NAS and streaming and printer Qs

lunny_2

Afternoon all!

I am having a rethink as to all our media, laptop, mobiles, printer and backups.


What I would like to do is to have all our media stored on the NAS [thinking of the D Link DNS 320] http://www.dlink.co.uk/cs/Satellite?c=Product_C&childpagename=DLinkEurope-GB%2FDLProductCarouselMultiple&cid=1197388178398&p=1197318962342&packedargs=ParentPageID%3D1197376057181%26locale%3D1195806691854%26packedargs%3DProductParentID%253D1195808623796&pagename=DLinkEurope-GB%2FDLWrapper


and to:


1/ use this as an itunes server to stream to our iphone/pods sound docks


2/ automatically backup data with the 2nd drive


3/ stream same itunes mp3 folder to Galaxy S2


4/ act as a print server [via USB] for the printer [Canon Pixma IP4000]


5/ be able to access files remotely if necessary


6/ possibly add a media player to the TV [via hdmi] to play the movies/tv shows etc from the NAS


Will this all work with the NAS I am looking at?

On the face of the specs it will, but I havent had too much in the way of experience with NASs and what they can and cant do.

Thank you for taking the time to help in any way

fwor

Looks to be capable of most of your needs. Not sure about 3. but that's because I don't know the Galaxy S2.

For 6. you may not even need a media server. It's DLNA compliant, so if your TV has a DLNA client it should work without.

If 5. is important you might find something like a rather more expensive Synology NAS easier to set up, but if you're happy dealing with IP addresses and port forwarding it won't be an issue.

The reviews seem to say "neither fast nor quiet", but at just over £50 sans disks it's a cheap way to get started with a NAS.

lunny_2

Thanks Fwor

3/ This is just a Samsung Android phone. Reading the specs of the NAS it says it will stream media to any player that is UPnP compatable, which it looks like you can get an app that allows this.

4/ ftp://ftp.dlink.co.uk/dns/DNS-320/compat_list/DNS-320_Compatibility_List-20111004.pdf suggests compatable printers, but should I take the list with a pinch of salt as their really isnt very many printers there!

5/ Not a deal breaker, but a convienient occasional use 'luxury'

6/ TV is a Pioneer plasma, about 5 yrs old, and im sure this isnt DLNA compatable

Not too worried by speed, and noise wont be an issue as it'll be hidden in a cupboard out of sight

sillygoose

I have a 320, can't help you with all that itunes streaming stuff as I don't need any of it!

But I can comment on performance. It has a variable temperature controlled fan. Your choice of disk drives and how much heat they give off makes a big difference. mine has 2 x 2TB Samsung HD204UI F4's These are are EcoGreen as they are only 5400rpm disks but still capable of decent performance (for a NAS not a PC that is). They are designed for minimum heat and noise. According to my 320 they are happily sitting at 41 degrees. Consequently the fan rarely even runs or runs at low speed. Its quiet! (apart from when the disks start up from sleep mode)

As to transfer speed, its all down to the router, on my old 10/100 port one it was really dire, I upgraded to a gigabit port one with N+ wifi and its very satisfactory. According to NAS Tester program I am reading large data files at 38MB/sec

There was a firmware upgrade on D-Link site that needed putting on, easy enough. mines been running 24 hours for 84 days so far, never crashed or anything, I do power it from my UPS backup supply to protect it.