Personal Cloud Storage Options...

[trinityalyce]

So, this is only loosely camping related, but I know there's some techies on here who may be able to point me in the right direction to get me started!

I'm after a home/personal cloud storage set-up that I can use both at home and away from home. Something like the WD My Cloud drives... I'm looking for something that is secure, allows me to access files from anywhere I have an internet connection with any of my devices, and is easy enough to use that my completely non-tech husband would be comfortable uploading and accessing files (a little more complicated set up is fine, as I'd be doing that. But I don't have the time on my hands to research and build some kind of complicated bespoke home server option!). A wifi hard drive was my first thought (as I routinely switch between two computers, the iPad etc. when I'm working at home), but I want to be able to keep the thing at home and access it remotely from anywhere, particularly when I'm travelling and want to back up photos/etc. and not just rely on my MacBook for storage!

(I should clearly add to this post that I'm after a physical home "server" type of set up... something along those lines. Not iCloud, Google Drive, etc. Sorry I wasn't clear initially!)

I haven't even scratched the surface yet with doing any research. So keen to hear what those of you with experience or in the know would suggest I look into.

[paceman]

an office365 home subscription ($129 per year) offers pretty good value, with up to 5 users getting 1TB each of cloud storage via onedrive...

https://products.office.com/en-au/compare-all-microsoft-office-products?tab=1

(the personal version allows one user to get 1TB of storage... personally, i think the home version of the subscription is better value)...


onedrive have apps for just about every ecosystem... i have been using the onedrive platform for years and am currently using it via an iphone, ipad and home desktop (windows 10) with no issues...

allows me to save pictures taken on my iphone directly to my onedrive cloud storage (this option can be configured to upload via mobile data or only when connected to wifi)...

YMMV, but i see it as pretty good value...

[xcvator]

"google drive"

[Paddler Ed]

+1 to OneDrive - the ability to have it synchronised across both my laptops, my Windows Phone and my Android tablet is great.

The ability to then share a folder with someone outside my network is useful as well - I've used it to share photos and videos with a friend after we've been away for a weekend together.

I have Office 365 Home as well, as it covers all of our devices (wife's laptop, iPhone and iPad) as well as my stuff.

Photos take moments to come from my phone to my laptop once I'm on a wifi network.

[trinityalyce]

Sorry, should have been a little more clear. I am looking for a physical set up at home. I am well aware of the limitations and downfalls of them, eg. limited by internet upload/download speeds, no off-site storage (well, for some options, other proprietary options have their own cloud back-up systems, etc.), and so on... But I think for what I'm looking for this will possibly work well for me. I do need to investigate further. I've been using third party cloud set ups (iCloud, Google Drive, etc.) for a while but they're not what I'm after for this purpose.

[paceman]

then i would get one of these:

https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS218

[Bird]

Your talking about a NAS??

http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=32727.0

[Aaron Schubert]

Backblaze. Works fantastically.

Aaron

[paceman]

Sorry, should have been a little more clear. I am looking for a physical set up at home.

Backblaze. Works fantastically.

Aaron

i think OP is looking for a NAS-type setup, as previously advised...

[trinityalyce]

i think OP is looking for a NAS-type setup, as previously advised...

You've got it. Have done a little more digging so more familiar with the terminology. A NAS-type setup is the kind of thing I'm after. Given my time and knowledge limitations, something relatively straightforward to set up out of the box would be ideal (like the WD My Cloud or one of the Synology options or something?), unless there's some kind of dummy's guide for setting up a RAID array on a Linux server and running something like OwnCloud. LOL. I think at this stage doing something like the latter is a) beyond what I need and b) beyond what I could get up to speed on in a realistic amount of time (there'd be a lot of expletives and rants if I attempted to take that on!).

[trinityalyce]

Your talking about a NAS??

http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=32727.0

Yep, but I didn't realise when first posting that was the term for it. LOL.

I've spent a good part of the day reading about some of the Synology gear though there seems to be potential issues with iOS/OSX systems, which would be an issue for me... Anyone on here used a Synology set up with Apple devices?

Part of my issue is I'm trying to future-proof, as I always do. So not only do I want it to handle what I'd current throw at it (which isn't a lot - photo and document cloud-type storage), but down the track I may add other systems or require other features (doubtful that our home internet would ever be stable enough for me to do away with my website hosting, LOL. But you get the idea.).

If anyone knows any good resources just to do the background research, get a good handle on what products/options are on the market and so forth, that's what I'm interested in at this stage. I'm pretty handy when it comes to learning tech, but its not a field I've ever been trained in and haven't spent much time learning about in a decent while, particularly not this stuff.

