Home Network Recommendations?

[Carol Haynes]

Looking at the products I thought the 207 looked pretty good value for money - don't forget though you need to buy the hard drives too!

[Perry Mowbray]

I recently purchased the +207 and put 2x 1Tb drives in RAID1.

I was really happy with it, still am really except that the manufactures have it because it kept losing the RAID1 sync after a power down and power up.

But apart from that, it has a stack of nice features at an extremely reasonable price. I've also got to say now that the service is good too: organized for the UPS couriers to come and pick the device up and take it back to Taiwan so they can check out the syncing issue.

Firmware upgrades seem to be quite regular as well.

Carol: the eSata port is for a HD to use for backup, expansion, etc. as can the USB ports. I have not got to try that yet, but I do have an external USB HD waiting.

[Carol Haynes]

Thanks Perry - that is helpful.

[Perry Mowbray]

I was really happy with it, still am really except that the manufactures have it because it kept losing the RAID1 sync after a power down and power up.

-Perry Mowbray (April 17, 2008, 05:46 AM)

Just to follow up on this (because I'm pretty impressed  ), Synology just emailed my supplier:

One component of the old DS207+ isn't stable. To compensate your client, we change a new DS207+ and the testing results show this issue is gone.

Note: that test was with my HardDrives -- so I know it'll work when I get it back home!

I'm pretty impressed: that's less than a week since it left my front door on it's way to Taiwan, and it's on it's way back home! Isn't that the way life should be?

[Carol Haynes]

That is good!

Have you tried using it as a printer server? If not is there any chance you could try it when you get it back and let us know how it works out?

[Perry Mowbray]

Have you tried using it as a printer server? If not is there any chance you could try it when you get it back and let us know how it works out?

-Carol Haynes (April 18, 2008, 06:04 AM)

I certainly can...

Actually I have a NetComm NP3680 MultiFunction Server that I was not too unhappy with, although it was only Mb. I used to have a multifunction printer (Epson Stylus CX5300), but it has recently died, but it worked well as you could simply spool to the printer or any computer on the LAN could take ownership of the printer and thereby gain access to the other functions (scanning, etc).

I believe that the Synology does not fully support Multifunction printers... but I'll need to re-read their forums before getting a new printer. I've got a separate scanner so I don't think that I really need the printer to scan: but it's amazing how handy the "photocopy" functionality is!

[J-Mac]

Thanks for all this great info, Perry. Looks like I have an NAS candidate!!

Jim

[Carol Haynes]

Looks like I have one too - I keep looking and drooling

To really benefit though you need to get a Gigabit router and wire up your house

[J-Mac]

That will have to come later for me.  Wiring anything in a 100 year old house - especially when I can only really do much of anything with one of my arms - is a little more than I'm willing to take on right now. But next year? Maybe then.

Jim

[Perry Mowbray]

To really benefit though you need to get a Gigabit router and wire up your house

-Carol Haynes (April 18, 2008, 02:40 PM)

Don't know if it's "really"... I'd think I'd term it "really truly" 

I purchased a new NetGear switch for the growing number of Gigabit items on the network, but kept my existing Modem/Router that was only Megabit. I'd only recently replaced my Modem anyway, so it didn't seem right not to get my money's worth out of it. So all the computers and the NAS are connected by the Gigabit switch, which seems to work well.

[Carol Haynes]

Yes that's what I did too. J-Mac was talking earlier about changing his modem though so it would make sense to change it for a Gigabit version if possible.

Don't know about 'really truly' ? Doesn't sound like me ... 

[Perry Mowbray]

Yes that's what I did too. J-Mac was talking earlier about changing his modem though so it would make sense to change it for a Gigabit version if possible.

-Carol Haynes (April 19, 2008, 06:09 AM)

Missed that: sorry

Don't know about 'really truly' ? Doesn't sound like me ... 

-Carol Haynes (April 19, 2008, 06:09 AM)

[phillfri]

I wouldn't forget homeplug electric wiring based options either, especially if you don't want to be running cables. The new home plug units can integrate with a regular network at relatively decent speeds. Their advantage over wireless is that you can use wake-on-lan (just like with cable) to let your server power down when its not in use (no wake-on-lan with wireless). Then you can hide your server someplace out of the way without having to run a cable to wherever that server is.

[J-Mac]

I wouldn't forget homeplug electric wiring based options either, especially if you don't want to be running cables. The new home plug units can integrate with a regular network at relatively decent speeds. Their advantage over wireless is that you can use wake-on-lan (just like with cable) to let your server power down when its not in use (no wake-on-lan with wireless). Then you can hide your server someplace out of the way without having to run a cable to wherever that server is.

-phillfri (April 24, 2008, 06:31 AM)

I already have an Insteon Home Automation lighting controls network, a Slingbox Pro Turbo-ethernet Powernet network, and security surveillance cameras on a PowerLine network. Not sure I have enough circuits to support any more!

Jim

[Carol Haynes]

I wouldn't forget homeplug electric wiring based options either, especially if you don't want to be running cables. The new home plug units can integrate with a regular network at relatively decent speeds. Their advantage over wireless is that you can use wake-on-lan (just like with cable) to let your server power down when its not in use (no wake-on-lan with wireless). Then you can hide your server someplace out of the way without having to run a cable to wherever that server is.

-phillfri (April 24, 2008, 06:31 AM)

My WiFi (Netgear) seems to support Wake on LAN - it seems to work too, not that I use it???

[J-Mac]

That is unusual, Carol.  It is usually not the router that cannot cause the computer to wake from Sleep or Hibernate mode, but Windows itself.

Jim

[fhayes]

As mwb1100 mentioned, I was also having a lot of problems with my WRT54G locking up occasionally (actually way too often). After flashing the "DD-WRT micro" firmware into it, mine has been performing flawlessly as well.  I highly recommend it, the VxWorks firmware that LinkSys has gone over to is garbage.  Just remember that there is a small risk of "bricking" your router if you don't do a little homework first and follow directions exactly when flashing alternate firmware.  It's a good idea to have a backup router so if your main box dies you're home network isn't down while you rush out to buy a replacement (I just picked up a wireless/wired TP-Link TL-WR340G off ebay, they're going for $20 and seem quite capable). Also if you're going to put all your files on a central server, figure out what your file backup strategy will be up front so that you can plan your hardware accordingly, hard drive space is so cheap nowadays. I've been using SyncBackSE to cross backup critical directories from each machine to one of the other 3 machines on the network, that way if a drive or motherboard dies the files are instantly available on another pc.  This combination of things has worked well for my home network, without having to spend much $, and with nearly 100% up-time.

[J-Mac]

Thanks for that fbhayes.

I did pick up a new WRT54GL to replace my WRT54G router.  Haven't switched them out yet, though.  And I also have an older Linksys that still works - just OLD.  Think it is a BEF... something or other. Served me well for quite a while.  Also, a Netgear that I had at another house in the mountains - that's stored right now.  And another from my late MIL - I got back my old Dell Dimension and some other network equipment that I had set up for her about a year and a half ago.

And I am pretty well setup for backups:  Acronis True Image Home 11, BackUp4All Pro, Super Flexible File Synchronizer, and Mozy Online backup.  Those, plus three different external USB drives: 2 - 500 GB, and 1 250 GB.   

Jim

[kyrathaba]

How about PogoPlug?