Home network storage?

[Andy_con]

Looking at storage options, there are 5 of us in the house. 2 adults 3 kids. Currently 3 of us have mobiles phones but it won't be long before the whole house has mobiles.

My daughter is running out of storage and I'm getting low, when you start looking at the cost of cloud storage is becomes very expensive. I've got to pay for 4 people 😒

So I've been looking at home solutions, looking at WD my cloud home. Whilst it looks good I note they have stopped the desktop app, it would be nice to be able to store drones photos on any home storage solution. My dedicated drone hard drive is just about full also.

Anyone got any suggestions on other options to look at? Am after around 6TB

 

[MatthewR]

A proper NAS drive is what you want isnt it?

I had a WD my cloud home and it was crap. Long loading times to get to information disconnecting when on 4g, didn't automatically update (might by user error) I wouldn't recommend though.

 

[Andy_con]

A proper NAS drive is what you want isnt it?

I had a WD my cloud home and it was crap. Long loading times to get to information disconnecting when on 4g, didn't automatically update (might by user error) I wouldn't recommend though.

No idea, I know nothing about the subject.

 

[Gav_r26]

I've got a WD My Cloud Home, and you can acess it from the PC as well, it just shows on the network rather than the stupid way they used to do it where you could only see it through the app, so its actually an improvement not a unimprovement!

Also got a My Cloud EX2 Ultra which is great as well, but doesnt work as well with a phone. FOr simplicity from a phone the My Cloud Home is better, for purely PC the EX2, but both work well.

 

[Andy_con]

I've got a WD My Cloud Home, and you can acess it from the PC as well, it just shows on the network rather than the stupid way they used to do it where you could only see it through the app, so its actually an improvement not a unimprovement!

Also got a My Cloud EX2 Ultra which is great as well, but doesnt work as well with a phone. FOr simplicity from a phone the My Cloud Home is better, for purely PC the EX2, but both work well.

Thanks for the review.
From a simple google search the WD did seem a decent option, I need something simple the wife and kids can use.

 

[charltjr]

WD stuff has had some pretty major issues with security in the past.

Users fume after My Cloud network breach locks them out of their data

The compromise allowed hackers to steal data, raising the specter of ransomware.

arstechnica.com

I have one of their NAS drives but never used any of the online connected stuff, just used it as a dumb backup drive.

I ended up with an Office 365 subscription, £80 a year for the full office package and 1Tb of OneDrive storage for each person, up to six people in total at that price. There are cheaper ways to do it if you don't want Office, but we do, so it works for us.

Cloud Storage Pricing and Plans

Compare plans and pricing for cloud storage. Get 5 GB of cloud storage or upgrade to a Microsoft 365 subscription to unlock extra storage, more features, and advanced security.

www.microsoft.com

 

[Andy_con]

WD stuff has had some pretty major issues with security in the past.

Users fume after My Cloud network breach locks them out of their data

The compromise allowed hackers to steal data, raising the specter of ransomware.

arstechnica.com

I have one of their NAS drives but never used any of the online connected stuff, just used it as a dumb backup drive.

I ended up with an Office 365 subscription, £80 a year for the full office package and 1Tb of OneDrive storage for each person, up to six people in total at that price. There are cheaper ways to do it if you don't want Office, but we do, so it works for us.

Cloud Storage Pricing and Plans

Compare plans and pricing for cloud storage. Get 5 GB of cloud storage or upgrade to a Microsoft 365 subscription to unlock extra storage, more features, and advanced security.

www.microsoft.com

Hasn't every company on the planet been hacked these days?

 

[charltjr]

Hasn't every company on the planet been hacked these days?

That's fair, but the hackers didn't just take the site down or extract some names and addresses, they were able to get access to the stored data on people's devices.

It was a major ouch at the time and I was very glad I didn't use the cloud part of the drive.

OneDrive will probably be busted wide open tomorrow

 

[Andy_con]

That's fair, but the hackers didn't just take the site down or extract some names and addresses, they were able to get access to the stored data on people's devices.

It was a major ouch at the time and I was very glad I didn't use the cloud part of the drive.

OneDrive will probably be busted wide open tomorrow

I take you point and thanks for the info.

 

[Oggy997]

I have a MyCloud and for reasons above it's now, and largely been, a fancy internal network only, NAS.

