Need NAS Enclosure recommendation

[4wd]

If you want to upgrade your whole router and get access to the USB HDD also, check out the new NetGear WNR3500L.

Open Source firmware, Gigabit wired, 802.11n WLAN and USB port to plug in external storage.

Just had a quick search, they're ~AU$173 - mmmmm, tempting.

With my current USB port (on the router), I reach about 300 KB/s.  
(Via WLAN.)

-Tuxman (January 14, 2010, 05:55 AM)

Naturally, you'll still only get 300kBps transferring by WLAN - it'd be quicker to transfer by flash drive  

[Tuxman]

Maybe later this year. Right now it would be enough money to spend to make the HDD work fast.  

edit: Hmm, I thought WLAN is not that slow these days? (802.11g+)

[4wd]

G+, (if you can get a reliable connection), should be about the same as 100Mb LAN.

But I've found that even with an apparently rock solid 54Mbps link, (at a distance of 700mm), I rarely get more than about 500kBps.

AFAIAC, WLAN speeds are in the same category as statistics - 80% BS 

[Tuxman]

Phew. Now what causes this heavy decreasement?

[f0dder]

(Via WLAN.)

-Tuxman (January 14, 2010, 05:55 AM)

Don't expect to get super high performance enhancements from a new NAS device if you're going to access it over WLAN...

[Darwin]

(Via WLAN.)

-Tuxman (January 14, 2010, 05:55 AM)

Don't expect to get super high performance enhancements from a new NAS device if you're going to access it over WLAN...

-f0dder (January 14, 2010, 07:44 AM)

Agreed - I tried two different NAS enclosures in late 2008 over my WLAN and they were ULTRA disappointing. f0dder's a master of understatement here because the speeds I was seeing over G Wireless were slower than USB 1.1, which means that of the 150GB of data that I wanted to write to the drives, only about 500MB had written after about three hours. Of course, I might be exaggerating a bit here - I didn't keep notes - but take it from me, it was slow. Slower than molasses running uphill in January.

[Tuxman]

I don't expect super-high performance, but one Mbit/s would be fine... now technical issues are not mine. 

[4wd]

Just as a matter of interest, (and to better understand what you're trying to achieve), what's the WLAN based devices used for?

ie. Do you want to stream data from the USB HDD to a media player, use it for data backup for your computers, both, etc, etc.

[Tuxman]

Sharing data in my WLAN. 
(Well, actually it was.)

[4wd]

If you have a few WiFi based devices/computers it would probably be better to upgrade the router, (the Netgear WNR3500L I mention above or similar), that way you'll get an all-round higher throughput, assuming of course that you upgrade the WiFi devices to 802.11n also, plus by plugging in the USB HDD, an easy NAS solution.

The difference in price between the Addonics NAS Adapter V2 and the Netgear WNR3500L is ~EU$70, (EU$41 vs EU$110 ex. any shipping and ripoff).  Then your limiting factor will be the 802.11b/g in the rest of the WLAN.

If you only have one WiFi device then perhaps a pair of HomePlug units, (at least the 85Mbps versions), might be suitable to increase throughput between it and the router, (assuming suitable electrical house wiring of course), the price of them has been progressively dropping and the 85Mbps units will be cheaper than the HomePlug AV 200Mbps versions.
Even if the routers USB port is v1.1 you should be able to get at least 1MBps throughput via the HomePlug units.

Of course, for the cost of these adapters, (and a bit of exercise), you could also buy a fair amount of CAT5 cable and get some real speed

[Tuxman]

Sounds like a few hundred € are needed anyway. Thank you for the details. Currently the HDD is, basically, used with one CAT5 cable and carried up- and downstairs if needed.

 

[Stoic Joker]

If you only have one WiFi device then perhaps a pair of HomePlug units, (at least the 85Mbps versions), might be suitable to increase throughput between it and the router, (assuming suitable electrical house wiring of course), the price of them has been progressively dropping and the 85Mbps units will be cheaper than the HomePlug AV 200Mbps versions.

-4wd (January 15, 2010, 06:52 PM)

Being a big fan of PowerLine networking (Company that invented it is here in my home town), I'd like to second this suggestion. I've had great luck with it in the past even with the old origional 10-14Mb units. These devices are idiot simple to setup & reliable as a hammer.

[4wd]

I've had great luck with it in the past even with the old origional 10-14Mb units.

-Stoic Joker (January 15, 2010, 10:32 PM)

What kind of throughput did you get?

I'm thinking of replacing the only WiFi linked computer with a pair of HomePlug units.

[Stoic Joker]

I've had great luck with it in the past even with the old original 10-14Mb units.

-Stoic Joker (January 15, 2010, 10:32 PM)

What kind of throughput did you get?

I'm thinking of replacing the only WiFi linked computer with a pair of HomePlug units.

-4wd (January 16, 2010, 01:43 AM)

While I don't have specific numbers (it's been awhile), assuming that the building has at least half way descent wiring... You get what you pay for. Our office building was originally divided up into smaller (Boutique) shops (we have the whole complex now), so the wiring has been shall we say butchered (this was the test environment). I used 2 of the original 14Mb units to add 3 workstations in the service department. The service techs routinely accessed the server for pdf manuals (5-30MB in size) drivers, and our (rather bandwidth intensive) order tracking software (which is not exactly written well IMO) without any hiccups.

I finally got the time to pull the cable for the service department so everybody is now hard wired at 100Mb but the speed improvement (vs. usage requirement) was negligible. The owners of the company now use the units at their home as a replacement for a badly unstable WiFi solution (stucco kills WiFi every time) and they're thrilled with it.

[f0dder]

I finally got the time to pull the cable for the service department so everybody is now hard wired at 100Mb

-Stoic Joker (January 16, 2010, 10:43 AM)

only 100Mb? If you took the effort required to run cabling, I hope you ran at least cat-5e

How fast does HomePlug go these days? I thought they were up to around 200Mb/s, at least by specification... I wonder how fast you can go, though - probably depends not only on the quality of your power cable wiring, but also how clean voltage is supplied by your power company?

[Stoic Joker]

I finally got the time to pull the cable for the service department so everybody is now hard wired at 100Mb

-Stoic Joker (January 16, 2010, 10:43 AM)

only 100Mb? If you took the effort required to run cabling, I hope you ran at least cat-5e

-f0dder (January 16, 2010, 01:29 PM)

Of course, but the machines came with what the machines came with, and while the backbone is Gigabit the rest of the network doesn't need to be.

How fast does HomePlug go these days? I thought they were up to around 200Mb/s, at least by specification... I wonder how fast you can go, though - probably depends not only on the quality of your power cable wiring, but also how clean voltage is supplied by your power company?

Building wiring condition/quality can be a factor, but it isn't too critical ... If building power is stable enough to keep the lights from flickering constantly and a the computers running reliably ... It's probably good enough.

Clean power isn't really that much of an issue (beyond the above obvious), as the devices communicate by (basically) creating their own "localized distortions" in the power flow.

About 8 years ago, Intellon the local company that invented powerline networking had an opening for a Network Administrator that I applied for. During the 2nd 4 hour interview I got a complete tour of the facility and was quite impressed with both the people and the pride they put into their product. During the interview, my would be boss mentioned that the bigest (speed) issue they had environmentally was bad grounding...which could easily be fixed with a screw driver. (I did not get the job, but...) I had the opportunity to verify this live when I first deployed the PowerLine connection test at the office. Precisely as I was told (during the interview) reseating/retightening the grounds in the panel cured the speed/stability encountered during the initial setup after which it remained bullet proof for the duration of the test.