3TB personal cloud/hub

[woopwoop]

I've gotta stop spending money although I think that this is a money saver in the long run.

I just bought the Western Digital My Book Live 3TB ($199).

I've played with it and it is now the brain of the apartment. It's wired to the Samsung Smart TV and iMac. Can connect wirelessly on the same network or externally through apps, web based. We now have a central place to put all the family photos, movies and stuff.

I can now print wirelessly from iPhone, iPad and Playbook.

My life without British TV has been pretty miserable for a while so I am now using some software to series link ITV and BBC shows to the device, then stream to wireless devices anywhere but mostly to the TV. I just have to get a more reliable proxy or figure out my VPN for a UK IP.

The device is also backing up all of my websites too.

I used to use Dropbox with all my devices but kept hitting the limits and was slightly concerned about where the content was. this device can be used as a personal cloud with apps and tools to help with the connection from external networks. I'm not sure how much storage is enough but so far I'm a tiny fraction into the 3TB.

Does anyone else have a good setup/nice solution to backup/sync?
What devices could you not live without? Is 3TB enough?

 

[Edwin]

I use http://mozy.co.uk/ as well as a 2nd internal drive and a network-connected external drive in another room. That way, should the house burn down or a burglar steal my computer I'll still have all the key data.

 

[woopwoop]

That's the thing - I still need a remote back up solution to protect against fire, theft, flooding (although unlikely - we're on the 3rd floor!).

Part of why I'm pretty happy with the setup is that I'm no longer close to filling up my storage limit. I kept hitting the dropbox limit and now I have the 3TBs which should take me a while to fill.

Most online services are up to 200gb - I just have lots of videos I took and adobe projects that seem to take up a lot of space.

 

[Edwin]

Mozy lets you have as much space as you like for £1.75/month/20GB...

 

[illtemper]

Been down the WD/Seagate 'live/goflex' path before. Now have a Synology 2 bay NAS. with 2x3TB drives. DSM 4.0 OS and would never go back. Superior in pretty much every way a long with added benefit of being able to switch/upgrading drives.

Has iPhone/iPad apps. Backup the Mac via TimeMachine and has a cloudsync that works the same way as Dropbox in the background a long with more features settings one could want from such a device.

 

[woopwoop]

Sounds interesting (hadn't heard of synology).

I'm trying to research the prices - I think often they sell without the drives (is that what diskless means, or is it meaning solid state?)

 

[scooter]

I have a QNAP. Had it for about 2yrs now and never missed a beat.

I use it as a central hub for all things multimedia. I also use the surveillance program that is built in. I have an IP camera recording 24/7 to the NAS.

In the last firmware upgrade you can now backup on the fly to Amazon cloud (and another provider)

It just comes as a shell with all their software installed and 2 blank bays for the HDs of your choice.

Watch the video on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002SD71FO/?tag=acorn06-21




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[woopwoop]

My mind is being opened - can't believe I didn't really know how easy to use/install these devices are - and how cheap they've become.

I guess the advantage of the ones with the bays are that you can switch out the drives later for more storage and maybe back up from one drive to the other.

I like the IP cam server/recording bit. Wonder if I can do that with mine? Would I do it by running software on the drive or do I have to have it running on my desktop and use the drive just as storage?

Any other cool devices/software I've been missing out on that you can't live without?

 

[scooter]

I am no techie. It has to be very user friendly for me to use and the QNAP is just that.


We have a Samsung TV, 2 laptops, an ipad, xbox 360 and 3 android phones that connect to it with no problems. So everyone in the house is happy.


I do as you suggest. I have 1 x drive live and use the other for a back up.



I like the IP cam server/recording bit. Wonder if I can do that with mine? Would I do it by running software on the drive or do I have to have it running on my desktop and use the drive just as storage?
If you can, it would be better to install within. That way you do not need your pc running.

This is what sold it for me. You plug in to the router so it is always live, even when everything else is not.

I was sipping beer on the hotel balcony in Turkey last summer watching my house on my HTC.

(I bought a Y-Cam bullet outdoor camera) Not cheap, but again has never missed a beat. The QNAP has never had any downtime since I first plugged it in.


As you will have seen in the video, it does tons more but I bought it for the surveillance software and for media.

Return yours and get a QNAP or a Synology.



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[woopwoop]

....This is what sold it for me. You plug in to the router so it is always live, even when everything else is not.

I was sipping beer on the hotel balcony in Turkey last summer watching my house on my HTC.

