NASLite Network Attached Storage

I just built a terabyte NAS with NASLite2-USB and an old POS miditower. Athlon 950, 3Com 3C2000 gigabit NIC, 384 MB ram (old 128 MBstrips), 4x250GB Hitachi DeskStar drives (on closeout). CoolerMaster STB-3T4 drive cage with fans to keep those puppies cool.

I am using it to offload stored files on a home office network... mixture of stuff or all sorts.

Main problem is slow throughput, especially with one machine that still has a 10/100 NIC. I started moving 35GB of TV show episodes TEN HOURS AGO and I still have TWO MORE HOURS to go, says the Windows machine.

Gotta get another 10/100/100 NIC!

And I need to run some benchmarks to see just what I have here...

I am using a NASLite with 4x500GB SATA drives configured in a RAID5. The box is going to store nightly system backups for a small law firm and has enough capacity to store the last 7 daily, 4 weekly and more than a year's worth of monthly full backups.

My only problem so far is throughput. I need to adjust some settings in the backup software and patch the NAS directly to the secondary nic on the backup server and hope for some improvement. Currently, a full 50GB backup is taking about 36 hours!

Mine is to consolidate all the different HD I've got floating all over the place.

My wife was very happy seeing the clean up. We only live in a One Bedder so space is a premium.

Backing up audio (wav) files from a recording studio.

Used NasLite for 1 year as a 0.5TB server with Zero problems.
Upgraded to NasLite 2 for faster speed.

It is the best thing since sliced bread!

I am using mine as 3.5TB filestorage for on demand video and music around the house.

I use NasLite for my entire Media Library made of:
- Compressed Music Files (WMA and MP3)
- Owned DVDs
- Family Pictures and Videos

I have a Windows Media Center in every room of the house which are all connecting their media library to the NasLite Server, located in the basement.

I emphasize on Owned DVD here as I rip the DVDs I own (largely Kid stuff) on the server so my 2 and 4 year old can watch a DVD without feeling compelled to chew on the DVD cover box or the previously inserted DVD.

My next project is to restore all my Mp3 and WMA collection (1000 records or so) into lossless WMA. No matter what they say, you can hear the difference between MP3 and Lossless audio files.

I just moved from Naslite 1 (diskette) to Naslite 2 CDD essentially for the capacity to handle IDE controller card as stated in the documentation and the capability to set an entire drive to Read Only. Indeed, my 2 and 4 are getting smarter and have managed to delete a few items here and there. So I need a safeguard.

Using for:
* backup (ACRONIS 11)
* consolidate loose hard drives around the place
* repository for :-
** digital TV recordings
** MP3's
** applications installations/drivers etc

Interfaces with:-
ABYSS Web Server (only coupla meg memory)
* secure password protected access from internet using ABYSS web server running on a Windows machine. I have my MP3's wherever I am.
* Also setup webstats on the windows machine to track access.


For backups, getting around 10 megabytes per sec across the 100 LAN...very noice

1gig P3, a gig of ram, 4 drives, about 700gig of space total (mix of old drives!)

just using mine as a general file store, music, films etc...

I'd use it as a backup spot too, but I already have a stand alone nas box (200gig) for that....

(I got the stand alone before I knew about naslite!)

for me, the nas box sits there un-used 99.99% of the time so drive spin down would be a bonus

and I'd also really like to be able to add extra ftp accounts (just simple stuff, like a read only account without losing the main rw arrount)... would mean i don't need to have my main pc on to ftp in from outside !

Video servers for ReplayTv MPEG2s. Access is via dedicated media player...not PCs.

Your box is about as "open standards" as things get. Fast and robust.







https://web.simdesk.com/email/link.php?path=link47658b648770e

I just upgraded to v2.06,
I and the people in this house (6) put all our films and photo's on it.
All gigabit so we can stream it directly (the Mac's).
We like to be able to get one big iTunes library for all of us.
We have 4 Mac's and 3 PC's so the AFP/SMB mix is great.
Looking forward to the next upgrade!
Good work.

Quite normal I guess; backups from 3 PCs and a Linux system as well as storage of MP3 WMA and video on demand from all networked PCs. All works faultlesly, however demand is very spasmodic so would drool over standby/ spindown facility. Poor old NL runs 24/7 'just-in-case'!!!

Nl is based on Compaq Pro mini with 512MB never fails. Thanks ralph et alia formidable! jeffjohn

Started with the free floppy, bought NL1.x and later NL2.x. Been using and migrating from box to box for what must be at least 4 years now with few problems, most all of which have been hardware related. The software has proven extremely reliable and very fast with the Gigabit network I run it on.

I use the box for everything from file to music and video storage. It is also the repository for all my drivers and general file moves I might need to do between computers on my network. We have a DVR for programs and I move files from it to the NL box for later viewing. Performance is great with files coming off of the box at a minimum of 25MB/sec and multiple files from different drives in the box at well in excess of 50MB/sec. Future application will be an HD video server for the home.

With modest hardware I have a monster server!

Mike

Would it not make sense to take a look at Windows Home Server for future features? Obviously some of the features are specific to the Windows platform but rest assured that Microsoft have spent quite alot of money into researching what features are requested by potential customers. My 2 cents!

Personally I use my NASLite to store drive images, media files and documents. Its used in a mixed network of Linux and Windows machines. I love the fact that storage is separated from the system itself. In my case this means I only have four drives inside the box and a tiny USB-stick with the OS, lovely stuff! I would like to see a new version of NASLite focusing on performance without taking low end hardware into consideration.

OOOOOH Me too!

Mike

Oh and I wouldn´t mind having a bittorrent client integrated with NL