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Creating a Secured Personal Cloud in a Shared Home....


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Hello Each and All:

 

I have a unique situation with a unique problem.

 

WHERE DO I BEGIN????

 

Okay, here goes.....

 

This is what I want to do:

 

I want to store a Large Music Collection on a Mini Server (and to me, right now, a Western Digital My Cloud or My Cloud Mirror comes to mind.... but I am reading on other Forums that they're not a good choice for networking and streaming a large music collection to and from my Tablet and my Smart Phone, and I am reading that there are better choices out there).

 

And I want to be able to access it even when I am away from home (whether during a commute to work, going out of town in a car or on an airplane or a train, or even going out of the country).

 

But the problem is, I am currently renting a small room in a house (of which I am not related to the Landlord), but as part of my rent, I do have access to THEIR Wi-Fi Signal. And that may propose a problem with what I am trying to do.

 

What I want to do basically is purchase a Mini Server (about 4 TB to about 8 TB), and then connect it to a Toshiba E-45-B4100 "Satellite Series" Laptop with a 14" Screen.

 

A DAC will come later on when I want to play these files at home (either over Headphones or over Speakers later on).

 

And while I realize that I may also need a Router.

 

Question #1 is, do I need to get me a Wired Router??

 

Or Question #2, I can still get away with a Wireless Router??

 

And when I finally do get a Router, I want to maintain the Wi-Fi Signal that I am getting from the Landlord/Host, but I do not want to interfere with the rest of the residents who are also living in the home with me.

 

Question #3 is, do I connect the Router (be it Wired or Wireless), to my Landlord's/Host's Modem/Computer??

 

Question #4, being that I will already be getting THEIR Wi-Fi Signal transmitted to MY Laptop, do I then connect the Router to MY Laptop/Modem instead of hers??

 

Question #5, do I connect the Hard Disk/Server to THAT Router??

 

And then Question #6, do I go ahead and perform the setup of the Hard Disk/Server afterwards and start moving my music collection off of my Smart Phone & Tablet and onto those drives??

 

Right Now...... the proposed gear would be (and let me know if there is something else I need to add, or if there is something I can eliminate):

 

Laptop Computer: Toshiba Satellite E-45-B4100 with 14" Screen & MS Windows 8

 

Hard Disk/Server: Western Digital My Cloud or My Cloud Mirror (and if these are not good choices, then tell me what are better choices, and how much can I expect to pay) -- 4 TB to 8 TB

 

Router: Linksys E2700 Wireless Smart Router

 

Smart Phone: Apple iPhone 5S (32 GB)

 

Tablet: Samsung Galaxy 2 7.0 (8 GB)

 

Cloud Service: Code 42 Crash Plan (Unlimited Storage) -- $60.00/Year

 

Is Western Digital a good choice?? Or do I need to look elsewhere for a Hard Disk Drive/Server??

 

Thank You In Advance For Your Advice & Help.

 

--Charles--

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ive never used/heard of it, but the cloud service that you use seems to have an app that does everything you want it to?

 

if you are concerned that the WD isnt good enough for music streaming - why not look at the synology nas?

 

Thanks..... That's what I thought.

 

ANY MORE REPLIES??? ANYONE??? KEEP THEM COMING.....

 

More Advice and Guidance is appreciated.

 

Thanks In Advance.

 

--Charles

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ive never used/heard of it, but the cloud service that you use seems to have an app that does everything you want it to?

 

if you are concerned that the WD isnt good enough for music streaming - why not look at the synology nas?

 

Thanks "Completeluxury"

 

I will DEFINITELY be looking at the Synology DS-214 Series (The DS-214SE and the DS-214Play).

 

Those two look like they'll give me a lot for my money.

 

--Charles--

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personally i dont use network storage so i cant give you any real advice or recommendations on the synology range, but they seem to be used by quite a lot of people on this site.

 

combine that with your cloud service and thats all you need.

 

just plug that directly into the main router at the house (dont bother getting your own) and you are good to go.

 

if you are concerned with other people from the house going into the HDD, im sure you can password protect it.

