I'm running the latest FW although they just let me download the Beta but I've not applied it yet.

got the changes in the beta anywhere?

Synology Inc. - NEW NAS Experience -

The point about enhanced Linux and Mac compatibility and case sensitivity due to improved file system makes me think there might be some improvement in things there.

The beta is really a judgement call you have to make as to whether you mind losing the data on there. Also it states once you have upgraded to 2.1 you can't go back to 2.0.

Think I'd have a go with NFS first and then see how you feel.

This link should help you turn on the NFS client if your version of VISTA has it (eg ultimate)

http://blogs.msdn.com/sfu/archive/2007/05/01/unix-interoperability-and-windows-vista.aspx

I seem to be getting somewhere now.

Firstly the HTPC is only 10/100 and not Gigabit as I thought.

I've disabled QoS and used a setting which was Auto Neg 100FD (Full Duplex) so I think it's tied it down a bit. The file transfer speed seems a quite respectable 11MB/s which seems more than adequate to stream the movies that I have.

So in summary, I now have an external, albeit expensive, method of external storage which works however it is currently connected to the HTPC via a direct cable connection which isn't what I wanted.

A couple of questions -

1 - If I'm intending to have a second 1TB drive in the box, would now be a good time to do it (before I fill one of them right up - I've spent the moving from the NAS to USB and internal drives expecting to get rid of the NAS so I can afford to format the drive now)

2 - What system should I adopt, striped may not be necessary if the current speed is adequate and striped is more risky. Am I right in assuming that Ext or something is the only file system available?

3 - If I decide to stick with this option with a cable connection for now, would it be feasible to consider Home Plugs in the future and over what sort of maximum distance should I be able get an adequate speed. I'm talking back of house to front and down one floor between points.

If you go from a single drive to a twin drive RAID 0 (Striped) then you would lose all the data on the first drive anyway, so I'd say yes.

It' it's just 2 JBOD non striped, fill one then the other you may not lose the data depending on the file system.

Ext3 appears to the be only file system they support. There are other Linux ones out there that would work faster for your needs, but they are not in the standard firmware.

Homeplugs are a workable option, but it might actually be cheaper to pay somebody to cut cat5 into the walls and run a switch as opposed to buying a number of the homeplug devices.

If you want to try a PCIe x4 single/dual 1Gbits ethernet card, I'm fairly certain I've got one kicking around you can borrow for a couple of days to see if this improves matters.

Oh and as an FYI have the 2TB Western Digital Green and Black drives hit the consumer market in the UK yet?

If so you could buy a pair of them and run them RAID 1 to provide redundancy and as an added bonus improved read speeds.

This is the one I was talking about:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/01/27/wd_2tb_caviar/

I think they had a couple listed last week but are out of stock now -

Western Digital Caviar Green Power 2TB 32MB Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms : WD-20EADS

and the 1TB

Western Digital Caviar Green Power 1TB 32MB Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms : WD-10EADS

So you think just stay with the single JBOD setup that I had originally intended to use?

I think that unless you have a good backup option using RAID 0 might not be the best of ideas.

If it was me I'd go 2*2TB RAID 1, assuming you need 2 TB of data space.

I think that unless you have a good backup option using RAID 0 might not be the best of ideas..

I'm not bothered about data loss, it's only movies after all but I agree that JBOD seems most sensible.

If it was me I'd go 2*2TB RAID 1, assuming you need 2 TB of data space.

Too late, I have already got one 1TB spin point installed. The price of 2TB disks is still prohibitive for the purposes I have.

Stu, firstly, yes, I just map the drives, secondly like you it's only movies and temporary disk space for screen movies so I am not worried about losing any data.

Homeplug AV works for me, up to 200 Mbit and I have a zyxel router with built in homeplug AV, I have another homeplug AV plugged into an 8 gang socket behind the TV, this goes into a gig switch with a patch cable running to the 360, the wii via rj45 / usb converter and the media centre hifi wotsit.

There is another homeplug AV in the conservatory that I plug the Macbook into and also feed's the little media centre box next to the tv in there. It's a tidy install. The router is in the garage next to my office along with my exchange server and that's coming onto the loop and I'm not having any problems streaming my HD content onto the TV or using the 360 and xbox live etc at the same time.

As far as the mains goes, the house is a semi with it's own consumer unit etc etc .... just a normal 1970's construction 3 bed with the original consumer unit apart from I have switched the fuses out for trips.....

I paid about £40 iirc for the homeplug AV plugs (each). The advantage for me was that I have not had to mess about running cables around the house, sorting out trunking or putting it through the wall cavities, I have got a drum of cable in the attic, but no time to do it so the homeplugs where the most "time" effective way of doing it, and let's be honest, Wi-Fi is mostly pant's anyway

Sounds like these Homeplugs do have something to offer then. Certainly something to look at.

