NAS to be acesses from PC & Mac via wifi (drive format??)

[neovibe]

hi there,

 

I need to set up a home NAS for my music collection, that needs to be acessed from both a PC and a MAC laptop via the home wifi network. There area many ways to do this but my main problem is... what about drive formats? I know NTFS and apple's filesystem are incompatible (in the sense that plugging an NTFS-formated USB hard-drive to a MAC won't work as far as I could work out), but what about in a NAS, is the file system important?

 

My 2 options at the moment are:

-western digital mybook world edition connected via ethernet cable to the wifi router

-a linksys router with USB input for connecting a standard external hard-drive

 

in any of these cases, does the drive file system format matter?

 

FYI, if it matters, it would be acceptable for me that the PC laptop could only READ the files (not change)

 

I'm kind of lost here, so I'd really appreciate your help.

 

 

[Audio_ELF]

So long as the NAS talks a network protocol the computer can understand (SMB or AFP for Apple); the internal filing system doesn't matter - for a lot of NAS drives this is EXT3 as they use an embedded Linux system.

 

Eloise

 

[rayhil]

So, this means both PCs and MACs can access such a drive connected to a router and the drive's software provides access in any of the three file format systems? Given this, and I know the various NAS units have been discussed here before, what would people recommend for a NAS and how would you recommend formatting it. I'm wanting the "simple solution" as I am not, and don't want to become, a true computer setup wizzard.

Thanks

 

[neovibe]

"So long as the NAS talks a network protocol the computer can understand (SMB or AFP for Apple); the internal filing system doesn't matter"

 

but which NAS talk which protocol and do both PC and MAC understand both protocols?

 

an external HD (HFS or NTFS as it doesn't matter) connected to a standard router will use which protocol? will that protocol be understood by both PC and MAC?

 

thanks again

 

[iamimdoc]

my 2c

 

I have found a device from IOCELL (actually an empty device) that allows one to install a SATA drive (1 or 2 drives depending on device) that lets all PC's on the network access the music simultaneously.

 

Better, the drive can be removed from the network and plugged into a PC as a USB drive (sort of a portable network that could be useful for backups, etc)

 

I have used up to a 2TB drive without issue. I now have three of them. No issues after a year or so. Very quiet.

 

IOCELL calls its technology NDAS - I suppose this is a subset of NAS (I have not explored).

 

The "limitation" seems to be that the drive cannot be accessed via the internet. To me that is a good thing but YMMV.

 

My wifes MAC can see/play the files

 

Installation takes about 5 minutes.

 

Manual is available on line I think. Model 351 UNE will work for you I think.

 

These drives may be slower (have not really timed them) than the latest "hot stuff" BUT they are always fast enough to stream music without a hiccough.