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The WD and Seagate home "NAS" solutions both have the ability to connect to your shared wireless network and give you remote access to your files. However, what I gather from your message is that your landlord's internet connection may not be fast enough to do that with impacting on the rest of the tenants.

 

Since you are in D.C., you have access to data plans on your iPhone that would make it reasonable to use something like iTunes Match or the new Apple Music coming out next week. One or the other would probabky meet your needs.

 

A choice that would work as a private cloud would be JRMC and JRemote. In this case, you would, however, have to access your landlord's router and open a port (NAT) from the internet to your laptop. That is relatively safe and easy to do, and works very well indeed.

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat DAC.

Robert A. Heinlein

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Depending on your computer skills really.

It's best to run your router in router mode (not a wifi repeater) and put everything under a subnet behind this router.

You can still run your own wifi and protect that with hidden ssid, wpa encryption and MAC address bindings.

In short it's more about structure than connections.

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lkong i gather from the first post that he doesnt really have the know-how to add a second router with a gateway to the first and create separate subnets.

 

He could probably just as easily change the subnet settings on the initial router to allow 2 subnets and then put his equipment on the second one. then he could use the wireless from the router while keeping his storage hidden.

 

still not easy for someone without networking skills to do.

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lkong i gather from the first post that he doesnt really have the know-how to add a second router with a gateway to the first and create separate subnets.

 

He could probably just as easily change the subnet settings on the initial router to allow 2 subnets and then put his equipment on the second one. then he could use the wireless from the router while keeping his storage hidden.

 

still not easy for someone without networking skills to do.

 

None of which answers his concerns about impacting the other users he shares the network with. Or the reverse, which is that the other users may make sharing his music out over the connection unusable.

 

I really really would not recommend using that shared connection either.

 

-Paul

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat DAC.

Robert A. Heinlein

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at the end of the day, he will be sharing their connection regardless.

 

He can put his own router in with a separate subnet and hidden wifi, but the external connection still will be bottlenecked by what the other people in the house are doing.

 

edit -

 

i dont think that a separate router/wifi etc is the wrong way to go.

 

i just dont see someone without technical experience setting it up properly

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What you want is a VPN. Not sure you need your own router. Setup access control on your "Mini Server". Get at VPN plan (e.g. openvpn). Access the VPN using your Mini Server. (read up on accessing VPN from behind firewall).

 

Access your VPN remotely using laptop. Likewise iPhone

 

It will be a bunch of work for you. It may be alot easier to load your iPhone with whatever you want to listen to that day, or week, and then change it up from time to time. In any case if you really want to do this you will certainly learn alot in figuring it out and getting it working!

Custom room treatments for headphone users.

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at the end of the day, he will be sharing their connection regardless.

 

He can put his own router in with a separate subnet and hidden wifi, but the external connection still will be bottlenecked by what the other people in the house are doing.

 

edit -

 

i dont think that a separate router/wifi etc is the wrong way to go.

 

i just dont see someone without technical experience setting it up properly

 

I think it is the wrong way to go, but to each their own.

 

I do not recommend the use of the shared the connection to stream his music out to the net. Use something like iTunes Match or the new iTunes Music, and put a data plan on his iPhone. A 10gb per month plan will stream a lot of music. More music, in fact, that I stream in a month and I am a heavy user.

 

Listening at home with headphones, he can stream over the shared connection or listen to music he has stored locally. Almost all consumer internet connections are asynchronous, meaning the download is much faster than the upload.

 

-Paul

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat DAC.

Robert A. Heinlein

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i dont use apple at all but i assume itunes match does something like syncs his phone to his computer?

 

edit - just looked it up.

 

before offering that as a solution shouldnt we check whether the original poster actually uses an apple iphone/tablet out of the home? or itunes at all??

 

The original poster uses a 32g Apple iPhone 5s, according to his original post, which is why I suggested that.

 

As I am sure you discovered, iTunes Match works on both Macs and PCs, such as his Toshiba laptop, and does not synch to the phone, but rather synchs his laptop to the cloud. There are other ways to do that, but 256k AAC generally sounds better to people than high rate MP3s, and takes lesss bandwidth. Also, iTunes Match will only copy up files that do not exist in the iTunes Store, saving a heck of a lot of upload bandwidth.

