Do you know of a NAS that would be best suited for a SBN, that would
- allow for printer sharing,
- multiple users,
- access via the internet from anywhere in the world, preferably.
How is access from multiple devices set up on the NAS? As it is plugged in to the network router, I trust something along the lines of setting up a Home sharing? Or is it something more complex and robust than this?
I will refer you to this for
background info on NAS. and also to
this whitepaper. On the latter, notice that web access is mentioned for monitoring and control, not user data access.
1+2) get resolved by reading the User's Guide. Normally, the user prints to the local printer and whether a local LAN system or a remotely connected user, the paper arrives at the users location. Lan attached users (those using addresses on your router) can always access a shared printed. If however, you need the remote user to print to the home office printer, that's another matter.
3) gets complicated. If you attach router->NAS, then you'll need a device that performs all the functions of a computer, eg: defined users, passwords, data areas. This is really beyond the intent of Network Attached Storage devices.
Alternatively, the setup router-->master_system-->NAS allows the NAS to be another shared device and setup is very much like file/print sharing. This requires the master_system to be operating 24/7 and should have a UPS for the system and the NAS.
Planning is everything, so get your needs well defined before you dive in.
Three major layouts are possible:
* one big folder, shared and NTFS permissions set for r/w to all authenticated users. Consider this to be the Group Data
* one folder per user, r/w only to that specific user and owned by that user.
* and a combination of the two
On the latter combination, each folder is a share and the access is created so the passwords for sharing are unique to each. Permissions for all are managed on the master_system and are controlled via NTFS
Remote access should then be via a VPN connection to the master_system. This portion can be implemented immediately and usability tested on any shared folder w/o the necessity of getting the NAS online at all.
There is a rule that states "Whatever resources are available, they will be consumed (Parkinson's Law)".
That means you WILL exhaust the storage capacity (some day) and need to expand it. IMO, that calls for a HOT SWAPPABLE capable NAS (typically they are more expensive and use iSCSI internally). Configuring the NAS as a
RAID JBOD allows capacity growth without down time.
RAID 1x is optional, certainly not required and regardless, still needs its own backup - - a Cloud backup service would be ok.
Well, this ought to stir the grey matter for a pit. Best wishes.
