Help needed to build a NAS media server (Wireless)

[jayaveer]

Hi Guys, Happy to see such a huge community for AV in India. I am new to this domain, so needed some help in building a NAS media server (a wireless one), below are my requirements and let me know if i am missing somethings which will be an advantage .

The need...........
In my flat, i got 2 PC's, 1 laptop and 3 TV's, internet is available to only 1 PC (due to some wiring problems in the flat it cant be provided to all the the rooms damm.... apartment builders ), I download media from net and dump them into my 1TB external HD and the HD is shared between the other 2 machines, we have got a deadlock here "If one of us is using the HD, the others need to wait until its free" the laptop and the other PC have got a storage limitations and the main problem here is the media to be watched in TV, i can go with WD HD/Xtreamer/Popcorn (got the knowledge from this forum ) for the TV's but i guess i need to have 3 of them (am i correct?) and once again there will be a manual moving of media to those too. So i thought of building up a NAS media server which will help me out. (will that help?)

The approach..........
Below are some points using which i guess i can address the above problem.

1.Server should act like a wireless router, so all the other 3 machines can access internet.
2.PC should be able to download a media directly into the server.
3.PC should be able to access the media(view a movie/play a song/...) from the server.
4.Security should be available for the files/folders so that restricted files/folders cannot be accessed by a PC if the rights are not provided.
5.Server media should be streamed to TV's.
6.Able to record TV shows from multiple TV's to the server (is this possible?).
7.Should use only one set-up box for all TV's (this might sound illegal )
8.Planing to use RAID5 to get max storage (is this recommended?)

So i guess that's it, please give me your valuable comments and not to mention the least the main objective is to make the whole thing wireless

Thanks & Regards,
Jayaveer

 

[anm]

multiple streams can be an issue - but convenience of watching anywhere warrants this project. You may want to reconsider how much important it is to run multiple streams at the same time.

How do you intend to "stream" to TV? Are your TVs capable of pulling streamed content? I guess may be not. So then you need some device that supports streaming at each TV.

 

[mahiruha]

Hello Jay,
I run a similar setup at home. The way it works is I have this pc in my bedroom whcih acts as my central storage. To this pc a wireless router is attached and to this router the internet connection goes in. Once I have done that I have a wirelss netwrok in my house it is better to password protect the network using a wep key otherwise your neighbour might start using it. Once you have tha netwrok up and running you can easily connect any device say laptop wirlessly to this netwrok browse internet and access movies wirelssly from the server. If you don't want to spend too much I guess you can connect your laptop to different TVs to watch movies from the server also you can buy some network media receiver. I use netgear EVA 8000 which connects wirelessly to the network and scans all the movies and music available in the network which you can watch in your TV there is no need for manual tranferring. The NAS you are talking about you can just connect it directly to the PC or the router I don't think its too much of a problem.Also this Netgear product abale to record shows from TV in you hard disc. But for that you need to connect your DTH box to the tv tuner card of the computer.
Thnaks,
Mahiruha.

 

[jayaveer]

hm.... i guess streaming will be done only to TV's but when it comes to PC's it's just accessing the file over the air (rather than the 'wire' ), is this also considered as streaming? can we use two WLAN cards (are these the correct ones?) one for accessing and one for streaming (does this make sense?)

And coming to TV's i guess i need to have a receiver device which is hooked to every TV, that can access the streamed content.

Is there any better approach?

 

[GeorgeO]

Hi Jayaveer

I use a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo, which currently streams audio to my SqueezeBox(SB3) wirelessly. I am getting a Popcorn Hour for video but am not familiar with it's capabilities yet. The ReadyNAS is connected to my Linksys router, as is my BSNL broadband connection.

I have a VoIP unit which also connects to my router and have a spare slot to connect a second computer to it.I have a couple of Buffalo Air Stations to provide a wifi environment throughout my house, but havent got around to connecting it all up. My sons are used to wirelessly using the net using their laptops when they come to visit, so that is the reason for the wifi. I'm still an old economy desktopwallah!

George

 

[teky]

Aren't home plugs available in India, this allows you to extend your ethernet over power line. But all the rooms should be within a same electricity connection. They are available up to 200Mbps and work very good for streaming & file sharing.

Something like this Max Value 85 Mbps Home Plug Double Unit Pack: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

 

[teky]

hm.... i guess streaming will be done only to TV's but when it comes to PC's it's just accessing the file over the air (rather than the 'wire' ), is this also considered as streaming? can we use two WLAN cards (are these the correct ones?) one for accessing and one for streaming (does this make sense?)

And coming to TV's i guess i need to have a receiver device which is hooked to every TV, that can access the streamed content.

Is there any better approach?

Accessing a file isn't coined as streaming, streaming is kind of live signals for playing a movie, music etc. Also you should note that streaming over wireless can be pain for HD content, although for SD content you should be alrite.

 

[jayaveer]

Hi Teky, what if we go with 802.11n it supports bandwidth up to 300 Mbps? And can we have 2 routers connected to the media server, one for internet access and PC sharing and the second for dedicated media streaming?

