Portable classroom NAS

[dmc]

My apologies for posting this in two locations, but I am not sure if it is a wireless or a NAS question.

I need to put together a portable network storage solution for 20 to 30 computers. I teach a class where students use laptops or chromebooks. They need to store data in a central location so that it doesn't matter which laptop or chromebook they use. The classroom moves from place to place. Sometimes there is a wifi network in a location and sometimes there is not. It would be nice to proxy internet traffic to the wifi if it is available, but that is not necessary. I would prefer that each student not have to log in separately as some of them are very young.

Ideas?

 

[stevech]

Most of your desires are not NAS related - they're internet access issues with whatever sort of router you have. Let's start with that. The NAS issue is much simpler.

Portable... do you use a cellular modem connected to a router (such as a Cradlepoint MBR95 or MBR1200) - so you don't have to struggle with how to gain access to the Internet as you move about?

the NAS simply connects to the router's LAN port. As to users not having to login (to the NAS)... Maybe the easiest is for each student's PC to be configured with a mapped drive letter, say, where Z: becomes a folder on the NAS that is shared-out. The NAS could have one folder per student to segregate.

I've long uses a Synology DS212, 2 drive NAS, non-RAID config, with one drive backing up the other as separate volumes. And the NAS has a time backup so the last x months of file versions are retained.