Tips for setting up home network

Wheety

Recently had house rewired and had the house wired for Ethernet.

Looking to get a gigabit switch. Have 9 sockets around the house and will obviously need one to take in Broadband too. Are there 10 or 12 port gigabit switches? Seems to go from 8 to 16.

How much will a decent one cost?

Also looking at a NAS. I've seen that is no. 1 on Amazon Synology DiskStation DS215j. Is this a good one? Will probably only use 1 drive at the moment and maybe add another at a later stage. Not really bothered about RAID. Will use it for storing media and files. Will want to stream to the tv. Am I missing a step? I have a raspberry pi and will either use Kodi or have a look at Plex.

As for backup, should I just use a USB drive or would an online option be better? I have Google Drive at the moment. If I have Google Drive folder mapped to the NAS will backups be automatic?

Thanks

ItHurtsWhenIP

Wheety wrote: »

Recently had house rewired and had the house wired for Ethernet.

Looking to get a gigabit switch. Have 9 sockets around the house and will obviously need one to take in Broadband too. Are there 10 or 12 port gigabit switches? Seems to go from 8 to 16.

How much will a decent one cost?
...

You can get a 12 port no problem ... I'm thinking of getting this Netgear for a small company, but it might be a little bit on the expensive side for a home set-up though, but I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives.

ED E

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003UWRYBI/ref=twister_B00EO2I1VA?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Thats what I'd go for switch wise.


I dont thing gDrive supports network paths, double check that. Synology+Backblaze/Crashplan/Carbonite would be a very good backup strategy that you could use for the entire house.

seamus

Yes, Synology are a great brand, I'd heartily recommend it to anyone for NAS as well as home server usage - media streaming, etc.

The Synology NAS comes with the ability to backup the NAS itself to Google Drive, but there are other more cost-effective solutions for backing up your stuff online.

If the solution is available to you, you can also backup to another location. So if a family member (or very trusted friend) has another NAS (doesn't necessarily have to be Synology), you can backup your data to their NAS and it costs you nothing.

When you're using online backups, configuring the backups gets very selective as you're trying to keep costs down by only backing up absolutely essential stuff. I keep 400GB of stuff backed up to a family member's house, and I don't have to worry about ensuring that new files on the NAS are backed up, as it's just a full backup of everything on the NAS, so everything gets backed up weekly. And it costs me nothing.

moc moc a moc

+1 for Synology, they are my go-to brand for enterprise-grade NAS, and I gather the same excellent software is available on the home models.

BobbyT28

moc moc a moc wrote: »

+1 for Synology, they are my go-to brand for enterprise-grade NAS, and I gather the same excellent software is available on the home models.

+2 for synology, can't recommend it highly enough. I use it as a media server. Have CouchPotatoe, Sickrage, Plex installed.

Also have MyPhpAdmin installed for my 2 Pi's for a central database.

All my media is shared across both pi's so when I watch remove or add any TV shows or Movies it's updated across all my devices.

Huge amount of apps and the mobile apps are fantastic.

BobbyT28

Wheety

Sorry for only coming back to this now. Cheers for the suggestions. I'll be mainly using it for centralised storage of files and media streaming.

Is there anything I need to look out for in a NAS to ensure it has the speed for streaming? I currently have a pi 1.

I heard the pi 2 is much quicker. Is it worth upgrading or can you suggest something else for the receiving device? I don't have a smart tv.

degsie

Again, look at getting a synology nas.

BobbyT28

Wheety wrote: »

Sorry for only coming back to this now. Cheers for the suggestions. I'll be mainly using it for centralised storage of files and media streaming.

Is there anything I need to look out for in a NAS to ensure it has the speed for streaming? I currently have a pi 1.

Have a loook at this link to find the best synology for your needs (Transcoding) https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/faq/577

I heard the pi 2 is much quicker. Is it worth upgrading or can you suggest something else for the receiving device? I don't have a smart tv.

1. Pi2 is noticebly quicker. XBMC is great and is a lot smother on Pi2.

2. For none smart TV, I would suggest a chromecast. Download DSvideo on NAS (point all your movie and TV folders to the DSvideo library)and the DS video app on your phone or tablet and cast it to your TV. Select what movie or TV show you want to watch and just cast it to your TV using the Chromecast icon on top right. Works a treat.

3. I'm no expert but support for Transcoding (Video transcoding refers to the process of converting video files originally unsupported by a media player into a compatible format.) and decent a amount of ram etc

Isaiah

Just grab a used Cisco Catalyst Swtich from ebay. 50 quid and they are indestructible.

BobbyT28

Isaiah wrote: »

Just grab a used Cisco Catalyst Swtich from ebay. 50 quid and they are indestructible.

I think for this type of setup am unmanaged switch would suffice.