protection to viruses and smaller size)

 

I have a promise ns4600 with 4 750GB SATA drives. The OS is linux based as well and has worked well into my 5 Window PC network. No issues yet.

I thought about the Windows Home Server route but found out that Home server was not going to support a RAID 5 environment with the hardware that I was going to purchase (HP's Home Server). Then I thought that I always try and go the cheap route only to have issues down the road.

Honestly, either way isn't bad. Just depends upon how much setup work you want to do.

BTW, there are antivirus software packages for MS Home Server so I wouldn't worry about that. You should be doing the web surfing from a normal computer and not the server itself. So the antivirus would only be used on the server for file scanning and an occational OS update via the internet.

 

i totally forgot ms had there own server suite! tbh ive never used it, does it just act like a normal os? allowing me to use a browser on it ect?

 

When I was looking at it, it totally looked like Windows XP but had a ton of stuff removed from the OS. It wasn't high tech in any way and looked like a normal server OS.

The Home Server does have a web browers in it.

 

Yes, it does function pretty much like a real OS. However, it dispenses with a lot of the drivers for game controllers, graphics cards, etc and replaces them with drivers for office equipment.

You can still install pretty much anything on it, though. Just don't get your hopes up for games.

Also, it is pretty expensive compared to a "normal" OS.

 

after remebering why i hate linux i can bear with losing a gig of space for
windows server 2008

i found these links for building and setting it up for local back ups and steaming

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/master_your_digital_domain?page=0,5

go to page 1


and this for remote access

http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Configuring_Windows_Server_2008_Remote_Desktop_Administration


havent read it all but looks promising

 

The WHS is headless. You manage it by remote and the management console. Servers are not meant to be used for browsing or gaming. The advantages of WHS - its windows 'easy', has a web sharing piece, and has client backup - it will back up pcs that connect to it - recovery may take some skill if the pc being recovered doesn't have the right NIC, etc you have to put the drive in a working PC and run the connection software to recover it (been there).
It doesn't have RAID but a JBOD for storage.. not sure about that, so I have copies of all data on it.
But over all for the cost your getting a 'webserver', file server, media server & PC backup. Most backup programs will cost you almost half the price of the OS.

I have nothing against Linux, like I said I have used NASlite, but I don't remeber it having web sharing.

 

yeah WHS looks amazing for the price and no fiddling around with linux and there unsupported console rubbish. only problem is it requires quite high spec for a server, but the functionality is worth the extra