One of the many corollaries of the famous Murphy's Law says: "Data expands to fill all available space, and then again some more." Unfortunately it is not satirical exaggeration, but a real nemesis: any hard disk tends to fill up completely, at a speed that can be big or small, but it is certainly lower than that provided by the owner. If the disks of your PC are now full, instead of replacing them with other more capacious, you have an alternative: install a NAS. The acronym stands for "Network Attached Storage"That is, mass storage on the network, and indicates precisely a hard drive (or set of disks) that is not connected to a single computer, but which is accessible via a computer network.

WHY 'a NAS?

WHY 'a NAS?

Using a NAS presents considerable advantages over a hard drive or external. First, the possibility of using a larger memory capacity. A network drive can develop the capacity of 3,000 GB or more, compared with 750 (or at least the Terabyte) that are normally the most currently installed on a PC. Furthermore many NAS are modular, and just plug a second to the former for doubling the capacity. Secondly, the use of a network drive allows for a rationalization of your data files. Often within a network the same file is replicated on several disks of the computers that are part of it: a waste of space considerably. Using a NAS can create, for example,an archive of media files to which access to the whole family, eliminating the need to have duplicate files. Finally, maintaining a network always on a NAS, you can make sure certain files are always available, even to equipment other than computers, such as media receivers that are capable of playing audio and video files available over the network.

WITH WIRE OR WIRELESS?

WITH WIRE OR WIRELESS?

Some NAS have network connection wireless. This means they can go on-line radio, without requiring a physical connection (provided that the network includes at least one access point or a computer which also has a wireless connection). Using a wireless NAS is very convenient for those who use the laptop: now all laptops come with Wi-Fi, which lets you put in communication and computer disk so almost immediately. It must be said however that, at least with current technology, the wireless connection is never as reliable as that of a fixed network.If you have a house wired, or if you are willing to stretch the cable network, an Ethernet connection will certainly give better results. In particular, many using NAS to be connected to a landline Gigabit (10/100/1000). This allows better performance far superior to any wireless network in terms of speed of access to the file as long as the cables used and the network cards for PCs are compatible with standard Gigabit Ethernet.

DISCO IS THE SHOW!

DISCO IS THE SHOW!

Are becoming more common devices that allow access to multimedia content on the web: audio / video receivers, stereos, and even televisions. Not to mention the laptop and media player pocket that can access it through a wireless network. If you own one or more of these devices is very useful to have a NAS always on-line to host films, music and photos.To do this, you should also check whether the NAS is compatible with one (or more) standards that enable quick access to resources multimedia network without the need for complicated settings. Most common among these standards is UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), created by Microsoft is the one that allows, for example, all'Xbox and Windows Media Player 12 to play music and movies over the network. Even iTunes, Apple's iPod and managing shopping at the Apple Store, you can create a multimedia network of its kind. A third standard is widely DLNA (acronym for Digital Living Network Alliance), used mainly by manufacturers of hardware audio and video. Before buying a NAS, it is good to know in advance what kind of network to interact, and make sure it is compatible.

Other attractions'

Other attractions'

A very useful feature for a NAS is the presence of one or more ports USB 2.0. These can be used to connect an external hard drive (which thus becomes in effect another network drive). In many cases you can also connect a printer, the NAS into a network printer, usable by everyone. How much for a NAS? Depends on the capacity and additional features. A pattern of 500 GB of capacity, with only one disk, it can have a price between 150 and 300 euros, but is not our case, if we keep an old computer in the closet now obsolete but still works and always a sin throw it away.

If you have not scrapped the PC, you did well! Of chicchedicala We present a series of tutorials that will guide you in the installation and configuration for the occasion will use the free softwware FreeNAS. The requirements are:that has one or more disks and a large enough network card. Furthermore, it must be bootable from CD, and must have a floppy disk, or even be bootable from a USB stick.

HARDWARE

HARDWARE

• A PC with at least 96MB of RAM, a bootable CD-ROM drive and a choice
• Or a Floppy Disk (for configuration) and one or more Hard Disk (for storage)
• Or a USB drive (disk or memory stick) or CF (Compact Flash) and one or more bootable hard disk drive (for archiving)
• Or a hard disk bootable, and one or more Hard Disk (for storage)
• Or a hard disk bootable (which will be partitioned into two areas: FreeNAS system, data storage)
• Or a virtualization software such as VMware, configured as above.