 

[gobble]

For those using wireless please upgrade to WPA2 security mode immediately. WEP and WPA were deemed as broken by hackers long back.

In these days of terror emails, anyone could make you a victim. When shopping for wireless products always look for WPA2 security support.

802.11n standards supports streaming multiple HD content at the same time. Do not buy 802.11g for media devices. One single WLAN card will do per device.

Cheers

 

[jayaveer]

Okei, great....., to summarize....

1.Each PC/Laptop will have one 802.11n WLAN Cards/Drive with WPA2.
2.Media Server will have one 802.11n router with WPA2 which will help in,accessing internet and media by the clients (Will the same help in streaming the media to TV's?).
3.Each TV needs to have a media receiver.
4.To record TV shows i need to have 1 DTH box attached to the TV tuner of the Media server (Can all the TV's issue a record command on different TV shows @ the same time?).

Now some doubts....

1.Still i need to have a DTH box for every TV? (Cant i use just one? which is available @ the media server for recording TV shows?).

Thanks guys for the input

 

[jayaveer]

guys... is the above mentioned ok?

 

[vishaltanksale]

Okei, great....., to summarize....

1.Each PC/Laptop will have one 802.11n WLAN Cards/Drive with WPA2.
2.Media Server will have one 802.11n router with WPA2 which will help in,accessing internet and media by the clients (Will the same help in streaming the media to TV's?).
3.Each TV needs to have a media receiver.
4.To record TV shows i need to have 1 DTH box attached to the TV tuner of the Media server (Can all the TV's issue a record command on different TV shows @ the same time?).

Now some doubts....

1.Still i need to have a DTH box for every TV? (Cant i use just one? which is available @ the media server for recording TV shows?).

Thanks guys for the input

You can try Addonics NAS Adapter which will connect your externaal HD to your Wireless router and acts as a server. You can then access External HD from Laptop / PC/ Media center and act as central repository. This also has Bit Torrent client which is nice feature.
You can also open FTP port to access your storage over internet (but this is not at all secured)
It costs $50 and on 20north it is avaialble for abt INR 3800...thats almost double But otherwise I don't think its available in India yet.

There is similar product from SimpleTech (basically Hitachi) available for about 4500 on 20north.

 

[jayaveer]

But can i stream HD videos using this adapter? because the router will be a 802.11n one which have a bandwidth of 300Mbps and the adapter will have a USB which have a bandwidth of 100Mbps wont this be a problem?

 

[teky]

But can i stream HD videos using this adapter? because the router will be a 802.11n one which have a bandwidth of 300Mbps and the adapter will have a USB which have a bandwidth of 100Mbps wont this be a problem?

What kind of media receiver would you be using at the TV. May be you should check them if they support 802 n.

 

[vishaltanksale]

But can i stream HD videos using this adapter? because the router will be a 802.11n one which have a bandwidth of 300Mbps and the adapter will have a USB which have a bandwidth of 100Mbps wont this be a problem?

There is no streaming anyways in any option. It just accessing your storage from Media Server or NAS Adapter over your WIFI.
Yes you are correct, this adapter will be restricted to 100MBPS, but its much cheaper also then setting up Media server and receiver.

 

[jayaveer]

how about xtreamer?

 

[mahiruha]

Hello Jay,
have a look at this also
XAVB101 - Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit

It seems interesting.
Thanks.

 

[jayaveer]

Hi mahiruha, i am bit confused! where does this exactly come into picture, does this sit between TV and Media server? or between Media receiver and media server?

 

[teky]

Hi mahiruha, i am bit confused! where does this exactly come into picture, does this sit between TV and Media server? or between Media receiver and media server?

That's a home plug, which I had suggested in previous page. Uses your home power line to transmit as ethernet. You don't have to do wiring around your flat. But
I suppose you want to use a N router which is suffice.

 

[jayaveer]

hm... interesting.... i guess i will postpone streaming to TV for some time until i get some product which is able to stream HD content wirelessly. For now i will just go with a NAS Media server which will broadcast intenet and share files to the clients.

I just need some more input on what will be the good configuration to build a NAS server, the config should hold good when I start streaming the media to TV's (in the near future ). So below will be the list i will be needing to build up a NAS server, please provide me with the best in each category.

1.NAS Server
1.1.CPU
1.2.Motherboard
1.3.RAM
1.4.SATA Controller Card (To increase the number of HD's in the future)
1.5.RAID Controller Card (Somewhere i read to better have it, is it true?)
1.6.Ethernet Cards (I am planning on 2, one for internet and file sharing and the second for media streaming to Tv's in future, are 2 required?)
1.7.HD's
1.8.Video Card
1.9.TV-Tuner (For future to record TV-Shows)
1.10.SMPS
1.11.Fans/Colling
1.12.Cabinet
1.13.OS (MS Media Server?)

2.Wireless Router (802.11n) (this also i am planning for 2, one for internet and file sharing and the second for media streaming to TV's in future, are 2 required? )

3.All the clients will have Wireless ethernet cards to access intenet and files from the media server (Should i go with internal cards or usb ones?)

4.UPS

I guess i am not missing any!, please provide you valuable input or even..., redirecting to links also is good

Once again thanks for all the info.