[paceman]

If anyone knows any good resources just to do the background research, get a good handle on what products/options are on the market and so forth, that's what I'm interested in at this stage. I'm pretty handy when it comes to learning tech, but its not a field I've ever been trained in and haven't spent much time learning about in a decent while, particularly not this stuff.

future-proofing can be fraught with danger...  but it makes sense to look a little into the future... more so with the amount of storage required...

also, don't buy the lowest end model, if you can afford it... the lowest models tend to have the least effective CPU and RAM configurations...

for the synology NAS models, base your research on their OS, which is Diskstation Manager (DSM)

https://www.synology.com/en-global/dsm

this will give you a good idea of what is possible with these NAS devices...

[alnjan]

Abode Lightroom Cloud. 

http://news.adobe.com/press-release/creative-cloud/adobe-introduces-new-lightroom-cc-cloud-photography-service

store and work of your photos

[noel_w]

Hi Trinity
If you have an old PC box sitting around there is a system called Unraid which is a NAS style system that runs on any old PC
I have been using it for years with no issues except for a failed hard drive. I just unplugged the old drive and plugged in a new one and it rebuilt all the data from what it had stored on the parity drive.
Basically it has a specified drive that stores all the data from the data drives and can rebuild it if any of the drives fail.
There is a big community for support not that I have ever needed it and is very customizable.
If the PC ever fails you can very easily move it to another PC. It is not hardware dependent like a lot of the NAS boxes.
PM me if you need any more info and I can help with a build if you need it.

[Boots33]

 
Modern NAS devices  run very light on power , which is very important  when it will be running 24/7 365 days a year and their security is very good right out of the box. On top of that they will have a huge range of app's that you can use to customise your setup.

We have both in use here at home, a pc that is mainly used as a games and weather server an then a Synology NAS that handles all the stuff that needs to be secure.

Synology have mobile app's for both apple and android  and can be accessed on your desktop computers as well. You can sync folders between all the devices and can even have photos taken on your Phone/tablet automatically backed up to your NAS.  You can even sync your dropbox and some  other cloud storage sites to your NAS.

 You need to remember that to give yourself access to your files you will be potentially exposing it to the net, so security is very very important. That is why most non techie people go with a NAS.

[Onion]

Both Synology and Drobo make it easy but you pay for it.
Linux makes it more DIY, but you don't pay anywhere near as much.
Pick your poison :-)

Personally I was using Ubuntu on a HP N40L with 3x 2TB WD Reds in raid for quite a while. Never had an issue. I'm comfortable with Linux though. Since I've upgraded my desktop and it's always on, we just use that instead now (via Samba Share) and the N40L is turned off and sitting in the corner. Important stuff goes to Dropbox and/or Google Drive as well.

[paceman]

Both Synology and Drobo make it easy but you pay for it.
Linux makes it more DIY, but you don't pay anywhere near as much.
Pick your poison :-)

linux is perfectly OK, if you are comfortable with it... pretty steep learning curve if you don't know much about it, to get to a level where you are confident in managing all of your primary data on a linux setup...

would disagree that synology (and qnap) units are expensive...

in both scenarios, drive storage is where the bulk of the cost is...  NAS units themselves compare pretty well with server-grade or even workstation-grade components, when it comes to price...

as always, individual use case should guide which solution is best for each situation...

[Thirsty4.8]

We use the WD My Cloud. Seems to work well and able to access files from phone and iPad remotely.

[DrewXT]

Synology and qnap would be my recommendation, primarily because you can set it and forget it.

If you want to future proof further down the track, you can also install another at a family members house and sync the data between the two of them...

Unraid, Amahi, ClearOS, and the other open source solutions are pretty cool, but if they do pear shaped you're a little more dependent on community support than with the Synology and qnap devices

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[noel_w]

Synology and qnap would be my recommendation, primarily because you can set it and forget it.

Unraid, Amahi, ClearOS, and the other open source solutions are pretty cool, but if they do pear shaped you're a little more dependent on community support than with the Synology and qnap devices

I would disagree there. I had a ReadyNas that went pear shape and I could not get any data off the drives whatsoever as it had proprietry format on the drives ( I did get some data off it but it stripped all the file attributes so I ended up with millions of unnamed files). The good thing about any Linux based NAS systems is they use a standard formatting system. Unraid goes one step further in my mind where the whole system is hardware independant. If the PC it is loaded on goes under all you have to do is move the drives and USB boot drive to another PC and it is working again. There is no Raid systems to worry about and all the data is protected by a Parity drive. There is a browser based management system which covers all you need. I have never needed to go to the command prompt yet in 7 years of running my Unraid systems.

