How To Build Standalone NAS Systems

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. Two Scenarios for Implementing NAS as a Media Server

Here are a couple of scenarios to give you a feel for where NAS devices can be deployed.

Home Scenario: A family desktop PC and a cable modem are connected to a router. A NAS media server connects directly to the router to serve digital entertainment content throughout the home. A USB printer, connected to the NAS media server, is available as a shared resource to all PC users on the home network. Here's a look at this configuration:

Further, in the living room, where most of the TV watching takes place, a DMA is connected (either wired or wirelessly) to the home network and home theater. The user can play background music while a slide show of photos plays on the big-screen TV set. Similarly, the family&'s collection of music and photos are centrally archived on the NAS media server for streaming over the home network.

In the family room, a network TV with a DMA is connected to the home network. If the kids want to watch a movie of their trip to Disney World on the TV, a library of home movies is archived on the NAS media server. In the teenage daughter&'s room, an audio player is connected to the home network and a stereo system in the bedroom. The daughter can navigate by artist, genre or album to choose songs.

In the son&'s bedroom, a laptop is connected wired/wirelessly to the home network. He is doing homework, researching information on the Internet while listening to music that resides on the NAS media server. Once he completes his homework, he prints it out on the shared USB printer that is connected to the NAS media server in the den.

Business Scenarios: A dentist&'s office provides an audio player in each room that is connected wired or wirelessly to the office network, and also connected to a stereo system in a small media room. Patients can select songs from a playlist of music that is stored on a central NAS media server

A vocational school library provides a TV set and DMA connected to the school network. Students can choose from a list of training videos available on a central NAS media server. Because the videos are always available, students can view them whenever they like.

An art museum provides an audio player at exhibits, which are connected wired or wirelessly to the building's network. Visitors can choose from several pre-recorded talks on the artwork. In the museum's main lobby, a network TV with a DMA is connected to the building network, and a NAS media server offers a welcome message from the director and a video of the various exhibitions. In the auditorium, a PC connected to the museum's network, along with an LCD projector, is available for presenters to access on the NAS media server. RECIPE INGREDIENTS

Let&'s take a look at NAS fits together for a small-business network. We&'ll set up the Maxtor Shared Storage Plus NAS device I mentioned earlier, along with wired and wireless components you&'ll find in a typical network, such as desktop PCs, laptops, and a router. We'll then stream some audio and video around our network of wired and wireless PCs. And we&'ll introduce you to media serving using NAS with an affordable DMA to connect to your TV and stereo. First, let's assemble the necessary components:

• Wired Router: I recommended you work with the reliable EtherFast Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port Switch v4.0 from Linksys. It's currently available for around $50 (with frequent rebates), this router is fine for a home or small business. It will be the heart of our data network.
• Wireless Router: The US Robotics Wireless Turbo Access Point and Router (USR8054) is another popular product for the home and office, this device provides both 802.11g wireless and four ports of wired access. In our network, its WAN port is connected to the Linksys uplink port with a crossover cable. The current street price is about $60. This router will give you the ability to stream media files wirelessly.
• Network Access Storage Device: For your NAS device, I recommend the Maxtor Shared Storage Plus. At around $350, this device lets you quickly add storage and media features to a network. Also, this device plugs directly into the Linksys router with a standard Ethernet cable.
• Media PC (with DVR hardware and software): For this component, I suggest you read over my related TechBuilder article Build a White-Box TiVo . As a media-ready PC, it's built to record both TV shows and movies, and is based on a reliable Intel PERL865 motherboard with Onboard 10/100 Network and DVR Card. The "Media PC" is plugged directly into the Linksys router via a standard Ethernet cable. It works as both a device to load data onto the NAS unit, and a TV-capture and -playback station. One caveat: Since the Media PC won't be configured to record high-demand media (such as video) directly to the NAS device—instead, record it to the PC and move those related media files to the NAS for central storage and distribution.
• Desktop PC: As a second, more general-purpose system, you could put together a system based on the rock-solid Chaintech MK8T890 motherboard. With an onboard 10/100 network and 5.1 Surround Sound, this PC will also plug directly in to our Linksys router.
• Wireless Laptop PC: To check out the performance of your wireless streaming on a common laptop (or "whitebook"), I recommend a Dell Inspiron 2.54 Ghz Laptop equipped with a US Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo PC Card. The Dell Inspiron series are economical laptops for home and business. While any popular laptop or whitebook could to the job nicely, for our network, we'll use it to play audio selections from our NAS media server.
• DMA: While there are many Digital Media Adapters to choose from at various price levels, let's keep it simple. For this Recipe, I recommend a Linksys WMA11B Wireless-B Media Adapter, which you can purchase from Dell. The WMA11b is inexpensive—less than $50—and it's handy for connecting both audio and video to your network. Unfortunately, due to its speed, the unit not a great choice for movie viewing. But it does work well for JPEG and audio files. The Linksys DMA is shown here:

Four Steps to Setting Up a Network with NAS and DMA

• Get to know the network configuration: Understanding the demands on a sample network like ours is easy since we're only dealing with a couple of PCs, but looking at a complex network is different. You may want to diagram your target network for an NAS installation. Look for an open port on a central router and avoid a crowded or busy hub.
• Install and configure the NAS device: This NAS device requires that the network contain at least one PC with a Pentium III/500Mhz processor (or better); Windows (98SE, 2000, and XP are all acceptable); and the IE browser (version 6.0 or higher). The NAS device also requires a 10/100 TCP/IP network with DHCP and DNS servers. Finally, Client for Microsoft Networks must be enabled on each PC to enable the NAS.
• The table below will guide you through the initial set-up and configuration of the Maxtor Shared Storage Plus. It&'s simple and takes just a few minutes.

• After you've installed the NAS device, map the new network disk to a drive on each PC using: Start / My Network Places / Add a network place .
• The Install Wizard will prompt you to select "Choose another network location." Then click Next. Browse for the NAS device, which will look like this: “Public on mss-010A9C(192.168.1.140)." Each PC can now access the NAS. Follow the same routine for any private, password-protected folders you create, and add them to My Network Places where needed.
• Install and configure DMA device(s): Because the Linksys WMA11B is an older device, it depends on the PC software to find the adapter on the network. But you can get around this headache by pointing the adapter to the NAS directory using a mapped drive. Newer DMAs don&'t have this limitation, by the way. On a related note—while you won't be thrilled about the speed of this device, you will like the price, as it gives you the ability to stream audio to your legacy entertainment center (TV and Stereo) for less than $100. There are many DMAs to choose from, with price tags ranging from less than $100 to big, big dollars. Also, some are now being built into TVs and stereos.
• This table will guide you through the set-up and configuration of the Linksys DMA. In about 20 minutes, you&'ll be streaming Mpeg and Jpeg files around the network.

• Test the network: Play some music on the DMA-connected audio and video devices. Any disruption in the playback most likely indicates a potential network issue. Finally, be sure to follow good cabling techniques with wired components. If you use wireless devices, place the wireless antennas as high as possible for the best reception.

There you have it: a quick and easy add-on of storage capacity and media streaming around a network of wired and wireless computers and devices. Put NAS and DMA to work today for your clients.

ANDY MCDONOUGH is a regular contributor to TechBuilder.org. He's also a professional musician, composer, voice actor, engineer, and educator happily freelancing in New Jersey. Andy's biggest challenge with wireless audio is deciding whether to stream Dave Mathews or Booker T.