noladad
Occasional Visitor
After more than a year, I've finally decided to purchase a NAS. My question involves where to physically place the router and the NAS. I searched through the forums, but cannot find much on my particular question.
Some background: We live in a large, 3 story home. Right now, our router and cable modem are in the kitchen on the 2nd floor, which is the most central place in the house and provides the best coverage. It's on a shelf about 4 feet from the stove though well above it - probably not the best place for electronics! The cable modem and cable box are in a cabinet close by. Our desktop PC is on the first floor and connects to the network wirelessly, as do our laptops, iPads, etc.
The house is very old and is not wired with any ethernet or cabling other than coax. I do not think running cables throughout the house would be very easy. I do think I could go through a wall in the kitchen and place the router and the NAS in a closet in the kids' room.
The NAS will be used to backup digital photos currently on the PC. Additionally, we will stream music and videos, and set up photo sharing. I'll then create backups off the NAS using an external HD, unless someone has recommendations for a better approach.
Is it best to connect the NAS to the router in its present location, and backup the PC via wireless? Or do I need to move the router back to connect via wire to the PC? Alternatively, could I hook the NAS to an old Linksys router and set that whole thing up as a bridge to the main router? (I've pretty much just exhausted my knowledge about LANS, routers, and NAS.)
Thanks in advance.
noladad
Some background: We live in a large, 3 story home. Right now, our router and cable modem are in the kitchen on the 2nd floor, which is the most central place in the house and provides the best coverage. It's on a shelf about 4 feet from the stove though well above it - probably not the best place for electronics! The cable modem and cable box are in a cabinet close by. Our desktop PC is on the first floor and connects to the network wirelessly, as do our laptops, iPads, etc.
The house is very old and is not wired with any ethernet or cabling other than coax. I do not think running cables throughout the house would be very easy. I do think I could go through a wall in the kitchen and place the router and the NAS in a closet in the kids' room.
The NAS will be used to backup digital photos currently on the PC. Additionally, we will stream music and videos, and set up photo sharing. I'll then create backups off the NAS using an external HD, unless someone has recommendations for a better approach.
Is it best to connect the NAS to the router in its present location, and backup the PC via wireless? Or do I need to move the router back to connect via wire to the PC? Alternatively, could I hook the NAS to an old Linksys router and set that whole thing up as a bridge to the main router? (I've pretty much just exhausted my knowledge about LANS, routers, and NAS.)
Thanks in advance.
noladad