Do you need a home plug equipped router or can you just use two plugs and cat5 between them and the devices?

I've got quite a large collection of BD movies plus some HD-DVD which I want to be readily available to the HTPC - That's my aim. I want to have it all setup so they can be tied in with WMC.

Sounds like these Homeplugs do have something to offer then. Certainly something to look at.

Do you need a home plug equipped router or can you just use two plugs and cat5 between them and the devices?

.

Two Homeplug AV's would do the trick, one plugged into the mains and patched to the router, the other plugged into the mains and patched to the NIC on the "shoe box"

Faculty-X Homeplug WiFi & Wireless Antenna Systems

Faculty-X Homeplug WiFi & Wireless Antenna Systems

looks like they are getting cheaper as well

More info on the Homeplug standard here mate Home - HomePlug Powerline Alliance

Go for it.. its just binned me off and wont let me do it

But you are the Uber Mod ........ and these other "sub mods" are just your whipping boys, sort them out col

I just went to Novatech to pick up another 1TB and also nipped into PC world to see what offerings they had.

Novatech have a few, most of which seem to have good reviews.

PC World had these instore although not on the website that I can see - Devolo dLAN 200 AVeasy Starter Kit, up to 200 Mbp: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

dLAN 200 AVeasy Starter Kit

These do look nice though, I don't know why but I'm always a sucker for the Linksys styling -

Faculty-X Homeplug WiFi & Wireless Antenna Systems

After some brief research these ones seem to be very well favoured -

Billion Products for SSL VPN, ADSL Modem/Router, Wireless ADSL Router, Powerline ADSL Router and Adapter, VoIP ADSL Modem/Router, Security Router, Broadband Router, SHDSL Bridge/Router, iBusiness Security, ISDN Product

Billion P104 BiPAC 2071 HomePlug AV 200 Wall Plug Starter Kit

I am using the linksys plug's Stu if it's any help.

I thought this was a reasonable price.

Linksys PLK200 PowerLine AV Ethernet Starter Kit

Does ethernet direct to switch make a noticable difference.

If not then this isn't going to help things as the EoP connectors will go in through the same ethernet ports.

@ the OP... (ill clean this thread up shortly)

Don't worry about it, It's all interesting to read

If your after hosting VMs, you need all the performance you can get.. something 99% of consumer NAS devices wont have the power to deliver...

Because you seem like a tech-savvy person.. how about checking out FreeNAS - even on a low spec PC itll run rings round a consumer-NAS thingy.. plus it supports NFS so you will be able to use it as a NFS datastore for ESX

Thanks, Will have a read on it tonight. I'm reasonably tech-savvy MCP etc but as with anything it's great to hear other ideas.

Back off buster! This is MY hood

Back off buster! This is MY hood

lol

i have a single disk synology and its great

also getting a icybox 4220 nas this week (95 quid new, takes 2 disks, raid 0 raid 1 or jbod) - throw a couple of 1tb drives from aria.co.uk and this just a shade over 200 quid

Good luck with it. I bought it for my old man and it's been nothing but trouble

The firmware on it is incredibly unreliable and with big harddrives, it just doesn't work. Not kidding :thumbdwn:

They've recently released a beta firmware, and whilst it's an improvement with the 640GB Samsung Spinpoint F1 drives I bought, they now fire up 1 in a 100 times.

Shame really. It's a true geeky box with lots of linux coders having fun with it, but IME with large drives - which is why you'd buy it in the first place - it just doesn't play ball :thumbdwn::(

link to info: http://en.nas-4220.org/index.php/Harddrives

Maybe I've been unlucky using samsung drives. Annoyingly the announcement came 10 days after I bought the lot :( And both Samsung drives I bought are now going back because they fail SMART :( :( :(

I had a strange twist to this on Friday.

After far too many hours googling and tweaking settings I succumbed to a factory restore on the HTPC.

Now connecting at 10MB/sec via cable to the 10/100 port on the HTPC!!!

There must be somthing that I had on there causing a conflict. I'm leaning toward AVG.

Slowly rebuilding and testing to identify the issue. Currently fully up to date with Windows and all is well.

Yes AVG does things with the network monitoring/checking and also sending data over the link from my experience.

Interesting to confirm though.

10MB/s = 80Mbits/s which is about the maximum you'd expect to see over a 100Mbit ethernet connection.

AVG8 is a bit of a resource hog compared to 7. if you rip it off and do a custom install things may be better, there is a "process shield" installed on the default config which scans every launching process as well as a network shield etc etc.

I run it on the main box at home with just the email / webmail scanner up and running and the file scanner for downloads. You have to put up with it bitching about you not being fully protected though ........ It's a good home product, for general use but is getting "bloated"

How about Kaspersky - Any thoughts on that?

How about Kaspersky - Any thoughts on that?

I like it very much, run it and you can get 3 licences from PC world for about 1p more than one if i remember correctly.