What is Network Attached Storage?
Network Attached Storage devices are small servers dedicated to nothing but file sharing. Instead of having to physically connect a drive to your computer, you can just put a device in your home network that provides extra storage space. Storage prices are falling, and adds 250GB, 500GB or even 1TB (terabyte) is cheap and easy.
Benefits of NAS
* It is a simple wa
y to add data storage to all your computers rather than just one.
* Multiple computers are able to access files anytime and do not depend on a host PC for file sharing.
* Savings on your electric bill because a power hungry computer or server need not be on 24 hours a day to share files.
* New media server features allow for the centralization of your music and movie library so it can be shared by everyone on your network and even streamed to home audio and video equipment.
* Provides a central place for backup storage.
Explanation of features
USB Print Server - A USB printer can be connected to a NAS device and can share the printer over the network.
Media Server - The device can stream media to a device on the network can receive it. MP3's or movies can stream to your PC or movies can stream to a media center connected to your TV.
UPnP - Universal Plug and Play. UPnP is a dynamic zero-configuration protocol used for device interconnection. It is a big mouthful, but what it means that UPnP devices can communicate with other UPnP devices without intervention from you. It just works.
DLNA - Digital Living Network
RAID - Redundant Array of inexpensive disks. RAID in that it has many configurations, sacrifices some disk space to a level of data redundancy. RAID 1, called mirroring, makes an exact copy of the primary disk. If the primary disk fails then the secondary "mirrored" disk can take place until you buy a replacement. RAID only helps in case of hardware failure and should not be confused with a backup strategy. If you accidentally delete a file on the primary disk the file is deleted on the mirror as well.
FTP Server - File Transfer Protocol server. Most people will not need this and will use Windows file shares instead. Some security cameras and office scanners have the option to save to FTP servers, and in these cases and many more, would this feature come in handy.
iTunes compatible - The NAS has the ability to publish the media files to a computer running iTunes. The computer with iTunes would then be able to play these media files.
USB Ports - External USB storage can be added to extend the capacity of your NAS. This can insure your NAS is never obsolete! When you run out of space you can buy an inexpensive external USB disk and plug it into your NAS. A few systems will use these for USB printer sharing or as a host for your digital camera.
Gigabit Ethernet - 1 billion bits per second transfer rate. Most wiring done in homes or offices during the last 5 years was gigabit rated but the equipment is still a bit more expensive than 100 megabit so most homes and small offices do not support this. Gigabit get cheaper home and
Backup Software Included - A major reason to add NAS to your network is backups. Quite a few drives come with Windows backup software to automate this important but often overlooked task.
Vista Support -
Mac support - Native Mac support is spots so make sure that the device is compliant with your Mac and your version of Mac OS. Macs are able to access Windows shares so this really is not much of a problem.
Active Directory - If you are running a Windows Server or Windows Small Business Server in your office so you need this. It allows your existing network users to use the file shares on the NAS without creating new usernames and passwords. Very handy.
Gigabit Jumbo Frames - Geekspeak for faster networks.
File access via web server - This allows you to browse files on NAS via a web browser. It would be useful if you tried to access it from a system that does not support Windows files sharing or if you just preferred to access the files that way.
DFS support - Distributed File System. This is another Windows technical term that means that a remote shared folder can be reflected to the NAS device. This is great for a company with a Windows Server and multiple locations.
Available via the Internet - A few companies have setup central servers that act as an intermediary between Internet connected users and your NAS. This makes your files accessible by anyone anywhere. Of course, everything is password protected for security. The possibilities here are endless.