[paceman]

I would disagree there. I had a ReadyNas that went pear shape and I could not get any data off the drives whatsoever as it had proprietry format on the drives ( I did get some data off it but it stripped all the file attributes so I ended up with millions of unnamed files). The good thing about any Linux based NAS systems is they use a standard formatting system. Unraid goes one step further in my mind where the whole system is hardware independant. If the PC it is loaded on goes under all you have to do is move the drives and USB boot drive to another PC and it is working again. There is no Raid systems to worry about and all the data is protected by a Parity drive. There is a browser based management system which covers all you need. I have never needed to go to the command prompt yet in 7 years of running my Unraid systems.

that's why you have a backup...

moving data from NAS to NAS (because of NAS failure) is not as dangerous as it once was...

some synology examples below:

https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/Storage/How_can_I_recover_data_from_my_DiskStation_using_a_PC

https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/General/How_to_migrate_between_Synology_NAS_DSM_5_0_and_later


and if a drive issue occurs (like all NAS/server implementations), you just follow the normal drive replacement procedures for your specific device...

no doubt those non-nas systems are powerful, but one advantage of the nas-based systems is that it doesn't take much to implement other features (remote access, web sites, etc) with a small amount of knowledge, which the OP has detailed...

i'm all for the build-your-own approach (and have two HP microservers on the go right now), but it's horses for courses and whether you are up for a learning curve, if needed...

as always, YMMV... and there are horror stories everywhere, no matter which way you go...

[Bird]

Synology and qnap would be my recommendation, primarily because you can set it and forget it.

Agree... Keep it simple..

I've got a TS-431 Qnap - and the interface is so simple and intuitive that a few people here at work bought them and they are the kind of numpties that forget their password daily..
https://www.qnap.com/en-au/product/ts-431

Looking to sell it though and get a 64bit 4 bay so I can run Plex

[DannyG]

Agree... Keep it simple..

I've got a TS-431 Qnap - and the interface is so simple and intuitive that a few people here at work bought them and they are the kind of numpties that forget their password daily..
https://www.qnap.com/en-au/product/ts-431

Looking to sell it though and get a 64bit 4 bay so I can run Plex

So for a numpty like me can someone explain what these are??

I ask because we use a seperate hard drive that the mac's time machine system backs everything up to, which is great. Works perfectly and gives us peace of mind that we wont lose any of those precious photos etc.

But due to space restrictions we also use seperate drives to drop older photos etc onto for safe keeping. This is starting to get messy and out of hand.

So from what I am reading about these systems above, we can not only use them to back up through time machine but we can also just place files onto it for other computers in the house to access and even access them online while away? And it has slots for extra storage??
Is that how they work? It could essentially be a one stop shop for home digital storage solutions that the kids can access old movies...photos or whatever at home and when away??

Thanks for any help.

[Bird]

You can share drives and folders etc on a NAS like a normal PC.. You give the NAS a static IP for ease of use.
So any machine you can map a drive on you can share anything from the NAS.
You can copy files directly to the NAS

Think of a NAS as a server - which is what it is..

The only thing is you do lose a bit of space running it in RAID5 but if you lose a drive, just wack in a new one and it rebuilds.

https://www.synology.com/en-global/support/RAID_calculator

[cyberess]

(I should clearly add to this post that I'm after a physical home "server" type of set up... something along those lines. Not iCloud, Google Drive, etc. Sorry I wasn't clear initially!)

I haven't even scratched the surface yet with doing any research. So keen to hear what those of you with experience or in the know would suggest I look into.

Can I ask why not  iCloud or a Google Drive solution?

As I use Google especially for travel -- as it has nice ways to work work with documents off and online. Google photos really does rock off and online, and one of the few online solutions that views photo RAW files -- For instance someone knocked off your laptop, you have managed to obtained a cheapy from Officeworks, you are immediately able to view your photos with hardly any software just a web browser.

The problems with a server at home,

• As to work remote you will have to have something open to connect back -- That's a possible entry point for a hacker to login into your weak home network
• Power and aircon issues --  When your away, you have a nice little blackout or a brownout --  lighting strike, or even a power surge (your gear is down)
• You will have to rely on home's internet connection -- your home NBN connection has gone down, so you ring Bigpond or TPGI, to try to get them to fix while you are not at home (that's not going to work is it?
• You might have to ring up a friend to reset your home router and home NAS -- it's still not up, there would probably no way that your friend could help you.
• Using a home server, needs to be backed up -- O.K. maybe back up back to the cloud -- oh your back to the cloud 
• Online cloud solutions from either of Google or Icloud have very well sorted 2 factor auth regimes, could be something that could be a bit tricky to setup on a home server.

Things that are good travel, and in general.

• Get a decent password manager that work off and online
• try not to use the same password on different sites -- for instance especially myswag the connection is not encrypted, making the password easy to steal, if you have used a common password that you have used on MySwag consider changing all your other passwords -- that's where a decent password manager is essential
• Encrypt your laptop hard drive, and use a decent login password on your laptop, they are just to easy to knock off out of your 4WD, caravan or camper

I can keep going, but I reckon a good setup is have a good cloud solution with a NAS to store what you can afford to loose, like your pirate stuff and may be back up some of the cloud stuff back to the NAS, and when you go away just switch everything off.