Help with NAS?

This should be a relatively easy project, but I don't really know the best way to go about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have an old HP desktop that still works well. I'd like to use it (wirelessly) to serve as a NAS. I've looked around and many people recommend a different OS than Windows. As I have no experience with anything other than Windows, I'm not sure what to get or what's best for what I'm wanting to do.

The main PC that will be accessing it is running Vista x64. Should that be a problem? These are the basic things I need to know:

1) Which OS do I use? (preferably a free one)
2) How to create and setup the NAS feature in the newly installed OS.
3) How to make sure it's secure from the outside world.

If I'm completely in left field with what I'm asking, I apologize. I just don't know what I'm doing.

Thanks for all the help!

 

Any Linux based OS (Debian, Ubuntu) could work to help you to convert your desktop into a server. Vista is a more general task computer oriented OS, but I have heard that Windows server 2008 uses the same code than Vista, but I'm not sure if it's true and how to get Vista to convert your desktop into a server.

This is what Wikipedia has to say;

Description


A NAS unit is essentially a self-contained computer connected to a network, with the sole purpose of supplying file-based data storage services to other devices on the network. The operating system and other software on the NAS unit provide the functionality of data storage, file systems, and access to files, and the management of these functionalities. The unit is not designed to carry out general-purpose computing tasks, although it may technically be possible to run other software on it. NAS units usually do not have a keyboard or display, and are controlled and configured over the network, often by connecting a browser program to their network address.

The alternative to NAS storage on a network is to use a computer as a file server. In its most basic form a dedicated file server is no more than a NAS unit with keyboard and display and an operating system which, while optimised for providing storage services, can run other tasks; however, file servers are increasingly used to supply other functionality, such as supplying database services, email services, and so on.

A general-purpose operating system is not needed on a NAS device, and often minimal-functionality or stripped-down operating systems are used. For example FreeNAS, which is open source NAS software designed for use on standard computer hardware, is just a version of FreeBSD with all functionality not related to data storage stripped out. NASLite as the name suggests is a highly optimized version of Linux running from a floppy disk for the sole purpose of a NAS. Likewise, NexentaStor is based upon the core of the NexentaOS, an open source hybrid operating system with an OpenSolaris core and a Linux user environment.

NAS systems contain one or more hard disks, often arranged into logical, redundant storage containers or RAID arrays (redundant arrays of inexpensive/independent disks). NAS removes the responsibility of file serving from other servers on the network.

NAS uses file-based protocols such as NFS (popular on UNIX systems) or SMB (Server Message Block) (used with MS Windows systems). NAS units rarely limit clients to a single protocol.

NAS provides both storage and filesystem. This is often contrasted with SAN (Storage Area Network), which provides only block-based storage and leaves filesystem concerns on the "client" side. SAN protocols are SCSI, Fibre Channel, iSCSI, ATA over Ethernet, or HyperSCSI.

Despite differences SAN and NAS are not exclusive and may be combined in one solution: SAN-NAS hybrid

The boundaries between NAS and SAN systems are starting to overlap, with some products making the obvious next evolution and offering both file level protocols (NAS) and block level protocols (SAN) from the same system. However a SAN device is usually served through NAS as one large flat file, not as a true filesystem. An example of this is Openfiler, a free product running on Linux.

 

If you want to try out a non-Windows OS on your NAS system, one alternative (particularly if you're like me and don't really have the time to learn how to be patient with getting a linux installation to play nice with old hardware - no knock on linux, just on the lack of time) is an OS called NASLite, which is already optimized to act as a network file server.

They have two products, (i) NASLite-2, available in a variety of different media, but for-pay at $30, and (ii) the original NASLite, which is available for free. Both products are based on the linux kernel, but have been optimized, as I said, to act as a NAS.

Of course, if you already have a Windows OS on the old desk-box, have you considered just sticking with that and using the built-in file-sharing functionality?

Finally, you could just go whole hog (like I'm trying to do) and do an Apache installation (Apache's free), and then top that off with PHP and MySQL so you've got a full-bore web/file personal server (and, if you set up a free dynamic DNS account, also accessible from the internet, too ).

 

Another good NAS packages is FreeNAS I was using it till I got my larger SMB Snap Servers.

If you only need FTP an have a older OS this WarFTP is one of the best.

 

check out this link...there's pages and pages of shareware...didn't explore to far into it...maybe even some freeware...my point...i really don't know why you need an O.S. to do what your doing...from your post if i understand correctly...your basically wanting to use this pc as really kind of like an outboard storage drive...only on your network...if these solutions fit the bill...no need in making things more complicated than they have to be...

 

Another alternative is unRAID, a linux-based OS from Lime Technology.

It boots entirely from a USB key...no hard drive installation at all. The unique thing about unRAID is that it creates a RAID5-like (it's not actually RAID5, but some other proprietary raid-like thing) array from multple disks of ANY size. Mix and match. Add another anytime. The only requirement is that the parity drive be the largest (or equal to the largest) drive in the system.

I used it for quite some time as a media streaming box. Six drives with over 2 TB total. Worked great.

I've since moved all that stuff to a traditional Win2003 server, but unRAID was solid.

 

Which link? Don't mean to be cheeky, it just doesn't seem to have made it onto the finished post.

 

I built my NAS a year ago , tried some Linux based freeware but didn't liked it alot , so I just used XP , didnt had a single problem.
I can also recommend UltraVNC , which you can use to remotly access the NAS without having to use a monitor for it.

and btw my main pc OS is also vista x64.