> -----Original Message----- > From: Matthew Smith [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 8:24 AM > To: cf-community > Subject: accessing a raid array over the internet > > After looking at the cost of online storage, it looks like my friend > will probably go with a local raid array for his 2TB. I'm looking > through the stuff available at newegg, but haven't made up my mind yet.
I've got nothing but good to say about the ReadyNas NV line by Netgear - I've got two and they're the absolute best. Although I have heard very good things about HP newly released Windows Home Server Boxes. These are complete boxes, web configured. You set them up and you have a network share of material. They provide software services such as streaming media (DLNA, iTunes, etc) servers, FTP, HTTP access, etc by themselves. They generally can handle their security but can also adopt whatever domain security you might have to offer. The ReadyNAS boxes run under BSD - so you can choose to enable to command line (not enabled by default) and install whatever you like (taking into consideration the relatively weak processor involved). The Windows Home Server boxes tend to be a little beefier and can handle a bit more onboard processing if you need them to. Of course they all support multiple RAID configurations (for two TB and RAID 5 - my recommendation - you'll want at 4 750 GB disks or three 1 TB disks - but the prize is four 1TB disks and three TB of redundant storage). Most of them support automated workstation backups, access restrictions, auto-uptime control and the like. They're not cheap, but as a one-time investment they can make fiscal sense and are incredibly easy to manage, expand and work with. You can do the same things (of course) with a dedicated PC, but in my experience that's more complex, more prone to failure, and just not as elegant (full PC boxes are noisier, use more space and power and generally need more access). > My question is about making the array available over the internet. I > assume that once we get the array set up it will simply show up as a > drive on his computer. How would we go about making it accessible? > Can we just share it? How do we make it accessible over http? I > assume we would need to get a static IP from his ISP. Any other > concerns? This is really left up to your router. If you're still using a "normal" home router do yourself a HUGE favor and (if possible) upgrade it to one of the better freeware firmwares. On my LinkSys router I had used Talisman for years and liked it, but for the last year or so I've been using Tomato and had had nothing but nice from it. These firmwares GREATLY expand your capabilities and are totally free (if your router supports them - if not buying a new router is probably cheaper than leaving a PC running 24/7). In your case some of the features I think you'd be looking for are: +) "Dynamic DNS" Services. This eliminates the need for a static IP from your ISP (but do add another dependency on your system). Essentially this is a service that gives you a "static" IP address on their server which they forward seamlessly to your dynamic address. An agent on your side (the router in this case) constantly reports the dynamic IP address to the service. This generally works incredibly well simply because most broadband (and I have to assume that we're talking broadband here) services are essentially static anyway: the router is almost always on 24/7 and the address almost never changes. There are a bunch of services that provide this (DynDNS, FreeDNS, TZO, OpenDNS, etc) but you'll have to go with one that your router supports (although you can use a PC client as well). The Tomato firmware supports at least twelve options. +) Static IP Assignment. This lets you assign static IPs to devices on your network (this is NOT the same as getting a static IP from your ISP). You can still set up your devices easily with "DHCP assigned" information, but you're telling the DHCP server to always assign the same IP to certain devices. +) Port Forwarding. This is pretty standard on any router, but you need it. All this does is say "when I get a request for this port, send it to that machine for service". So you can say "web requests (port 80) go to this machine" or FTP or create custom ports or whatever. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:283730 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