NB: In cases where FreeNAS is installed on a USB drive, CF or HD, the CD ROM must be removed when finished installing FreeNAS. Additional Information.

Keys MAIN

Keys MAIN

• "9" to begin the installation.
• "1" if we want to allocate one of your hard disk has the sole operating system.
• "2" if we want to confine it in a partition.
• You can also install the OS on a USB key (in this case, remove the key, the computer can still be used with previous operating system). In this case, select the option "1".
• "1" and "4" respectively to specify the network card that the PC uses to connect and to choose whether to use a static IP address or dynamic.
• "5" to see if your computer is connected by a ping.
• "7" to restart the PC.

NOTES: FreeNAS does not use the same generic names for network interfaces that use Linux (for example eth0).The name for the network interface used depends on the drivers:

fxp0: For the first network adapter based on the Intel EtherExpress
fxp1: For the second network adapter based on the Intel EtherExpress
bge0: For the first network adapter Broadcom Gigabit BCM570XX
nve0: For the first network card based on Nvidia nForce MCP etc ...
fwip0 is a FireWire fwip0 If you find the list of interfaces, not use it.

INSTALLATION

1. To turn the old PC into a FreeNAS server will use the free software, downloadable at www.freenas.org. Once you open the Web page, click on Downloads and then download the first item of the list file called LiveCD, clicking on the link Downloads. Save the file on your hard drive, which is in format ISO. Once finished downloading, you must turn this ISO image to a CD-ROM.To do this you can use various programs useful for this purpose, for example Black Write the ISO image to CD-R using the recorder to your PC, and move on.

2. For the installation we will need a monitor and keyboard, but once you perform the steps we do not need. To collect ScreenShot understandable I've installed first on VMWare, so as to show clear images, and later on a PC placed into oblivion. The procedure is the same even on a physical system and then call the nonsense!

3. Verify that the computer that we are to make NAS is set to be bootable from CD-ROM, otherwise we call the BIOS and change the parameters necessary for him to become. Then insert the CD-ROM created in step 1 into your CD drive and reboot the computer.		4. Press the Enter key on the keyboard, so will start loading the console FreeNAS. Menu will appear that we see in the picture, press the number 9 followed by EnterTo begin the installation.
5. We will present you with choices, but the best thing to do is select 'Install' embedded 'OS on HD / flash / USB + Data + Swap ". This uses less space, and you have more volume on the hard disk for files. Once selected, press OK.		7th. You get the menu that we see in the picture, asking us to choose the CD-ROM drive for installation, if we have only one disk then the choice is obvious. Press OK to continue.
8. Now we will be asked to choose a hard disk for installation. If we have only one hard drive, the choice is obvious, but if you have 2 hard drives you can select to choose where to install the FreeNAS system.		9. If you chose 'Install' embedded 'OS on HD / flash / USB + Dta + Swap "On the next screen, you will be asked to create a swap partition in order to extend the memory capacity overall volatility of the computer, as well as the limitation in the amount of RAM installed, the choice is yours.
10. We await the installation of FreeNAS, at the end we will return a message "FreeNAS is installed. Press Enter again we will be redirected to the installation options screen.		11. Select Exit with the arrow keys and press Enter to return to the console Seputar.
12. Type the number 7 and press Enter to restart the system.		13. We confirm the restart, the splash screen and remember to remove the CD used for installation.
14. FreeNAS will load again, this time from the hard drive. Press Enter to access the console Seputar.		15.'s Make sure that your computer is connected to the network / netand type the number 2 followed by Enter to set the LAN IP address.
16. A dialog box asks if you want to use the interface DHCP, confirm with Yes to continue.		17. Another window will ask if you want to use the 'auto-configuration of IPv6, once again confirm with Yes.
18. A few moments to set your LAN IP address and in the end we will return a screen like this. Press Enter to continue and return to the console Seputar.		19. Congratulations! We set the 's initial installation of FreeNAS, published shortly on the next guide. (Basic configuration through the Web GUI).
MORE INFORAMZIONI
Official Website		Download