Can Popcorn Hour with HD be a NAS?

[doctor-joktor]

I was about to purchase NAS unit and use it in yet to-be-built-home-network consisting of 3 PC-s; a network media player was planned for later. But can I probably use one Popcorn Hour box with HD on board as both very basic NAS and Media Tank? I do not need and expect top network performance from this unit, the key point is that all data like audio, photo, archives, office stuff and backups are stored in one place (on the PCH) and can be easily accessed, modified or used from any of the 3 PC.

If media files stored on the internal PCH drive, will iTunes, Picasa etc. installed on any of the 3 PC see them and can deal with these files through the Network?

Another question, if external hard drive were connected to PCH USB, would it (the external hd) become available for Network users?

What are pros and cons to network data storage on PCH internal drive?

Thanks in advance!

[daniel_owen_uk]

Think so, you can enable SMB on PCH, mount share as a drive on PC.

Only issue compared with a proper NAS would be speed.

[3p141592654]

.. and the lack of a good thermal solution in the PCH. IMHO, a drive installed in the PCH runs too hot to be used for reliable archival storage.

[doctor-joktor]

(09-04-2008 05:17 PM)3p141592654 Wrote:  .. and the lack of a good thermal solution in the PCH. IMHO, a drive installed in the PCH runs too hot to be used for reliable archival storage.

It seams likely all the thermal problems originates from the fact people without a moment's thought use either old hard drive from the shelf or the one with wrong specs (designed for high data flow rate, e.g. 10000RPM). Select one specifically designed for low power consumption, low heat dissipation and quiet operation (5400RPM), and you should not have any overheating issues (e.g.GreenPower line of WD). In addition to proper hard drive you can add some heat conducting material into the box and let outer shell work as radiator. Some brave souls have added fan to PCH, thus overheating is not an issue any more.

[daniel_owen_uk]

I don't think external drives are shared, you could probably script something to do it, or telnet in and do it?

My Bash is a little rusty but sure someone could talk you through it.... maybe?

[doctor-joktor]

(09-05-2008 08:39 AM)daniel_owen_uk Wrote:  I don't think external drives are shared, you could probably script something to do it, or telnet in and do it?

I do not have my own PCH to test this, unfortunally... It would be really nice to find those having hands-on experience with PCH based NAS.

(09-05-2008 08:39 AM)daniel_owen_uk Wrote:  My Bash is a little rusty but sure someone could talk you through it.... maybe?

Sorry, it was beyond my English capabilities, I didn't get it

[narra]

I use my PCH as an inexpensive NAS. If you don't need the speed, it ain't bad (though 4megabytes/sec is fair for me).

To answer your question: yes, your external hdd is available over the network.

Only issue for me (which will hopefully be addressed later) is that you can't password protect individual files or parts of the hdd. It's one login for everything. (This may not be an issue for you though).

If you get one and can manage a custom set-up, I'd go with the B-110. Then you have 2x SATA and 1xPATA connections. Plenty of storage to make it a big NAS. It may seem like a bit of work but you'll want a fan anyway and with the A-110 you'll need to customize it yourself (it does get hot). And that gets us to another issue and that's reliability. I haven't had any problems but a proper NAS would give you RAID options, and network access is only a feature of the PCH, not really what it was specifically built for. But hey, it's great and priced well. Go for it and just make sure you back up your stuff every now and then.

[Willem53]

(09-05-2008 08:39 AM)daniel_owen_uk Wrote:  I don't think external drives are shared, you could probably script something to do it, or telnet in and do it?

My Bash is a little rusty but sure someone could talk you through it.... maybe?

they do share exactly like the internal one.

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(09-04-2008 01:48 PM)doctor-joktor Wrote:  I was about to purchase NAS unit and use it in yet to-be-built-home-network consisting of 3 PC-s; a network media player was planned for later. But can I probably use one Popcorn Hour box with HD on board as both very basic NAS and Media Tank? I do not need and expect top network performance from this unit, the key point is that all data like audio, photo, archives, office stuff and backups are stored in one place (on the PCH) and can be easily accessed, modified or used from any of the 3 PC.

If media files stored on the internal PCH drive, will iTunes, Picasa etc. installed on any of the 3 PC see them and can deal with these files through the Network?

Another question, if external hard drive were connected to PCH USB, would it (the external hd) become available for Network users?

What are pros and cons to network data storage on PCH internal drive?

Thanks in advance!

If you have 3 systems working from the NAS concurrently you would be better off using a NAS box with A GiGaBit Ethernet. If it is just media content you want to store for viewing an listening PCH is fine as long as HD movies are viewed by one system at a time as contention for bandwidth will ruin the experience for everyone connected.

[doctor-joktor]

Thank all of you for your replies! Most probably NMT will be networking with one PC only at a time.
While awaiting for NMT shipment, another weird question popped up in my head - is it possible to share a network printer via USB of NMT?

[mderking]

How can I activate my PCH external UDB harddisk as a NAS...

And also, will it work when PCH is on standby mode?

[Willem53]

(09-14-2008 06:12 PM)doctor-joktor Wrote:  Thank all of you for your replies! Most probably NMT will be networking with one PC only at a time.
While awaiting for NMT shipment, another weird question popped up in my head - is it possible to share a network printer via USB of NMT?

good one.......... give it a try and let us know

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(09-15-2008 09:34 PM)mderking Wrote:  How can I activate my PCH external UDB harddisk as a NAS...

And also, will it work when PCH is on standby mode?

well it's on the Network, it's can be used from a PC as a drive, so you could call it a Networked Attached Storage NAS.
PCH on standby is just the graphics part of the Sigma chip, OS and services are all up and running. (USB) harddisk standby mode wake's up on demand.

[ProAm500]

(09-04-2008 02:18 PM)daniel_owen_uk Wrote:  Think so, you can enable SMB on PCH, mount share as a drive on PC.

Only issue compared with a proper NAS would be speed.

Can you eleborate a little on how to set this up? I just got my PCH and my plan is to store a hdd in the pch, mount that on my pc to copy files from my pc over to my pch and view them that way...

[daniel_owen_uk]

Install drive, install NMT Application, format drive, switch on smb server, map network drive on PCH via PC.

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/i...SMB_server

The wiki is a good source.

[randomguy]

sorry for the noobish question but do you really/still need an internal hd to share an external drive? seems like the product page hasnt been updated for the a-100 in a year.

i have a 500gb external hard drie that i want to use with a device to make an NAS/media server. i want to be able to play video from the device on the TV and stream data to one computer on the network at a time at fast enough speed to watch video on. also would like to download files from bittorrent on it simultaneously. idk this might be too much for the bugger eh?

i dont have a need to pop in old 40gb ide drives or the sort into the a100 and just heat up the device for no reason. this seems to be cheaper than building my own machine but at least if i build it myself i can make a mythbox that i know works.

ideas?

[chris57]

Surely you do not expect a product page to have such details as the fact that you need to have NMT Apps installed and so will require either an internal HDD or to use a USB Stick and this more advanced method:-
http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/i...stallation

If you are referring to the product page on the WIKI then the A100 itself has not changed since it first appearred in November 2007. It's users have brought many additions to what it can do but it still is the same hardware in the same box.

If you do not want the noise or heat of an internal HDD then go for an alternative setup like a CF card and adapter:-
http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showth...132&page=3