How To Build Standalone NAS Systems

If you've been looking to offer your clients increased storage capacity and the ability to serve-up media content, the wait is over. A new breed of standalone network attached storage (NAS) devices have arrived. They're as easy to install as they are powerful.

By simply adding one of these NAS devices to your customers' network, you can deliver all the benefits of central data storage--plus offer them a central media server. Better yet, these “always on” network devices have server software built in. This means they can dole out media files as needed, without requiring a PC to manage the effort.

In this TechBuilder Recipe, I'll show you how to set up and configure a NAS device to quickly increase disk capacity. Then, to show off the new media-serving abilities of these powerful add-ons, I’ll offer steps on setting up audio and video streams for home and small-business networks.

In addition, if you take the extra time to add a Digital Media Adapter (DMA), you can also offer streaming media to PCs from your clients' network by connecting a DMA to legacy entertainment devices such as TVs and stereos. I show you how, below.

Finally, I'll provide tips for working with DMA devices. DMAs have been subject to evolving standards, which in some cases have made them complex to install and operate. While setting up a DMA can be a challenge, when it’s done, you’ll have made digital content available for your client right from their network. Adding a DMA is like turning a legacy TV and stereo into a Media Player with network access!

New NAS Products

Let's start by taking a quick look at some of the newer NAS products available. Here are two NAS devices I highly recommend for adding Network Access Storage to a home or small business network:

* Maxtor’s Shared Storage Plus. This NAS product boasts 16 MB of cache memory, and measures roughly 11”X2”x5” in its own stand. It's shown here:

* Buffalo’s Link Station.

Both vendors offer 200-to-300 gigabyte (GB) NAS drives, and both will soon deliver whopping 500-GB units. Also, both devices are reliable and affordable, with competitive street prices for the 300-GB versions currently hovering around the $350 mark.

Both manufacturers also offer embedded software in their NAS products, including media server, support for iTunes, and "drag and drop" file handling utilities that organize media files. These new features turn NAS drives—already useful for central storage and backups—into full-fledged media servers. The best part: This embedded software, developed by entertainment-software provider Mediabolic Inc., is preinstalled on the drives at no additional cost.

Why NAS? Why Now?

Why NAS now? Because there’s a lot of data out there, from daily accounting backups to the snapshots from that last vacation. Most of it is eating up space on a PC hard disk somewhere only accessible by that PC. Also, while backups of work can be archived on a CD-ROM or DVD for safekeeping, pictures, movies, songs, and other media content beg to be seen and heard. How do we get the data currently sequestered on PCs out to video and audio devices? Via the network, of course—using network-ready devices and DMAs to connect with legacy TVs and stereos.

As I'm sure you know, there are more networks today than ever, and they are being deployed in homes and businesses at a staggering rate. For instance, SBC Communications plans to deploy advanced broadband services to reach 18 million customers' homes by 2007. With target markets like this, media giants such as Sharp and Toshiba, as well as companies focused on the PC market like Viewsonic and Creative, are developing products to meet the challenge of connecting networks and media devices.

Maxtor and Mediabolic believe the key to successfully connecting media devices and streaming media is a central data hub. Well, that and an adherence to the standards such as Universal Plug ‘N’ Play (uPnP) and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA). The standard uPnP manages network hardware; DLNA is a standard for the software interoperability of network devices. When these and other standards are set in place, broadband and media manufacturers will surely target both the home market and SMBs.