Network Attached Storage
From Open Source Ecology
Basics
- A Data Storage Server for a LAN (Although if not Air Gapped can be accessed remotely)
- Often abbreviated as NAS
- Useful for a Personal (ie no Monthly Fees short of Cost of Electricity and paying off components) version of Cloud Storage
- Offloads Storage Needs from Smartphones, Laptops, etc while still "keeping" the data
- For Group Environments it can allow for high speed data transfer across the editing team since it is all on a local server, and you can even use high speed networking such as 10 Gigabit Ethernet , as opposed to having to upload/download to a nearby cloud server as fast as your IP allows, and for each pc
Example of Speed Advantage
- User: Eric Here
- As per LibreSpeed , my local comcast home internet (i think it's coax too, probably Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial ), going via wifi to my laptop is showing:
- Ping: 23.7 ms
- Jitter: 2.98 ms
- Download: 101Mbps
- Upload: 43.8
- The "latest and greatest" Raspberry Pi 5 based NAS can go 2Gb/s Download, 1.6Gb/s Upload (With 2.5GB Ethernet tested using iPerf3
- So assuming my napkin math is right, one can get a little less than 2x or more the speed of my internet, as well as the cost+privacy and so on benefits
- Would probably be less via wifi. I think my laptop only has 1gb ethernet, need to check Thunderbolt 3 to Ethernet options for hypothetical, moreso want the storage than speed demon transfer speeds but worth considering i guess
Options
DIY/OS
Raspberry Pi NAS
- Pros: Accessible, About as OS as one can get, Quite Customizable
- Cons: Overall Capacity and Speed (To an extent, becoming less of an issue with each new gen of raspberry pi)
- See Raspberry Pi NAS For Further Discussion on this
- Basically you get a bunch of components, but instead of building a Workstation PC you build your NAS Server from similar parts and put it in a similar PC Case
- Pros: Can be more Capable (IE PCIE Networking Cards , easy addition of full size Optical Disc Drives etc)
- Cons: A Bit larger, a bit less Plug and Play / Complexity
OTS Options
New
- Pros: "Fit and Finish", 100% Plug and Play
- Cons: Cost , Bloatware / Planned Obsolescence of any Software/Firmware Support, not as Customized to Your Needs
Misc Details
- Used is a potential route, granted quality, what it was used for, and choices are an issue (makes the cost more comprable to DIY/OS Options Though
- Often with New options there is a choice of with/without drives; you can self source as well
- Used don't really come with drives so that must be taken into consideration too
Internal Links
External Links
