Best way to secure large amounts of data?

Hi,

Prof is 100% correct : there is a large difference between NAS manufacturers. I use a little 1TB RAID1 home NAS by the name of THECUS. Its simple enough for my needs, but in my opinion I did find setting it up a slow and painful process. There are others that like QNAP and SYNOLOGY that are more directed at the commercial side, but now also do a home NAS : if I had my choices over than I would probably go with one of those two.

Usually the NAS comes with its own version of an "OS" that allows printers to be shared from it, to set up a FTP from it, access it over the web, and also stream media from it (usually using TWONKY). If thats your thing, a NAS can be very powerful for sharing stuff. Speed of access can be an issue : normally the connection is via ETHERNET so a gigabyte switch is essential, but there is a massive difference in make/model and speeds - best to do research in this department. Suffice to say, speed is going to cost you extra.

A dedicated PC solution can achieve everything a NAS can, and at a cheaper price, it just takes more setup. The thing that makes a NAS so attractive is it requires none of the build and setup of a PC solution : its a small compact unit, almost an out-the-box solution, but not quite. If you have the time and know-how, a PC solution will be more than adequate I would think.

Regards,
Golden