 

I did not spell all that out because it is a lot of detail that is unecessary, unless the originsl poster asked for more.

 

That shared connection, with what is probably limited uplink speeds, is what keeps me from suggesting any of the other solutions, like WD, JRMC, or even a VPN are really viable. Of course, if that connection is a 300mb down / 20mb up cable connection or something, then that changes. But the OP did not give us that information, and those connections are still relatively rare.

 

There are other options. Tidal is one - though I don't recommend it myself a good number of folks here are happy with it. Apple enters that game tomorrow, and may provide a perfect solution for the OP.

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat DAC.

Robert A. Heinlein

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paul, did you take notice of the cloud service he uses?

 

it can back up data locally, in the cloud AND in an offline server if thats what you want.

 

he already pays for it, and it can be used on any device regardless of whether its apple, android whatever.

 

his phone is apple but his tablet is a samsung. no point in having a solution that works for only most of it

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paul, did you take notice of the cloud service he uses?

 

it can back up data locally, in the cloud AND in an offline server if thats what you want.

 

he already pays for it, and it can be used on any device regardless of whether its apple, android whatever.

 

his phone is apple but his tablet is a samsung. no point in having a solution that works for only most of it

 

Ah ok, so the answer is: Just use the personal cloud you already have! :)

Custom room treatments for headphone users.

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paul, did you take notice of the cloud service he uses?

 

it can back up data locally, in the cloud AND in an offline server if thats what you want.

 

he already pays for it, and it can be used on any device regardless of whether its apple, android whatever.

 

his phone is apple but his tablet is a samsung. no point in having a solution that works for only most of it

 

Of course, and Crash 42 is a pretty good backup service, but it isn't designed for music streaming, at least not so far as I can see. It is designed for backing up data, and moderate remote file access.

 

A true music streaming service, Apple, Google, or whatever is going to work much better for music, and will work on his iPhone, his laptop, and probably on the Android tablet. Apple Music is going to be available on Android, so I don't see that as any kind of an issue.

 

So no, I doubt very much the answer is to just use his current cloud backup system, unless it does support music streaming, in which case, it is probably an option. Probably not the best option, but an option none the less.

 

-Paul

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat DAC.

Robert A. Heinlein

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"However, what I gather from your message is that your landlord's internet connection may not be fast enough to do that with impacting on the rest of the tenants."

 

Well no, it's not that. It's that since I am already using their Wi-Fi Signal, I just feel kind of funny undoing her connection so that I can hook up my Router to her Computer/Modem.

 

I am going to have a Laptop Computer of my own downstairs in my room. Can't I just hook up my Router to my own Laptop Computer and that will work that way?? I am already going to be drawing a Wi-Fi signal from her Internet Connection upstairs.

 

--Charles--

Link to comment
The WD and Seagate home "NAS" solutions both have the ability to connect to your shared wireless network and give you remote access to your files. However, what I gather from your message is that your landlord's internet connection may not be fast enough to do that with impacting on the rest of the tenants.

 

Since you are in D.C., you have access to data plans on your iPhone that would make it reasonable to use something like iTunes Match or the new Apple Music coming out next week. One or the other would probabky meet your needs.

 

A choice that would work as a private cloud would be JRMC and JRemote. In this case, you would, however, have to access your landlord's router and open a port (NAT) from the internet to your laptop. That is relatively safe and easy to do, and works very well indeed.

 

Well no, it's not that. It's that since I am already using her Wi-Fi Signal, I just feel kind of funny undoing her connection so that I can hook up my Router to her Computer/Modem.

 

I am going to have a Laptop Computer of my own downstairs in my room. Can't I just hook up my Router to my own Laptop Computer and that will work that way?? I am already going to be drawing a Wi-Fi signal from her Internet Connection upstairs.

 

--Charles--

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lkong i gather from the first post that he doesnt really have the know-how to add a second router with a gateway to the first and create separate subnets.

 

He could probably just as easily change the subnet settings on the initial router to allow 2 subnets and then put his equipment on the second one. then he could use the wireless from the router while keeping his storage hidden.

 

still not easy for someone without networking skills to do.

 

That's correct....... I am not that far along technically.

 

--Charles--

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