Is there any real worthy Wi-Fi (totally wireless) NAS's available yet?--newbe

[sandwich]

Hello friends, this is my first post, and I'm a totally newb to the whole NAS world, so go easy on my and speak in layman terms pls, but I know I need one.

I own a couple of retail businesses where I have a large customer data base, and I want to keep their info private and secure.
These are the features I'm looking for, is there anything on the market that fits this bill, anyone??

1) Wireless - I need to set it up in a secure separate location then all employees access.

2) different levels of permission, so I can keep all departments separate.

3) access , and manipulate over the web, add and remove files over the web.

4) access from an Android tables and/or phone.


Or should I just set up a laptop in a secure location and leave it on 24/7 and access it through something like "My PC", with a large external drive plugged into it, and maybe "free NAS" ( which I know nothing about by the way)

 

[GregN]

Hello friends, this is my first post, and I'm a totally newb to the whole NAS world, so go easy on my and speak in layman terms pls, but I know I need one.

I own a couple of retail businesses where I have a large customer data base, and I want to keep their info private and secure.
These are the features I'm looking for, is there anything on the market that fits this bill, anyone??

1) Wireless - I need to set it up in a secure separate location then all employees access.

2) different levels of permission, so I can keep all departments separate.

3) access , and manipulate over the web, add and remove files over the web.

4) access from an Android tables and/or phone.


Or should I just set up a laptop in a secure location and leave it on 24/7 and access it through something like "My PC", with a large external drive plugged into it, and maybe "free NAS" ( which I know nothing about by the way)

No there are no NASes that have wireless built in, you can use a wireless bridge, but your performance will suffer - depending on how you want to use the NAS this can be dramatic.
EDIT: Wrong about this, there are NASes with built-in Wireless - See Tim's Later Post

For example, Dlink's DAP-1522 N Bridge will do this. The bridge connects wired to the NAS on one end, on the other speaks to a wireless router that talks to the rest of your network (hence the name "bridge"....)

I think most folks here recommend, if wired gigabit is a problem, running powerline ethernet, where the network runs through your power socket infrastructure. This will offer better performance than Wireless, but not as good as directly wiring to the NAS.

The Steve (Stevech) has quite a bit of experience with this appoach, and can probably help you out if you need.

Most NAS's offer permission based access, using their Web GUI ( you can find live demos of both Synology and QNap Web GUI online, the two most popular NASes here, take a look )

QNap appears to have a remote access android application, QMobile

 

[ntm1275]

Referring to the Synology product range

1. Synology offer the feature of using Wireless dongles in one of the USB ports, the list of compatible dongles in in the link below

http://www.synology.com/support/faq_show.php?q_id=427&lang=enu

2. Yes this is a standard feature on all Synology NAS's

3. Synology NAS's have their web managed 'File Station', which can be accessed remotely

4. Synology have iPad, iPhone and Android mobile apps available - there appear to be several different apps for photos, audio, file manager, NAS management, download management and IP camera viewing

 

[sandwich]

Thank you both, I am going to look into both of your suggestions. I thank you for taking the time to break it down for me......thanks

 

[thiggins]

There are not many wireless NASes because wireless severely limits read / write speeds to the device. So working with large files or with many users will result in noticeably slow operation.

There are, however, a few wireless NASes:
Apple Time Capsule
LaCie Wireless Space

You'll need to look at the specs to see if they meet your other needs.

Of course, any NAS can be accessed wirelessly by attaching it via Ethernet to your wired LAN and accessing via your LAN's wireless network. You can also use a wireless bridge like the Cisco Linksys WES610N or WET610N to convert any NAS to wireless.

 

[sandwich]

can I also just plug a wired NAS into a wireless router, to access it through wifi?

I am not going to pursue the wireless NAS type now because of the limited performance. I think I will just keep the NAS at a different address all together to and not keep it on location at the business and just have people access it through their browser.

What do you think guys??



EDIT:
@thiggins - sorry I think I just repeated what you where saying.

 

[thiggins]

Yes, you can plug a NAS into a wireless router and access it wirelessly.

Moving the NAS offsite is more difficult. You'll again be throughput limited by the speed of your ISP connection. You also will need to access it securely.

Since throughput isn't important, but ease of use and secure access is, you should also look at Pogoplug, Buffalo CloudStor (which uses Pogoplug for its "cloud" features) and Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition.

Or just dispense with the hardware and use a cloud storage service like Dropbox, Box.net, or many others. Check the reviews over on SmallCloudBuilder.

 

[sandwich]

thank you guys