Which Personal Cloud?

[Bangzoom]

Im new to this Personal NAS Cloud tech but It would be helpful to me if I had one

I see the WD My Cloud but im not sure its for me let alone the neg reviews

what I would like

Size is not the issue

Under $150

I need ez to configure...I am pretty good with computers so I can handle a lil configing..Especially if I can grant my nephew remote admin access

I need web interface thats not too slow...I see the WD uses apps so it would have to be PC based as well...not just a phone...an ez non app interface would be great though

and the remote interface needs to be user friendly

I want to share different folders with different people so perhaps separate permissions or passwords

I would want to connect to my router via a hub

I am also open to a Diskless system

It would also be a plus if the data was stored in common formats ..I mean accessible if I take the HD out and put it in a cradle ..i can access the info


And if you do have the WD My Cloud let me know what you think

[jbolton]

I have a cloud. I like it. Have all my kids movies on it that can stream to any smart tv or device connected to my network. Can be remotely used. I store all my business stuff in a folder on the cloud as well as my personal stuff. Wife and kids have their own folder. A nice little server for 150 bucks. If I could go back in time I would get the cloud that has allows you to take out and replace the hard drive. Mine is fixed and can't be swapped out. Its the 150 dollar cloud.

[cyphr02]

Is it primarily to share with other people on site, or will it be heavily utilized remotely? If remote, what about a hosted solution like OneDrive? You can easily share folders with different people, and control both read only, and read/write access. They also encrypt both up, and down stream file transfers, making your information more secure.

[Bangzoom]

Is it primarily to share with other people on site, or will it be heavily utilized remotely? If remote, what about a hosted solution like OneDrive? You can easily share folders with different people, and control both read only, and read/write access. They also encrypt both up, and down stream file transfers, making your information more secure.

I do not want a remote Cloud...and some of my files may be 3 gig with a total folder size of up to a TB ...maybe 2

[MaHoTex]

I went with Synology 215. I am not sure how much of a cloud you can expect to get for $150. I wouldn't skimp though.

If the data is important you want to look at Dual Drive systems. I know WD has a dual drive but you are going to be in for about $300. I am very happy with my Synology.

[Bangzoom]

I went with Synology 215. I am not sure how much of a cloud you can expect to get for $150. I wouldn't skimp though.

If the data is important you want to look at Dual Drive systems. I know WD has a dual drive but you are going to be in for about $300. I am very happy with my Synology.

I was looking at that brand, and they can be had for my price range..I can go diskless and use my own drives..how much of my criteria do they cover?

WD makes one with a usb port to add a 2nd drive for redundancy ...and its under 150

[yellowsulphur]

I've had good luck with Nextcloud which is free but needs to run on a Linux based server. Setup was straight forward and not too difficult although I had to solve for some dependencies. Looks like Nextcloud might meet all of your needs.

https://nextcloud.com/features/

[MaHoTex]

I was looking at that brand, and they can be had for my price range..I can go diskless and use my own drives..how much of my criteria do they cover?

WD makes one with a usb port to add a 2nd drive for redundancy ...and its under 150

Potential all requirements, though I am not sure about the last item on your list where you want the data to be accessible when the disk is removed. I do not know if that is the case or not.

I have 2 drives in mine set at RAID 1 so there is minimal, if any, speed loss. I keep our important and treasured data on the drive. (Pictures of the kids, videos etc) I went this route after a major scare where we thought all our data was gone forever. Thankfully I saved it and immediately went and got a Synology and (2)4TB drives. I will be updating them to 8 TB soon.

I am very pleased with the performance of this device.

[ExtremeX]

I own 2 Synology units and 1 QNAP.

Both good, but I like the Synology as the GUI and software packages feel more mature and refined.

[fishmonger]

do you care about your data? if so get a system you can set up raid with. you can use a old computer to save money or get one of the all in one units. it might cost more but Synology makes great unit. personally i just built my own.

[ExtremeX]

do you care about your data? if so get a system you can set up raid with. you can use a old computer to save money or get one of the all in one units. it might cost more but Synology makes great unit. personally i just built my own.

If you have the spare hardware, left over raid cards, and the time, then the DIY route is still valid... I did it for years using both FreeNAS and Openfiler when I was flushed with spare components from my job.

That said, there came a time I said screw it and went towards to "simple route" for home. Its nice having supported hardware where I no longer have to think or work towards patches or updates.

End to end the Synology is where most people need to be. The support to actually create a robust private cloud is too easy with one of those units if you know what you are using. On top of that, replication and backup are a super easy with other cloud options or additional Synology box.

I do replication over my own IPSec VPN, but you can use Amazon S3 or something else to get data offsite.

Been a while since I played with any open source solutions but do they offer connectors for other cloud based storage solutions?

One thing I do like about buying a decent Synology is you have enough hardware overhead to run other services like a security camera NVR, Plex Video server... or a bunch of other services. Makes for a nice headless server in additional to a NAS for files.

[yellowsulphur]

Been a while since I played with any open source solutions but do they offer connectors for other cloud based storage solutions?

Amazon, Google, Dropbox, WebDav, SFTP and others are supported by Nextcloud.

[odysseus]

Not a fan at all of these common consumer retail WD, Netgear, etc. NAS devices. These are not well supported, sort of sold and forgotten, and not well done at all.

I will though concur with people about the Synology line (or the qnap as mentioned). These are fairly decent RAID boxes running Synology's own Linux distro build called DSM. Because of this you can actually do things like run docker and etc. and have a low power device that does quite a bit for a small box, and they support it constantly. Creating site to site encrypted tunnels and synchronizing data for failover backup is easy, running your own daily snapshot incrementals to other media, etc. all easy.

edit: You need to be prepared to spend more for quality and runway life. I wouldn't buy one of these for just a 2 drive mirror either, I would certainly start at a 4 drive system.

[MaHoTex]

I wouldn't buy one of these for just a 2 drive mirror either, I would certainly start at a 4 drive system.

This is a basic question with a simple answer, I think. What is the intent of a 4 Drive system over a 2 drive system? Is it simply for double the storage? Would you essentially have 2 drive pairs set as Raid 1, or do you stripe them and have one large setup as an array?

[Bangzoom]

Yeah its too bad im a not a bit more confident in my networking knowledge because I do have some small nice servers.....If I knew more I could make something but my brain is kinda full having to know other things right now...lol

My nephew is very good at this...he is the IT guy at a large insurance business and said he will be my support if I need it

Im eyeballing this unit...a tad more money though

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BNPT1EG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER