This week I finished setting up Arch Linux (It felt so good to nuke Windows 11 off my laptop!) and GrapheneOS for my new Pixel phone.
I am interested in getting a NAS for multiple purposes such as accessing files, hosting a small website, and to upload security camera footage to name a few.
Is there a particular brand to buy? I’m basically illiterate when it comes to networks aside from what an IP is and what DNS is. Any suggestions for books and reading material is greatly appreciated. It feels liberating to know more than I did before with tech!
I’ve spent the time building and maintaining a pi NAS and I prefer a Synology DiskStation. If you have the budget for it, you’ll get a device that’s super easy to set up, is bursting with features just waiting to be added, and there’s no maintenance on it. My NAS runs a plex (streaming video) server, an email server, file server for my local network, it does DHCP and DNS for my network, it stores my IP camera footage, it hosts a small web server, and an audio steaming server. All this functionality was gained by just clicking “install” on the package manager on DiskStation. Unless you have gobs of time to spend learning and fiddling, I’d always go with a DiskStation over a home brewed solution. I guess it boils down to your goal. is your goal to learn more and make something yourself? Or do you just want the seamless features of a consumer level NAS?
This is the best easiest solution. I set one up for a client years ago and it just runs and does as asked. You can’t really tinker but just about everything you can think of is there so you don’t need to.
I’ve been wading through the past 2 months of messages because I was far too incompetent at systems management (and hardware) to even pose the question correctly.
Ideally, I’d like my NAS to have a VLAN’d off way of sectioning my security camera footage and my website so I don’t get locked out of it somehow. I heard that I need to somehow create a topology that involves a WAP, Switch, the physical chassis with the NAS in it, and the actual modem/router into the wall. I want to have a streaming server for music/video, a Hugo website, an email server, and a file system where I can store projects just in case I need to access them somewhere other than my home.
I’ve also heard others suggest some of the larger drives for the RAID array, and I’ve seen various things suggested such as Thomas Krenn’s “mdraid”, which requires a “Hardware RAID controller” which makes me wonder what this thing actually is. I need to do more research into it, but I’m just a little stumped on how the drives fit together (physically and logically). Thanks for the help!