(I bought a Y-Cam bullet outdoor camera) Not cheap, but again has never missed a beat. The QNAP has never had any downtime since I first plugged it in.


As you will have seen in the video, it does tons more but I bought it for the surveillance software and for media.

Return yours and get a QNAP or a Synology.

I've already ripped the shrink wrap off it, registered it and have a couple of hundred gigs copied over! So far everything with it is similar to sinology and QNAP (but the drive is built in). I'm not sure about the ip cam bit but their may be a way to make it work. So far it works as a standalone (I can access it when all the computers are switched off through the apps and maybe port forwarding).

I recently put Lion on my old iMac and my MBP and the drive really helped me do a clean install from after dragging all the files over from the iMac to the WD - well the files I wanted to keep).

Plus costwise, I think that the one I bought may have been a bit cheaper that Synology/QNAP - the drive was built in (for the $200), is it easy to get drives for the others (and not buy the wrong ones)? What's a rough price of your setup?

I was recently looking at ip cams and it seems like they've come down in price too - I know the quality varies but I've seen a few on woot.com for around $50 !

 

[scooter]

Plus costwise, I think that the one I bought may have been a bit cheaper that Synology/QNAP - the drive was built in (for the $200)
I checked back and i apologise, I thought it was 2yrs old. It is not. I purchased Oct 2010

Back then it cost me on amazon.co.uk £132 for the QNAP
I also bought 2 x Samsung F4 EcoGreen 2TB 32MB 5400RPM 3.5 inch SATA-II Internal Hard Drive - OEM (again on amazon UK) @ £62.00 each

So my total spend was £256 = $400
I'm sure that will now be considerably cheaper.



is it easy to get drives for the others (and not buy the wrong ones)?
Yes, they list compatible drives on their site for each QNAP model.
http://www.qnap.com/pro_compatibility.asp

A quick look (for mine) says you can have a max of 6TB (2 x 3TB)
"Each drive bay can hold one 3.5-inch SATA 1.5Gb/s, SATA 3Gb/s and SATA 6Gb/s hard drive of maximum 3TB capacity"

I didn't look at their site when i purchased. I just went with what other people were reporting as using on Amazon customer feedback and £62 for a 2TB drive then was a bargain..


....................


I was recently looking at ip cams and it seems like they've come down in price too - I know the quality varies but I've seen a few on woot.com for around $50 !
As i said, i'm no techie. I just wanted a good, reliable outdoor camera. I went with Y-Cam as all reports were positive and it was on QNAPs compatability list for their surveillance program. I just wanted to plug it in and forget about it and that's what i got.

You plug the Y-Cam into your home pc to set up. It comes back with an IP address. Unplug, set it up outside, go into QNAP surveillance, paste the ip address in, select Y-cam from the list, hit enter and voila, a crisp clear picture during daytime and a great picture at night. (both with sound)

You then go in to settings, set it up for 15min segments, (quickest loading if you have to playback) set it for continuous recording ( you can set for movement only) and I set it for 30 days. (it automatically deletes the 31st day, every day)

All very, very easy. No hassles and pain free.




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[seanc]

My life without British TV has been pretty miserable for a while so I am now using some software to series link ITV and BBC shows to the device, then stream to wireless devices anywhere but mostly to the TV. I just have to get a more reliable proxy or figure out my VPN for a UK IP.

can you explain more about this ? im abroad and have no UK tv.
i do download torrents (thebox) and i've tried BBC iPlayer (which is pretty rubbish)

 

[Edwin]

You'll probably want to keep the discussion off-forum as what you're discussing (re TV programming) breaks UK law...

 

[woopwoop]

I haven't done torrents, but have used a UK proxy in the past. Be careful with proxies because they are unreliable and can be unsafe (seeing all web packets, passwords etc., when switched on).

I think that using proxies to access web content that is geo designated is more of a licensing issue (contract between companies, not necessarily user and company) rather than criminal. I may be wrong - not sure if people have been prosecuted for this stuff in the past.

Technically wasn't it illegal to use VHS to record TV at one point in time? Yet people did it.

 

[orchardapple]

in laymans terms what are the products i'd need to get this same set up you all mention?

what models etc do i need?

love the iP camera, would be great for me

 

[woopwoop]

Haven't had time to look into the ip cam thing with my device but the devices were mentioned earlier in the thread. Check out Amazon for deals.

The software element for TV stuff is called "Get iPlayer Automator".