I have been looking into NAS and this one device I have seen which interests me. The website is HERE and we shall go through what it is, what it does and why you might want one (or something similar). First of all let us explain that NAS is Network attached Storage and this allows a box dedicated to sharing space across the network so that any computer can get at the information stored. Some boxes just share the drives but some come with a whole range of extras such as Web Server, Torrent client and iTunes Server.

What is a NAS

While there is nothing to stop you from setting up a machine and sharing the drives, do you really want a full blown desktop computer humming away and eating electricity just to share some files? What is much better is a small dedicated box hidden away in the corner with a lot of storage space. Add to this RAID and you have some sort of protection if the drives goes bad – but this depends on what type of RAID you choose.

What else can this do?

The main thing here which might be worth pointing out would be for example the iTunes Server – you can have one central place for all your tunes and the computer will see them. I have tested this myself with FreeNAS but I personally proffered a shared directory and adding them to each iTunes.

On the back we have a USB port – this can be used as either a USB Printer or another Harddrive for even more storage. The Fan you see will be making some noise but should power down as the unit is not needed.

Limits of this device

While the device is very cheap (£117.49 from Aria) there is some limits on this device. It supports a maximum of 1.5TB Drive per bay – so the Max Capacity will be 3GIG – this will go down once formatted of course and it would be wise to pick two drive of the same capacity for proper RAID. It does support JBOD (Just a Bunch of Drives) which added all the capacity up and presents it as one drive – it uses the first drive then the second as it fills up. If one drives goes – you have lost everything in JBOD mode, so be careful.