Creating a home network

Ms. Chanandler Bong

Hi there,

I've looked & looked & can't find anything on Boards that can help me (partly due to my lack of knowledge on the topic )

I would like to set up a network that I can plug my external harddrives into, thus enabling me to access my music & other files wirelessly throughout the house & also back-up my laptop wirelessly. I'd also like my partner's laptop to be able to access this network. I have an Apple iBook G4 running OSX Leopard. He has an Acer Aspire running Windows 7. My internet is through Eircom.

My nearest computer shop is PC World although I can get to a Maplin's if needs be.

My question is what do I need to set this up? Take it for granted that I know nothing about computer programming or cabling needed so have pity on me & don't use too many tech-words

Thanks in advance

Rackstar

Probably the best solution for you would be as NAS box (network associated storage). You would connect this to your Eircom router with a network cable and store your photos and music on the NAS.

Something like a Buffalo cloudstor would be perfect. There isn't much to configuring them. The cloudstor can also be accessed from any where when configured and connected to the Internet.

Hijpo

Rackstar wrote: »

Probably the best solution for you would be as NAS box (network associated storage). You would connect this to your Eircom router with a network cable and store your photos and music on the NAS.

Something like a Buffalo cloudstor would be perfect. There isn't much to configuring them. The cloudstor can also be accessed from any where when configured and connected to the Internet.

You could try get your hands on a Raspberry Pi for 30ish dollars, connect it to your wireless router with an ethernet cable and connect your hdd to the usb ports. Should work right?

Rackstar

Hijpo wrote: »

You could try get your hands on a Raspberry Pi for 30ish dollars, connect it to your wireless router with an ethernet cable and connect your hdd to the usb ports. Should work right?

I'm sure it would if the Raspberry PI had wireless and enough USB ports and the OP is familiar with sharing drives from a Linux OS.

The OP stated they have very little knowledge on this.

jetski

Hi OP,

Do you want a wired or wireless network?

Does your external hard drive have a network card built in?

Its very straight forward to setup a basic home network really.

You will need...

a router for internet access.

a switch for connecting your wired devices to

and a wireless access point for your wireless devices.

you will also need a usb connection on your router / switch / wireless unit to connect your external hard drive if in the case your drive only has a usb connection.

There is a belkin router which has all of these devices in one unit, it retails for about €45 - €50 and should be easy enough to setup.

Hey,

If you're looking for a simple set up and you already have a wireless router what you're looking for is an external network drive (NAS). This would be your simplest option.

http://www.elara.ie/products/harddisknet.aspx?available=checked

As you can see there are many options at different size storage. I'd recommend something like the Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition. Should be very simple to set up (plug and play)

The thing to look out for is that the drive is either FAT32 or apple compatible as some are not.
I have an ubuntu server and I use windows xp, 7 and OSX Lion, Ubuntu.... so i know the difficult with getting them all talking properly!

Hijpo

Rackstar wrote: »

I'm sure it would if the Raspberry PI had wireless and enough USB ports and the OP is familiar with sharing drives from a Linux OS.

The OP stated they have very little knowledge on this.

Just thought id mention a cheaper alternative to a NAS setup thats all, a quick google would tell them about shares through linux and they have laptops so was presuming they already have the wifi router with spare ethernet ports. the Pi comes with a 10\100 port so they could ethernet it to the spare port on the router.

I appologise for putting you in a position to point out everything wrong with my suggestion.

nelly17

you could try This I have one of These Belkin Routers and it works a treat but I think it was over €100, where as the ibood one seems to do just the same job for half the price.

yoyo

nelly17 wrote: »

you could try This I have one of These Belkin Routers and it works a treat but I think it was over €100, where as the ibood one seems to do just the same job for half the price.

I would also go TP Link or any of the other brands over Belkin any day of the week, have had issues with that brand in the past (hardware is usually ok, firmware/drivers are poor)

Nick

nelly17

The Belkin does give crap file transfer speeds over the wireless network to the Hard drive connected to it - and I'm using an N adapter with it too. Fine foer streaming though.

fbit_colin

Is all your music on the external drives or inside itunes on your laptop?

if its in itunes you could look at using Apples icloud

http://www.apple.com/icloud/what-is.html

Once you have your itunes shared to every device you own with icloud enabled you can copy everything you want from your external drives to the icloud service. this will save you trying to build a network and give you access to all your content where ever you are not just at home. Plus you can install it on the windows laptop and access it all there also.

if your really looking for a NAS solution check out the new Zyxel NSA-325

lots of cool features out of the box.

http://www.zyxel.com/products_services/nsa325.shtml?t=p

jetski

nelly17 wrote: »

The Belkin does give crap file transfer speeds over the wireless network to the Hard drive connected to it - and I'm using an N adapter with it too. Fine foer streaming though.

is it N150 or N300 equiptment you have?

U_Fig

ì would also suggest tp-link I have a wireless N router and couple of Powerline adapters..the set up was easiest I've ever plugged it in pressed one button and it was working used and have had zero problems with them at all..also the model of router I have had a USB port to connect an external drive and it has media server in it and ftp server also.