[coolsax]

I thought i'd ask what particular NAS Servers y'all thought were the best?  I think i'd like to set up a squeezebox system probably with the touch at some point and while i know you can hook up a USB HDD to the touch, it seems to have its issues with that set up and so I was considering purchasing an NAS server but on Amazon and Newegg most of them seem to get mixed reviews.. are the bad reviews on these legit or caused by people who don't take the time to read their manuals to set these things up?  Which ones in the $1-200 range seems ok to go with as I won't really any more than 1TB?  the Iomega 1TB NAS seems to fit the bill perfectly but it has as many good reviews as bad ones.. 

[srb]

Synology.  I have a single drive model, the DS110j, that runs ~$140 for a diskless unit.  They are very good, reliable and have mostly positive reviews.
 
http://www.synology.com/us/index.php
 
Steve

[scraps@midnight]

I have been using a Seagate Blackarmor NAS 110 (1tb) for about 6 months and it has been no problem. It's a small, fan-less unit I picked up at Best Buy for $165. The unit has a USB port on the front for backup and a USB port on the back as well as 1 ethernet port. Pretty simple NAS. I use it with Squeezebox Server (run on my laptop) and a Transporter.

[coolsax]

also I was out and about today. and saw that some wireless routers now have USB ports so you can attach a USB HDD and use the router as the NAS server.  my current router is about 4 years old so i think i'll probably  need a more current router if I"m going to stream as well so that now has entered my thinking for options,.

[srb]

also I was out and about today. and saw that some wireless routers now have USB ports so you can attach a USB HDD and use the router as the NAS server.

That should work, although that type of connection is usually somewhat slower than either a USB drive connected directly to a computer (or Squeezebox) or a NAS drive (which would use a SATA II interface internally).
 
But it might serve your purpose, as you would be only using it for music storage and also won't have the need for multiple clients to access it.
 
Most NAS devices have additional features that you will have no need for, but one of my NAS features I like is the ability to have it completely power off and back on according to a schedule.
 
Steve
 
 

[eclein]

I have a Belkin router that can take on a USB drive and although it works-sometimes, its not reliable enough for me yet. Maybe a firmware update will come out.

[rnxrx]

I thought i'd ask what particular NAS Servers y'all thought were the best?  I think i'd like to set up a squeezebox system probably with the touch at some point and while i know you can hook up a USB HDD to the touch, it seems to have its issues with that set up and so I was considering purchasing an NAS server but on Amazon and Newegg most of them seem to get mixed reviews.. are the bad reviews on these legit or caused by people who don't take the time to read their manuals to set these things up?  Which ones in the $1-200 range seems ok to go with as I won't really any more than 1TB?  the Iomega 1TB NAS seems to fit the bill perfectly but it has as many good reviews as bad ones..

If you have an old PC sitting around you can attach drives, install Windows or Linux, set up RAID and then enable fire sharing.  Especially if using Linux it can be a -very- minimal machine while still providing excellent performance (plenty of folks with P2's and 512M of RAM).  If you are buying new then getting a cheap, bare-bones PC may end up being less expensive (and better performing) than a lot of the commercial NAS solutions available. 

If you're more into plug and play, there are specific OS distributions that will just come up as a RAID appliance.  Download an ISO, burn a CD, boot it in your server-to-be and the rest is handled through web interfaces.  Either way you'll end up with substantially greater performance, more flexibility, better visibility and more scalability. 

[wilbert-vanbakel]

A mini ITX based system might be worth researching:http://www.ewayco.com/

[rnxrx]

A mini ITX bases system might be worth researching:http://www.ewayco.com/

100% Definitely - this is right on.  It's cheap, you can add a ton of storage to it via a firewire card (or even a SATA/eSATA RAID card) and is substantially more flexible and powerful than just about any of the pre-packaged commercial offerings. 

[srb]

Determine if all you need is a simple network drive, or if you want to fuss with a PC to have the ability to add multiple drives, RAID cards, etc.
 
I prefer to keep it simple, and power consumption is important to me as well.  A NAS similar to the Synology I recommended consumes 19W on access, 9W when drive is hibernating, and of course 0W when powered off by schedule.
 
I have no experience with eWay Technology Systems Corp. and you will have to email them just for specifications (I was curious about power consumption), and then if you purchase, you would be purchasing direct from Taiwan.
 
Steve

[coolsax]

In all honesty, I just want a simple network drive. just something to stream music in FLAC or apple lossless( haven't decided which yet), I won't be doing any video or anything like that.  that's why I was thrilled when I heard the touch had a USB port to start with, but based on slimdevices forum it seems like its hit or miss so doing an NAS if I can do it cheaply seems to be the answer. 

[wilbert-vanbakel]

eTRAYz - Personal NAS

[lcrim]

The fact is that the player software, SqueezeBoxServer,  needs resources to operate as well.  Some of the NAS devices permit this, the Vortex Box which is also a free software download, seems to have been intended for this purpose.  It also offers a hardware component, of course.

[kgturner]

for around $200 you can get an msi nettop 100 pc with 2gb of RAM. if you've got a sata drive lying around, you can use that to load your music on. put ubuntu and squeezebox server on it, connect it to your network, and you're good to go. it would be a bit more robust server than any of the NAS i've seen. good luck.

kevin t

[Steidl Guitars]

In all honesty, I just want a simple network drive. just something to stream music in FLAC or apple lossless ... that's why I was thrilled when I heard the touch had a USB port to start with, but based on slimdevices forum it seems like its hit or miss so...

I took the portable usb drive that I use to back up my vortexbox (which I like a lot) to a friend's place to see how it would work with her Touch.  It's a 320 GB drive on which about 500 CDs worth of FLAC files are stored.

It worked perfectly. 

I suspect it did because we followed John Swenson's advice for using a USB drive, which you can find on the SlimDevices forum.

His advice, in a nutshell:

1.  Plug the drive into the USB and do nothing else with the Touch until it has completed its scan.  It's got a wee processor so leave it alone to do its job.

2.  When it's done, dismount the drive using the commands on the Touch, which will write the necessary index files to the hard disc.  When it's done, unplug the drive from the Touch.

3.  Plug the drive into the Touch, and after a quick scan, you'll be good to go.

[coolsax]

thanks.. i missed that advice on there.. maybe i'll go ahead and try that then before I spend the extra money on a full NAS server or NAS capable router.