Lacie Network 2 NAS Hard Drive

paulgrogan.eu

Hi all,

I'm looking for some opinions here please guys!

I'm looking to setup a Network Attached Hard Drive at home for a variety of tasks which include:

• File Backup
• Central Storage
• Media Server
• External FTP Access to my files
• etc..

I have been looking at the Lacie 2big Network 2 NAS box. (http://www.lacie.com/ie/products/product.htm?pid=11471)

On paper, it looks great. It seems to do everything I want along with having backup software included. Obviously, I've read if the house burns down, I've no backup, but added to the backup software, I plan to run a weekly backup via USB to a regular external hard drive. A nice feature included I think. Plan is also to setup RAID 1 giving me mirrored image and 1TB of storage space.

So my questions.

• Is this device any good?
• Easy to setup?
• Is there an option to access the files on it from an external source? IE via FTP away from my home
• If for some strange reason I want to connect to the hard drive VIA USB, can I access EVERYTHING on the hard drive?

Can think of anything else but any other help / advice would be very very much appreciated. I want to make sure I get the right device as I have a friend looking to do something similar for their small business so would plan to install the same solution for them if it works out.

Rgds

Paul

whizbang

NAS units are a fab invention, once its up and running you wonder how you did without it:D
I read early units seem to had some failures, but we use a a few of these and all are ok. But go the whole hog, get a small UPS for it and stash them away somewhere out of reach: ie in the attic/ under stairs etc. build a box if need be..
and good luck.

paulgrogan.eu

whizbang wrote: »

NAS units are a fab invention, once its up and running you wonder how you did without it:D
I read early units seem to had some failures, but we use a a few of these and all are ok. But go the whole hog, get a small UPS for it and stash them away somewhere out of reach: ie in the attic/ under stairs etc. build a box if need be..
and good luck.

Hi there,

Thanks a million for your feedback. Yeah they certainly seem to be the business on paper alright, boasting lots of impressive features!

However, the NAS units that you have, are they the Lacie ones under the link above, or another brand? I'm really curious to hear user experience of these units or if anyone could tell me if there are better ones available.

Many thanks

Paul

akamossie

I have the buffalo make, and they are fantastic, remote access to my drive from anywhere in the world + FTP. Webaccess which sharing files and photos with family, RAID 0,1,5 , media server streaming music, video, pictures over to my PS3, TV and mobile. built in bittorrent, no more PC turned on all the time. backup and many more i guess. What else i can ask for, i guess ANOTHER one

Razzuh

I have a d-link 323:

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/522167/art/d-link/dns-323-external-3-5-ethe.html

2 Samsung 1.5TB low-power drives. Works very well, delighted with it. I got the whole lot for €300. Are you planning to pay the price on the LaCie website...it looks very steep for what they're offering.

From how I read it, you can't plug in via USB and access the whole drive, only a special area of the drive set aside for USB access. This is normal, I don't know of any NAS that allows USB access. There are technical reasons why this is so. For fastest possible access, you need to hook up an ethernet cable between the computer and the NAS, then setup an ad-hoc network. For the best speed, your computer and the NAS must have gigabit ethernet adapters (should be faster than USB2.0).

An advantage of the LaCie over mine is that it allows an external USB hard drive be plugged in and added to the network, that might be important to you. It's the only major difference I can see.

For remote access to your files what you need to look for is an FTP server. This is pretty standard I think, I've never seen a NAS without it. Don't expect fast speeds though, most ISP upload speeds are slow (your ISP might possibly block FTP access too, not sure about this). A UPnP AV server is handy for streaming videos straight to TV from your NAS (you need a UPnP media streamer hooked up to your TV, an Xbox360 has one built in).

net4hack

I bought the Lacie 2TB from Dabs. I dont think there is any other 2TB NAS with both Ethernet and USB with a price tag of €157.08.

http://www.dabs.ie/products/lacie-2tb-lacie-network-space-2-ethernet-hi-speed-usb-6LQ1.html?refs=52910000

Only drawback i could find is that the black shiny cover could get scratch marks easily. Even though the total capacity mentioned is 2TB what realistically we could use is 1.82 TB, I think...