NAS: Platform-neutral
Right now I have a MacBook Pro, a generic PC running OpenSolaris, a Linksys N router, and an external harddrive that I use for my Time Machine backups.
In order to keep a platform-neutral environment, I've chosen not to get an AirPort Extreme since I can't manage it from my OpenSolaris box (nor can it read from the HFS+ formatted drive because of lack of HFS+ support in the OpenSolaris kernel, but I digress).
What's particularly annoying is that every 10 days TimeMachine bugs me that I haven't done a backup. This means I have to go down to the basement and plug my laptop into TimeMachine and do a backup that takes between 15 to 30 minutes.
I suppose the ideal solution would be to get AirPort Extreme + Time Capsule to do the backups wirelessly. Then again, I'd have to be completely invested in the Apple ecosystem, and that's not something I want to do.
So I'm thinking of setting up a NAS that will plug into my Linksys router so I can do my backups wirelessly. I could even partition the NAS into TimeMachine + platform-neutral storage (UFS or FAT) partitions.
Is this possible to do with Time Machine? If so, what NAS product do you recommend? As part of the deal, I'm also considering getting a platform-neutral N router so I could stream movies from the NAS to the AppleTV, if that's even possible.
In order to keep a platform-neutral environment, I've chosen not to get an AirPort Extreme since I can't manage it from my OpenSolaris box (nor can it read from the HFS+ formatted drive because of lack of HFS+ support in the OpenSolaris kernel, but I digress).
What's particularly annoying is that every 10 days TimeMachine bugs me that I haven't done a backup. This means I have to go down to the basement and plug my laptop into TimeMachine and do a backup that takes between 15 to 30 minutes.
I suppose the ideal solution would be to get AirPort Extreme + Time Capsule to do the backups wirelessly. Then again, I'd have to be completely invested in the Apple ecosystem, and that's not something I want to do.
So I'm thinking of setting up a NAS that will plug into my Linksys router so I can do my backups wirelessly. I could even partition the NAS into TimeMachine + platform-neutral storage (UFS or FAT) partitions.
Is this possible to do with Time Machine? If so, what NAS product do you recommend? As part of the deal, I'm also considering getting a platform-neutral N router so I could stream movies from the NAS to the AppleTV, if that's even possible.
Comments
Right now I have a MacBook Pro, a generic PC running OpenSolaris, a Linksys N router, and an external harddrive that I use for my Time Machine backups.
In order to keep a platform-neutral environment, I've chosen not to get an AirPort Extreme since I can't manage it from my OpenSolaris box (nor can it read from the HFS+ formatted drive because of lack of HFS+ support in the OpenSolaris kernel, but I digress).
What's particularly annoying is that every 10 days TimeMachine bugs me that I haven't done a backup. This means I have to go down to the basement and plug my laptop into TimeMachine and do a backup that takes between 15 to 30 minutes.
I suppose the ideal solution would be to get AirPort Extreme + Time Capsule to do the backups wirelessly. Then again, I'd have to be completely invested in the Apple ecosystem, and that's not something I want to do.
So I'm thinking of setting up a NAS that will plug into my Linksys router so I can do my backups wirelessly. I could even partition the NAS into TimeMachine + platform-neutral storage (UFS or FAT) partitions.
Is this possible to do with Time Machine? If so, what NAS product do you recommend? As part of the deal, I'm also considering getting a platform-neutral N router so I could stream movies from the NAS to the AppleTV, if that's even possible.
http://www.macworld.com/article/1413...?lsrc=rss_main
A full NAS with 8 drives takes up a palty 34w.
http://www.macworld.com/article/1413...?lsrc=rss_main
A full NAS with 8 drives takes up a palty 34w.
Nice, but overkill considering my basic needs.
Nice, but overkill considering my basic needs.
I'd say look at QNAP, Synology, and maybe Thecus for a good price/performance NAS.
You may even want to look at an HP Mediasmart running Windows Home Server for your needs. Probably the best "bang for your buck"
I'd say look at QNAP, Synology, and maybe Thecus for a good price/performance NAS.
You may even want to look at an HP Mediasmart running Windows Home Server for your needs. Probably the best "bang for your buck"
Hmm... JavaCowboy with the OpenSolaris PC. Possibly the Windows Home Server suggestion will fall on stony ground...
It does AFP and supports TimeMachine with a single click of a checkbox in the NAS web configuration interface. As far as I know, it is the only non-apple product that officially supports TimeMachine... and does so in a dead simple manner.
It is just about every kind of media/streaming server, does online capacity expansion, rsync, ftp, samba, afp, apache. It even has a local bittorrent client, can uncompress files locally... and the list could go on and on.
It is basically the best linux NAS appliance on the market (for use with OS X at home). It is a full fledged linux server with a decent web interface.
Here are some pictures of when I mounted the ReadyNAS and a UPS to the wiring panel in my basement:
http://www.filerhouse.com/web/FilerH...tallation.html
And yeah, that's being served from the ReadyNAS. Since I'm not at home, the drives may have spun down so the first page load could be slow while the drives spin up.