home network setup

[biggeeflex]

I'm memorized by the simple combination of the atom server, vortexbox and NAS's. I'm trying to figure out how all that works together to store and serve your documents, video, and music... I've internet searching for weeks to find a solution to serve work documents saved at my house but available anywhere I am. I also have 1.5 tb of media I've like to serve and more coming as I collect. I use SONOS as well.

I've determined I'm going to buy a NAS possibly QNAP or Synology AND build the homemade Vortexbox. Do I need the server? What's the best way to set all of this up?

[Scott DeLeeuw]

It all depends on how hands off you want everything.

If you don't mind file or folder level security, you could just build a Vortexbox, use that for your media serving AND back up important files to it. It uses SMB file sharing, so that's possible, but it's not really the intent of it and security could be a concern. If you also already have 1.5TB of media, then having a separate solution for backups is probably prudent anyway. The Vortexbox does Sonos as you may know, as well as Squeezeserver, iTunes, and DLNA.

In your case I'd probably go with a Synology or QNAP NAS as well. What you'll find with the NAS is that much functionality cross-pollinates between the Vortexbox and NAS. The Vortexbox is nice in that you can simply put in a CD or DVD and it will rip it on its own, without your intervention. For CDs it even tags and gets the cover art. If you wanted to forego the Vortexbox and didn't mind a less automated solution you could always download MakeMKV, rip media on your desktop and move them to your Synology for media serving. You'll have to check if the Synology supports Sonos, I don't remember if it does as I use Squeezeserver.

The low power home server may be overkill for you, or it may not be. I like a computer that's on all the time where I can run things like the modlet software, scripts, etc. It's nice having a machine that others aren't using and screwing up...

In your case, for most problem-free operation, I'd build a Vortexbox and run that for a few weeks, see how you like it. Once you're comfortable there, look at a Synology or QNAP NAS for file backups and other tasks.

I put together a general article on this yesterday, cheap being a relative term :

http://www.homenetworkenabled.com/co...k-on-the-cheap

[biggeeflex]

If I skipped the atom server and just had a NAS and Vortexbox, would they all be connected through my router? If so, is there any speed issues I need to be aware of for streaming video off the NAS or Vortexbox through the router?

Also, I'd like to access my work files outside of the LAN without using a clunky program or FTP. Anyway I can setup a virtual drive kinda like a dropbox folder with NAS? It seems like QNAP and Synology has interfaces which make it a little more difficult than using a plain folder or drive in Windows...

[Scott DeLeeuw]

They would both connect to the router, there shouldn't be any speed issues streaming there.

Both Synology and QNAP have cloud services, allowing you to access files remotely. It works pretty well.