You can't really go wrong with Synology, although it's expensive in comparison.
I'm cheap as f**k so use a raspberry pi and Nextcloud, but its not plug and play!

 

[ChrisR]

Synology if you want ease of use, I like QNAP devices as get more bang for your buck.

It’s not exactly cheap anymore to get a decent NAS enclosure plus drives, but they do last pretty well.

 

[Akay]

Im having this dilemma but doesn't seem to be any easy way to backup Ios camera roll and the like to anything but Icloud.

Going to be stuck paying subscriptions for eternity!

 

[Andy_con]

Think I'm going to go 8TB WD my cloud, may not be perfect but seems to do the job well.

It will only be for photos off our phones so nothing sensitive on there.

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-gb/products/cloud-storage/wd-my-cloud-home#WDBVXC0080HWT-EESN

 

[hopgop1]

Another option that’s worth looking at, I believe Amazon photos is free if you’ve got Amazon prime.
Personally I’m not a fan of giving my data to big companies where I can help it, but you can’t beat free, if you’ve got prime anyway.

 

[Andy_con]

Another option that’s worth looking at, I believe Amazon photos is free if you’ve got Amazon prime.
Personally I’m not a fan of giving my data to big companies where I can help it, but you can’t beat free, if you’ve got prime anyway.

I don't have prime sadly

 

[Martin_172]

Not got an old PC lying about you can throw some drives in and use as a network server?

No companies, no subscriptions, no hassle!

I done this in 2001 and obviously it's been upgraded since but now with 4x 8TB drives in raid for a total of 16TB storage, backed up. Still has all my original data since 2001 and everything since.

You can set it all up so your phone backs up when on WiFi etc but I'm old fashioned and just every week or 2 do it manually with a data cable!

 

[CrippsCorner]

Synology if you want ease of use, I like QNAP devices as get more bang for your buck.

It’s not exactly cheap anymore to get a decent NAS enclosure plus drives, but they do last pretty well.

Definitely go with Synology. I looked into WD first and all the reviews were terrible... spoke to IT department at work and they all said go Synology. So I did, and it's great. There's so much in depth stuff you can do with it, I've barely scratched the surface to be honest.

I use mine for Windows backup, all my downloaded music (use via app on iPhone so no music physically on there) backup of photos from phone, and also home media server streaming shows/films to TV.

 

[Andy_con]

Got my WD 8tb home cloud today, not opened it yet

 

[Oggy997]

Plenty of time to return it

 

[Andy_con]

Well WD all set up and Ive transfered 500gb of photos onto it so far. It does exactly what it says on the tin, I can use the app to view and download the stored photos, exactly what I want.

 

[Andy_con]

so...

my WD home cloud is great, for mobile phone cloud stuff. but now im working with large video files ive noticed its very lacking.

sadly ive spent far to much money of recent on drones and desktop computers, so my budget is very very limited. ive been youtubing cheap NAS solutions and have come across a few options, whilst they aren't top of the range millions of GB per second. they do appear a better option than my current WD home cloud.

what i dont understand is software and mobile apps etc...
do i need to find my own software to run the unit as a NAS?

all comments welcome

Beelink | Beelink ME mini 6-slot Home Storage NAS Mini PC

www.bee-link.com

 

[Oggy997]

Should've returned it! 😂

Are you thinking of importing that?
Theres Trump tax, vat, import duty to pay on top, plus an admin fee to the courier for the privilege

 

[Andy_con]

Should've returned it! 😂

Are you thinking of importing that?
Theres Trump tax, vat, import duty to pay on top, plus an admin fee to the courier for the privilege

my cloud is great for the family to use on mobile phones, not had any issues.

meh forgot about trump tax
maybe i need to look at something else

 

[Andy_con]

there are things like this which are on amazon

hes has windows installed on it, which adds confusion for me 🤷‍♂️

 

[ChrisR]

Wait until those Beelink models hit Amazon and just get from there to avoid any fee hassle.

Although I’ve ordered other stuff from Beelink directly before and never had anything added on.

Where the Beelink, CWWK boxes differ to the likes of Synology and QNAP etc is they are just the hardware, you then need to stick the software of your choosing on top to actually run the system.

So in your example above, someone has installed Windows as the OS to run on the device, but it could be something like FreeNAS or whatever you want.

You’ll spend much more on the storage drives to go in them than on the box they are going in 😂